2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Pressures - Recreational fishing

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "Pressures on the marine environment associated with recreational fishing". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESSURE Australia’s marine recreational fishery applies substantial pressure to specific species and taxa. For some targeted species harvest can exceed the take of the commercial fishery. For instance recreational tonnage of southern sand flathead in Tasmania in 2012/13 was six times that of the commercial fishery (Lyle et al., 2014), while the estimated recreational harvest of King George whiting in South Australia in 2013/14 was 1.46 million fish or 367 tonnes, which was more than half (58%) of the total harvest (Hall and Giti, 2015). While participation rates remain high in absolute terms for WA, NSW, QLD and TAS there has been a trend of declines in effort, participation and harvest. In contrast in South Australia there was an increase in participation but a decline in effort and harvest. For VIC expert opinion suggests an increase across all fishery metrics while for NT effort and participation has increased but harvest has declined. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Expert opinion and state assessment reports were sourced from all states. 14 interviews were conducted with experts based in all states. While more interviews would have been useful to better gauge perception the high level picture was easily discernible.

2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: High impact Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are not comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Low impact Assessment trend: Improving Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus

CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT N/A