FRDC Stakeholder Survey Program
National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers 2019
Currently there is a lack of national scale, consistent and robust data on the motivations and behaviours of recreational fishers, and lack of robust data on the social and economic contribution of recreational fishing. Where many commercial fisheries have regular collection and estimation process for economic data, this is not the case for recreational fishing in most of Australia. This lack of data also includes behaviour and motivations and how they are changing. These data are useful for informing discussions on resource allocation and in understanding and managing recreational fisheries more generally. If these data are to be used to inform governments and the general public, there is a need to make sure it is collected in a robust way that is representative of the Australian population. Large scale representative data sets are often expensive to acquire and as a result do not get undertaken regularly. One off surveys only provide useful data for any particular point in time, but understanding trends can often be more useful. This study aims to implement and test methodologies to provide a robust and representative sample, while trying to reduce costs to allow for more regular data gathering. To do this requires addressing another need: that of testing new survey methodologies for collecting data from recreational fishers that enables assessment of social and economic contribution. Recreational fishing surveys traditionally use probability based phone or mail surveys, however both methods are experiencing rapid decline in response rates and representativeness. It is expected that going into the future, online surveys that use a range of appropriate recruitment methods will be the most common survey method. There is a need to invest in establishing robust approaches to using these methods, and in understanding how their findings differ to those of traditional probability based surveys.
Final report
- The purpose/objectives of data collection
- Data collection methods, including design of survey instruments and survey recruitment materials, survey sample recruitment methods and sample achieved
- Data processing methods, including data coding and cleaning, and weighting methods.
Evaluation of a smart-phone application to collect recreational fishing catch estimates, including an assessment against an independent probability based survey, using South Australia as a case study
Community Trust in Rural Industries - A framework for advancing social acceptance of the agriculture sector in Australia - A joint RDC initiative
Implementing the FRDC's 2020-25 R&D Plan - Strategic activities
The FRDC's new R&D Plan signals a change of direction, building on systems thinking, and acknowledges a need to find new and better ways to make progress, including building on design-thinking to ensure that the right problems are solved, the right way. There is opportunity, as this is done, to leverage off shifting occupational norms associated with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic by experimenting with new, less expensive, more inclusive and democratic ways of thinking and working together that might endure into the future.
The FRDC’s new R&D Plan signals an intent to co-invest and collaborate more actively in order to deliver impact, and this will be particularly important in early years to overcome revenue limitations associated with COVID impacts.
The 2020-25 R&D Plan also describes an intention to develop and implement a new performance measurement framework to coordinate the monitoring of organisational progress against the five R&D Plan outcomes, as well as corporate performance. The aim is for the framework to be adaptive and updateable as new information becomes available, and as benchmarks for best practice change.
To assist in planning and investing in a complex and adaptive system it is proposed to scope and implement new process for collating and generating insights from intelligence, that will provide continuous feedback on external conditions, technology changes and external factors likely to be relevant in the future.
This proposal seeks to enable building of the foundations for implementing the FRDC's 2020-25 R&D Plan, scoping and implementing the new intelligence system, delivery of consultation to guide implementation of the plan, and enabling finalisation and implementation of the new performance management framework.