Recreational fishing: cost or benefit to sustainable aquatic management?
Recreational fishing: cost or benefit to sustainable aquatic management?
Date: 20/05/2009 at 16:00:00
Venue: Blakers Lecture Room, Ground Floor, Mathematics Building, UWA
Speaker: Frank Prokop, Executive Director , Recfishwest
Recreational fishing is arguably the largest ‘invisible' industry in Western Australia. With participation rates of around 650,000 per year and an industry worth between $500 million and $1 billion a year to the economy, it should be a major player in most aquatic management debates.
Recreational fishing's critics argue that the massive participation rate results in a huge impact on aquatic resources which must be better managed, while supporters point out the enormous social and economic benefits that result from recreational fishing are inadequately recognised.
Some of the myths, fantasies and fables associated with recreational fishing will be examined by someone with 20 years recreational fisheries management experience.
http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/news/seminarsandtalks.php?sid=164
TerryF
=====
Beavering away in the background.......
.thumbnail.JPG "One from the vault")
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Which side of the university
Which side of the university is this on?
Any map/description to save confusion?
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
TerryF
Posts: 489
Date Joined: 11/08/05
Mathematics building is
Mathematics building is south west of Reid Library, closer to Fairway than Hackett Drive, but main car park 3 is close enough.
http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus_map
TerryF
=====
Beavering away in the background.......
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Interesting lecture with
Interesting lecture with the future scientists of the world.
One fellow who didnt appear to be a student asked the question.
"Why do fishermen catch and release? Whats so appealing about bringing in a fish to see it gasping for air only to free it. Why is it that people go out shooting"
His connotations were clear.
Obviously he wanted to test the debate.
It had me thinking but the similar maybe why people pay thousands of dollars to see a boxing match only to see an opponent left gasping. What about football or any other contact sport?
Are fishers all so neanderthal? I think not. My initial start in fishing was to catch something to eat with intrigue on where and why fish were doing what they were doing.
Ok so some species like sailfish are purely catch and release. What it is it?
Could it be that some of us are as interested in why fish do and where they are as scientists are driven to take the career they do?
A study released about a decade found that men are social participants in acitivities. Theyre social nature is to do something together. It may explain why men are the bigger proportion of the demographic that fishes?
Another student queried how reduction in line was to occur being one of the biggest killers of penguins and baby dolphins?
A noticable trait of fishermen appears the more they fish the more they care. Large amounts of rubbish in waterways demonstrates that there is always an element of society that doesnt give a stuff. Maybe the one enviromental benefit of braid is that it sinks.
It is concerning however that a science student is so focused on the possibility of large populations of penguins and baby dolphins are dying from fishing line.
I hope that people think a little more complex than the gentleman that asked why fishermen catch and release. I guess those that do know its for a range of reasons.
Maybe he knew the answer
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Is it my extensive past
Is it my extensive past time as a recreational fisher had me skip the Dhufish menu and encouraged others at the table?
Why is it that so much of the public portray recreational fishermen as total uncaring meat hunters with the brain of a pea?
Ones things for sure though, while licences dont cover recreational fisheries management, theres no denying the pollies love the non-deductable tax revenue and the employment that goes with it.
Its always worth hearing Frank speak. Hes gifted at that.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
any transcripts or audio available for those outside Perth.
hoping something hits the recfish website.
RECFISHWEST Member
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Available on the UWA
Available on the UWA website apparently, probably at a later date.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
TerryF
Posts: 489
Date Joined: 11/08/05
The seminar will be posted
The seminar will be posted on the webpage http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/media/seminars.php
I have been told that it takes a few days before today's seminar is on the website.
I have a separate video recording I made, over one hour long, so needs to be processed to reduce it (or the audio) to a reasonable file size for downloading.
Working on it, (and several other things....) Will post when I have an update.
TerryF
=====
Beavering away in the background.......
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
cheers guys
would be most interesting
RECFISHWEST Member
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Interesting that there is
Interesting that there is 2 case scenarios possible.
A complete collapse of the fishery, with a total ban on fishing.
Dramatic reduction in the need for managers and scientists. No management needed. Job done.
That much spatial management that recreational fishing collapses as an industry even to 10% of its formal self.
Dramatic reduction in the need for managers and scientists. No management needed. Job done.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
TerryF
Posts: 489
Date Joined: 11/08/05
Audio and overhead slides
Audio and overhead slides from Frank Prokop's Seminar - Recreational fishing: cost or benefit to sustainable aquatic management? are on the RFW website at http://www.recfishwest.org.au/Seminar-FishingCostOrBenefit.htm
Worth a look and listen (well IMO anyway)
TerryF
=====
Beavering away in the background.......
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
cheers Frank
will have a look
Ewan
Posts: 271
Date Joined: 15/05/06
strange scenarios...
Where do those scenarios come from saltatrix? They are pretty pessimistic/extreme I think. Though we do see scenario 1 approaching us in some places...
I think you would need an awful lot of spatial or seasonal exclusion to collapse the recreational fishing 'industry' (I always thought it was a pastime but there you go...). Fishing is much more heavily regulated or otherwise restricted in other countries, and people seem to keep on fishing, there are still fishing tackle and bait shops.
I would love to see some example or demonstration of this massive economic cost of fishing managment or no-take area implementation that some people keep alluding to. As in actual numbers or otherwise published information that is. In Australia, preferably.
I spend 95% of the money I spend on fishing each year, on fishing at Ningaloo - that place with equal highest percentage of area closed to fishing in Australia, at 30% of coastal waters - equal to another fishing hotspot - the Great Barrier Reef.
So I am spending most of my fishing $ in a place with maximum spatial closures. Please explain? On the trip up and back, you would lose count of the number of cars towing boats to Exmouth, such is it's importance to the rec fishing 'industry'.
I think rec fishers make excellent conservationists at the end of the day - no matter what we may argue, or how our viewpoints may differ, at the end of the day pretty much every recfisher wants the fishing of the future to be as good if not better than it is today.
All I see is a need for more management and more science, until things get back closer to how they were before management was needed or the science began.Recfishers have a really important role to play in assisting the science + management through collection of data, and through self-enforcement...in other words, education, and the peer-pressure of doing the right thing that you see on all fishing forum websites and magazines etc. And also advising on policy development to see effective outcomes, which people like Terry and Frank RFW strive to do.
And also doing what saltatrix does: Quote:
Is it my extensive past time as a recreational fisher had me skip the Dhufish menu and encouraged others at the table?
Why is it that so much of the public portray recreational fishermen as total uncaring meat hunters with the brain of a pea?
he and me many other recfishers wont touch a bit of seafood that someone else has caught for money...it just doesnt make sustainable sense. Why serve wild-caught ocean fish to someone living in Kalgoorlie? Or to someone who doesnt even know what that fish looks like, or where it lives, or how it lives? us pea-brained meat-hunters are at least doing it right. Hunting, catching and killing our own.
This differentiation mentioned between recfishing 'critics' and 'supporters' is a strange one...where are the critics? who is a supporter? I think recfishing is pretty well accepted by the broader community as a normal part of life. 'critics' would be the extreme left i should imagine. I dont think it is useful to divide the community on such things...
You cant confuse someone opposed to recfishing, with people who want more management/protection. Fishing regulation management tends to be supported by fishos, whilst no-take areas being less so. The thing is that no-take areas protect the whole ecosystem, recognising that natural (i.e. not fished) populations of target fish and other species, have a place in a natural ecosystem. Both fishing regulation and no-take areas are important in the overall scheme of keeping the marine environment intact.
For those students to question those things is a good thing. It puts focus on issues of line disposal, for example. I mean, if the line is the biggest killer of those creatures, then us recfishers, as nature-lovers, will be more inspired to make sure we are more careful with it, and to keep pressure on the minority who are not. Line break-offs are inevitable. Perhaps there is a solution out there for someone to develop some kind of long-term biodegradeable line...? Or some such thing...everywhere we dived up at Exmouth this year had much line and rigs on there - 4 spots that we found with the sounder randomly, or were secret spots from years past - obviously not so secret!! The line tended to be very encrusted though, and basically a part of the environment...
My point is that we recfishers can recognise such impacts ourselves and drive the solutions, rather than be concerned that others are asking the questions...
On the catch and release thing...I personally am starting to drift away from it - but on the other side of the coin - who would care about things like marlin and sails, if they didnt get to see them up close and personal, like you can only do by catching them?
But there are definitely issues with treating the fish well, like not dragging them over the side of the boat and hugging them in dry air whilst taking a photo of them. These fish are spent, with bugger all oxygen in their blood and muscles as it is - why take them out of the water?? It would be like submerging a 1500m gold medallist under water for 30 seconds immediately after crossing the finishing line - no going to be good for him no matter how much oxygen you feed him afterwards... So again, I think it is a good thing to question - not to ban necessarily, but to question is healthy.
Some people out there will talk about recfishers being an endangered species and other such language...a bit over-the-top I think. First protect the fish and then there can be fishermen. Focus needs to be kept on the commercial fishing, and general marine environmental degradation sides of things, rather than spending energy on 'protecting' rec fishos from management/regulation. I realise there is a balance to be struck and to be strived for, as long as it is not at the expense of the environment, which, sadly, I think is still happening. The balance is not yet right!
Cheers,
Ewan