Fisheries managers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to quantify all forms of harvest, including that by recreational fishers. This need has been driven by both a growing recognition of the potential impact that noncommercial fishers can have on exploited resources and the requirement to allocate catch limits between different sectors of the wider fishing community in many jurisdictions. Marine recreational fishers are rarely required to report any of their activity, and some form of survey technique is usually required to estimate levels of recreational catch and effort. In this review, we describe and discuss studies that have attempted to estimate the nature and extent of recreational harvests of marine fishes in New Zealand and Australia over the past 20 years. We compare studies
Recreational fishing can have substantial ecological impacts, which must be managed against a background of critical socio-economic factors. However, it is often difficult to assess the effect of altered management arrangements on this sector’s harvest. Recreational fishing surveys can assist in quantifying the impact of changes to harvest limits. Here, we use survey data collected in 2013/2014 and 2017/2018 to estimate the total catch of Dusky Flathead (Platycephalus fuscus), a key Australian marine species, under a daily harvest limit of 10 fish per angler and simulated scenarios where the limit is reduced to 5, 3, or 1 fish per angler. We then test the significance of these changes in harvest limit on catch and also model the potential effects of year and region using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMz). For both sampled time periods, the GLMMz found that only the most stringent harvest limit reduction to 1 fish per angler would lower retained harvest significantly. None of the reductions in harvest limit increased the number of released Dusky Flathead significantly. We discuss how this novel quantitative approach can be used to inform alternative output management regulations by taking into account their potential ecological and socio-economic benefits for a recreational fishery.
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