Recent shifts in resource-management have required so-called sustainable “ecosystem-based” management of fisheries, which requires reliable data about harvested stocks, by-catch and other species (to assess effects on biodiversity). The well-known problems of data from commercial fisheries strongly indicate that fishery-independent sampling is much more robust to provide the required information. The problem remains, however, that it has not yet been demonstrated how efficient it is and how more useful to arrive at appropriate managerial decisions to use the data from independent sources. This is one important impediment to “take-up” of appropriate data by managers of fisheries. This need can only be filled by making planned comparisons between decision-making based on “traditional”, fishery-based data and decisions made when better data are incorporated. To compare these approaches requires incorporating fishery-independent data (i.e. collected contemporaneously with traditional, fishery-dependent data) into the process of decision making.

An experimental approach will be used to test the relative value of different sources of data for the assessment and management of estuarine fisheries resources and biodiversity in NSW. Fishery-independent sampling tools have already been developed in project 2002/059 and will be implemented across a number of estuaries with different management regimes (i.e. open and closed to commercial/recreational fishing). Data from commercial and recreational fisheries (i.e. catch and effort data, port monitoring of landings, creel surveys of recreational fishing) will also be collected simultaneously in these estuaries. The costs and benefits of each type of data and their managerial response can then be tested over equivalent spatial and temporal scales. This will provide a scientific basis for determining the most appropriate mix of fishery-independent and –dependent data for improving the sustainability of fisheries resources and biodiversity in estuaries of NSW.