213 results

Australia's National Recreational Fishing Conference 2017

Project number: 2016-505
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $60,000.00
Principal Investigator: Mark J. Nikolai
Organisation: Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF)
Project start/end date: 29 Mar 2017 - 30 Dec 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Recreational Fishing
Media
Fisheries Management
Conference
Communications

Need

The 2015 National Recreational Fishing Conference was highly successful, enabling the recreational fishing community to gather and discuss issues of national importance.

The value of regular fishing sector conferences is recognised among the fishing community, and supported by FRDC, to facilitate continued progress, coordination and recognition of achievements. The next national event for the recreational fishing community is planned for 2017. The primary aim of this event will be to bring opinion-shapers, decision makers and key representatives from Australia's recreational fishing sector together to develop a shared vision for the future of recreational fishing in Australia. Opportunities will be explored to collaborate with other significant events planned for the fishing community in 2017 such as Seafood Directions to enable shared discussions on how to position fishing in Australia optimally to continue to meet social and economic needs moving forward, whilst considering environmental implications.

Objectives

1. Deliver a National Recreational Fishing Conference in 2017 which increases the level ofmeaningful engagement with the recreational fishing community in national issues of importance.
2. Engage with participants at the National Conference to identify priority actions to be progressedfollowing the forum.
3. Acknowledgement of recreational fishing community achievements.
4. Publication of extension products from the event.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-98516-9
Author: Mark Nikolai
Final Report • 2018-03-06 • 785.83 KB
2016-505-DLD.pdf

Summary

Following on from the success of the 2012 and 2015 National Recreational Fishing Conferences, the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation was successful in securing a funding grant from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) to deliver a National Recreational Fishing Conference for 2017. Conducting the National Recreational Fishing Conference continues to be a high priority investment for the FRDC's Recfishing Research subprogram.
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PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-146
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

National Recreational Fishing Conference bursary 2019

Introduction Over the 10th and 11th of December 2019, the Australian Recreational Fishing Federation held their biannual National recreational Fishing Conference in Hobart, Tasmania. The theme of this conference was “Our Fishing. Our Research. Our Recreational Future”. In response to...
ORGANISATION:
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
TAGS
Recreational Fishing
Education
Conference
Community

Bursaries to fund three South Australian Recreational Fishing community members to attend the National Recreational Fishing Conference 2019

Project number: 2019-154
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $4,994.78
Principal Investigator: Sam Stone
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA)
Project start/end date: 2 Feb 2020 - 29 Apr 2020
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Sustainability
Recreational Fishing
Rac Sa
Leadership
Fisheries Management

Need

Co-management is an arrangement whereby responsibilities and obligations for sustainable fisheries management are negotiated, shared and delegated at appropriate levels between government, recreational fishers, Aboriginal traditional fishers, the commercial fishing industry and other key stakeholders such as conservation groups (Neville 2008).

The Minister’s Recreational Fishing Advisory Council (MRFAC) was formed to improve dialogue and communication between recreational fishers and Government. The primary role of the MRFAC is to provide feedback and advice to government on recreational fishing development issues, initiatives and policies that impact the recreational fishing sector. The MRFAC strives to pursue opportunities to improve the co-management arrangements for the recreational fishery.

In 2010/11 an engagement project was undertaken by PIRSA to better understand what recreational fishing means to people and what future they want for their sector. Discussions generated consistent themes and issues of concern to recreational fishers, including sustainable fishing, ongoing access, funding and leadership, governance, education and promotion of the sector.

The outputs from this project identified opportunities for incorporating 'grass roots' input from the recreational sector into fisheries management processes in South Australia (Rowling et al. in prep) must include public consultation opportunities and participation in (1) technical working groups; (2) regional recreational committees; & (3) community forums.

This project aims to enhance these jurisdictional-based opportunities by increasing national-level capacity building opportunities for members of the South Australian community. In addition to the personal development aspect, the ability to create connections and links to the recreational community leaders from other states and territories will be invaluable to the future stewarding of the South Australian Recreational Fishing community.

Objectives

1. To ensure increased participation of South Australian Recreational community members in national Recreational forums
2. Increased provision of pathways and opportunities to assist in better representing the Recreational community on both a state and national level.
3. Increased education and knowledge building opportunities for individual members of the South Australian and Australian Recreational Fishing Community
4. Increased capacity building opportunity for members of the South Australian Recreational Community
5. Support in increasing attendance and networking opportunities for the recreational community across states and territories with a view to increase linkages and information sharing nation-wide
Communities
Environment

Recreational fishing and human wellbeing: insights from existing data and development of best practice approaches to future measurement

Project number: 2018-095
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $46,000.00
Principal Investigator: Jacki Schirmer
Organisation: University of Canberra
Project start/end date: 8 Nov 2018 - 28 Mar 2019
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wellbeing
Survey
Recreational Fishing
Policy
Human Dimensions Research

Need

This project is needed as there are knowledge gaps about the effect of recreational fishing on the health and wellbeing of recreational fishers. Recent years have seen many claims about the health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing, as well as growing interest in nature connection and outdoor recreation as wellbeing interventions more generally. Measuring and valuing the wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing is not currently possible due to a lack of evidence, and limited methods for monitoring, measuring and reporting wellbeing effects. The FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20 aims by 2020 to have robust community net benefit metrics that enable measurement of the benefits of fishing. This project will develop robust metrics related to health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing. Achieving this requires better understanding both (i) whether and under what circumstances engaging in recreational fishing has measurable impacts on health and wellbeing, and (ii) how to measure these benefits to produce readily accessible and understandable metrics. This will help achieve the FRDC’s national research strategy deliverable ‘Social contribution is supported by the fishing and aquaculture sector so it can capture the non-monetary value of activities across sectors.’ This work will also contribute to national science and research priorities in the health field, specifically the priority ‘Build healthy and resilient communities throughout Australia by developing … preventative strategies to improve physical and mental well-being’ (http://www.science.gov.au/scienceGov/ScienceAndResearchPriorities/Pages/Health.aspx). Nationally, this research priority aims to develop strategies for supporting wellbeing. This project contributes by identifying the role recreational fishing can play in building healthy and resilient communities through supporting physical and mental wellbeing. This research will also contribute to the overarching aims of Australia’s rural research, development and extension strategy, which include ‘develop a range of technologies and knowledge to contribute to healthy Australian lifestyles’ (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/innovation2/nsrrdip-investment-plan1.pdf)

Objectives

1. Understand whether engaging in recreational fishing (or in particular types or frequency of fishing) is associated with improved health and wellbeing for individual recreational fishers using available datasets
2. Identify best practice methods for establishing a causal relationship between (i) engaging in fishing and (ii) health and wellbeing outcomes for individual recreational fishers
3. Produce proposed set of measures and associated methodology that can be used to robustly measure causal association between engaging in fishing and health & wellbeing for individual recreational fishers and that can be used to provide valuation of these benefits for the broader economy
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PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-198
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Assess new technologies and techniques that could improve the cost-effectiveness and robustness of recreational fishing surveys

Currently, the most significant gap in our knowledge in assessing the status of community-shared fisheries is determining the relative contribution by the recreational sector. To explore this issue, a two-day national workshop was held from 10-12 July 2018 at the South Australian Research and...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Survey
Stakeholder
Recreational Fishing
Rac Wa
Rac Vic

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

Project number: 2020-056
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $1,000,000.00
Principal Investigator: Crystal Beckmann
Organisation: University of Adelaide
Project start/end date: 4 Oct 2020 - 30 Sep 2023
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Sustainability
Survey
Recreational Fishing
Rac Sa
Modelling

Need

There is need to collect accurate and robust information on recreational fishing levels to inform fisheries management. Recreational fishing estimates are critical to ensure sustainable harvest of community owned fisheries resources. In South Australia, established Fishery Management Plans are in place and recreational catch must be monitored to ensure that the sector is operating within its allocated shares of the resource. Recent changes to the availability of traditional sampling frames and shifts in the way the people communicate mean that it is becoming increasingly cost-prohibitive to undertake surveys using the established methodology. There is a need to re-evaluate how recreational fishing catch and effort is assessed and to develop revised survey methodologies using the latest survey tools and techniques.

Smartphone applications may provide a cost-effective method to collect information on recreational catch. However, as most apps are self-selected, sampling is non-probability based and it is not possible to calculate confidence intervals or margins of error. There is a need to compare app-based data with traditional phone-diary surveys to compare estimates and evaluate the accuracy of the results measured relative to independent population benchmarks. The outputs from this project will provide valuable information to other jurisdictions who have existing apps or are looking to implement an app.- based survey

Objectives

1. To design and implement a survey of South Australian recreational fishers to determine participation and catch and effort levels for key species.
2. To evaluate the differences and in recreational catch estimates from smart-phone applications and traditional phone diary surveys.
3. To explore whether smart-phone applications can be feasibility integrated into future recreational fishing surveys.
4. To measure the accuracy of catch estimates from smart-phone applications relative to independent population benchmarks.
5. To outline the policy and regulatory needs and implications of implementing a smart phone based reporting app.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-876007-57-7
Authors: C.L. Beckmann L.M. Durante K. Stark and S. Tracey
Final Report • 2024-08-01 • 14.49 MB
2020-056-DLD.pdf

Summary

Information on recreational catch and effort is becoming increasingly important to inform fishery stock assessment and the sustainable management of fisheries resources. As smartphone applications ('apps') become more sophisticated and widely available, they are increasingly being used to record recreational fishing activity, presenting an opportunity to collect non-probability data. However, the self-selected nature of data collection through apps introduces potential biases, necessitating comparative studies with traditional probability-based surveys to assess these biases as well as the accuracy and precision of app-based data. This study aims to compare a traditional probability-based survey with app-based data collection to compare estimates, assess bias and utility, and provide guidance for the future development of app-based data collection methods. 
 
The lack of regularly collected data that can provide a precise estimate of catch and effort for a range of species caught by recreational fishing presents significant challenges for fishery stock assessment and management. Traditional probability-based methods, for example stratified phone surveys, are regarded as providing the most robust estimates of catch and effort for recreational fisheries. However, these surveys are often expensive, conducted infrequently, and may not provide the species-specific information at the spatial and temporal scales required to inform stock assessment and effective management. Smartphone apps offer a promising complementary option for data collection due to their ability to gather large volumes of information in real-time. However, challenges arise regarding representativeness of the data, low participation due to technological barriers, engagement issues, quality control, and privacy and security concerns. This study aims to explore the effectiveness and suitability of a smartphone application for collecting data on recreational catch and effort, offering an innovative approach while considering the associated advantages and disadvantages.

 

The review of existing technologies and knowledge assets highlighted some of the challenges faced by probability-based surveys due to changing communication practices and sampling limitations. Although smartphone apps are acknowledged for their potential to engage users and collect recreational fishing data, they have limitations such as participant non-response and possible unknown biases that may affect reported catch rates and data quality. It was acknowledged that recruiting participants without a license frame is challenging, requires substantial communication investment, and that private companies may be able to advance app technology for broader user appeal. While app-based data collection is likely to complement probability-based methods, successful implementation requires validation, bias control, user-friendly design, transparency, and measures to ensure adequate recruitment and retention. Key to this is addressing concerns around privacy, security, and representativeness to encourage app adoption, which has the potential to promote the collection of near real-time data to inform fisheries assessment and management.

 
The study's findings have several implications for fisheries managers, scientists, and policymakers:
- Firstly, the study highlights the potential for using a combination of app-based data and probability-based survey data to obtain reliable and comprehensive information about the recreational fishing community.
- Secondly, stakeholders should view app-based data collection as a complementary approach to probability-based surveys.
- Thirdly, there is a need to increase the number of participants in app-based data collection to improve the accuracy of results.
 
In conclusion, this study provides recommendations for further work to improve recreational fishing data collection methods. It emphasises the importance of ongoing collaboration between stakeholders and scientists to improve the tools and techniques used to collect data. By implementing these recommendations, stakeholders can strive for more accurate, representative, and reliable data, leading to better-informed decisions concerning the sustainable management of recreational fisheries resources.
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PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-011
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Optimising Compliance Outcomes in Recreational Fisheries

This study investigated strategies to enhance compliant participation among recreational fishers, using the Peel-Harvey Blue Swimmer Crab fishery in Western Australia (WA) and the Blue Swimmer Crab fishery in South Australia (SA) as case studies. 
ORGANISATION:
University of Western Australia (UWA)
TAGS
Sustainability
Recreational Fishing
Rac Wa
Rac Sa
Human Dimensions Research
SPECIES
Blue Swimmer Crab
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