A national fisheries management workshop was held at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre in Adelaide on 26/27 March 2014, which brought together fisheries managers from all Australian jurisdictions.  The idea of holding a workshop was promoted by the Australian Fisheries Management Forum (AFMF) (composed of the Heads of Commonwealth and State/Territory fishery management agencies), which had identified that there was no forum for fisheries managers to exchange ideas and build networks.  The task of putting the workshop together was undertaken by AFMF’s Fisheries Management Sub-Committee (FMSC), with funding support being provided by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).

The workshop was the first fisheries managers’ workshop since 1995, when the last of a successful series of fisheries managers’ workshops run during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s was held on Rottnest Island, WA.  In promoting the idea of a workshop AFMF noted that while there was significant cross-fertilisation between researchers through the Australian Society for Fish Biology and other forums and through National Compliance Committee for compliance officers, there was no forum specifically for fisheries managers.  As fisheries management had increased in complexity, and society was placing additional scrutiny on fisheries managers, there was a need for fisheries managers to meet as a group of professionals to exchange ideas and initiatives.

In considering a theme for the workshop FMSC noted that there was significant interest in the issues surrounding small-scale fisheries (SSFs) and that many if not most issues with SSFs were common across all the jurisdictions.  Furthermore, FMSC had been tasked by AFMF to consider matters around SSFs and provide advice back to AFMF on the development of cost effective and efficient management of SSFs.  Thus a workshop provided an ideal opportunity to explore the issue of SSFs and to look at issues and approaches in the various jurisdictions to see if there were any learnings that could be incorporated into FMSC’s advice to AFMF.

This Workshop entitled 'Recreational fish­ing: what's the catch?' continues the series, commenced in 1985 by the Australian Society for Fish Biology. The major objec­tive of the Workshops has been to promote the opportunity, during the Society's Annual Conference, for the national fish and fisheries expertise to focus on an issue or issues of regional or national signifi­cance. The Workshop proceedings are now widely regarded as the benchmark document of current knowledge in the Workshop subject area.

The 1995 Workshop was extremely timely. Recreational fishing is a multi-million dollar industry, with over 4.5 million Australians estimated to participate each year. A number of recent State inquiries into recreational fishing and the draft National Policy for Recreational Fishing all highlight the dearth of informa­tion on major recreational fisheries. At the same time there has been an increased and more rigorous research effort.

This was the first extensive national Work­shop held in Australia focusing on aspects of assessing recreational fisheries and some of the crucial issues concerning the man­agement of these fisheries. It dealt with methods of estimating the catch, to the thornier issues of estimating value and resource allocation.

The Workshop commenced informally with a stimulating and provocative speech by well known fishing identity Rex Hunt. Dr Bob Kearney, Director of the New South Wales Fisheries Research Institute ' set the scene for the two-day meeting by courageously attempting to estimate the total Australian recreational catch for his keynote address. His summing-up was also of the highest quality. The Society would also like to acknowledge the contribution of international guest speakers, Laurel Teirney (MAFFisheries NZ), Rudy van der Elst (Oceanographic Research Insti­tute, Durban, South Africa), and Stephen Malvestuto (US).

These proceedings follow the format of recent years with papers delivered by panel members and followed by rapporteurs' reports of the ensuing discussions. Not sur­prisingly, for issues concerning recreational fishing, the latter were lively and thought provoking.

The Workshop was a great success as evi­denced by the Society releasing its first ever Media Release on key outcomes of the meeting. As always many people contrib­uted to its smooth running. Martine Kinloch and Julian Pepperell had the diffi­cult job of actually putting the whole thing together, as convenors of the Workshop. John Glaister was responsible for successful applications to funding bodies. Gina Newton chaired the local organising com­mittee and Phil Stewart was the Workshop Facilitator.