Fisheries management requires an information base on all extractive and non-extractive users of the resource. This has generally been well implemented for the commercial fishing sector where legislated catch and effort returns are standard practice. However, many inshore fisheries incorporate a significant recreational sector and efforts to collect data from this sector have generally been as a response to critical management needs, rather than an orderly, routine monitoring program. (It is noted, however, that some States have made progress towards routine data collection). Many States have conducted surveys of parts of their recreational fisheries but have not had the resources to survey whole fisheries. This total fishery information is most important for resource allocation and stock assessment.

Further need for a National Survey has arisen from the increasing numbers of recreational fishers (evident from NSW surveys), their apparent greater impact and knowledge (due to increasing technological improvements and knowledge) and the increasingly political nature of the resource allocation debate (e.g. black marlin).

Although increased research effort has been allocated to recreational fishery data collection, a national assessment of the sector has not recently been attempted. The only previous national survey in Australia was conducted in 1983 by PA Management Consultants. Their results drew widespread attention to the scale and economic impact of recreational fishing in Australia and, although subject to criticism, are still cited today despite the passage of 15 years, due to the lack of alternative data.

An urgent need therefore exists to produce relevant and up to date national recreational fishery statistics on resource use and participation. The adoption of the National Policy by SCFA and MCFFA recognises this need and has provided the impetus for the work of the Steering Committee to date, and for this application to develop the National Survey to a stage ready for implementation. (It should be noted that this application refers only to development of the Survey - the implementation phase is a separate project which is intended to follow development and would be subject to separate funding applications).

The primary focus of the Survey is to collect nationally consistent and comparable data on catch, effort, and participation rates, in all 'non-commercial' fishing. The results of the Survey will complement the research activities at State level by adding a significant layer of information about recreational fishing activity at the macro level, as well providing detailed catch and effort data on individual fisheries (planned for high levels of precision (cv 20%) for fisheries at the level of 1% of State recreational harvest which can often be cost-prohibitive to survey in isolation). In addition, and importantly in some fisheries, data is also to be collected from the indigenous and overseas fishing sectors. These sectors have generally been ignored in other resource allocation research activities but are considered to contribute significantly economically and/or biologically to some fisheries.

The Feasibility Study prepared by Kewagama Research detailed the overall survey methodology which has been adopted by the NRFSSC. This concept now needs to be developed into working documents (e.g. interviewer manuals, questionnaires, workflow plans) and sampling plans ready for implementation by the States and Territories. Additionally, database and analytical tools need to be developed for ready implementation, and the training of key personnel is needed in each State and Territory.

The expertise for preparation of this material is not universally available, although more generalised expertise in recreational fisheries research does exist in each State and Territory. The preferred approach is therefore the establishment of a core development team with relevant expertise to prepare all material for implementation of the Survey. The team would work closely with representatives from each State and Territory to ensure their needs were met.

In addition to the telephone / diary survey of the general population, two other components of the overall Survey were agreed to by the NRFSSC - development of a survey of indigenous communities and of international visiting fishers. These components require more fundamental development as they have been only broadly discussed, designed and costed. While these latter components will have different value to each State and Territory, the combination of recreational, indigenous and international fishing data will provide a comprehensive picture of non-commercial fishing, and allow complete analysis of the extractive sectors of Australia's fishing resources.