CITIZEN SCIENCE What’s in it for recreational fishers? By Jo Starling. A freshly tagged flathead is swum before release. Photo credit: Steve Starling
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ince the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF) announced that citizen science would be the theme for the 2019 National Recreational Fishing Conference, there has been a scurry of enthusiasm, nationwide, to get ready for the biennial event. But there have also been murmurs of discomfort and expressions of mistrust, so I’ve decided to take a deeper look into the question of “What’s in this for me?” as a rec fisher. I’m the first to admit it… I’m an “avid” — the classification applied to the 20% of anglers who make up 80% of the recreational fishing effort. I don’t fish casually. I fish fervently! I fish as often as I can! I fish for sport, for fitness, for my mental well being, for my love of nature, for a feed… I fish for every reason under the sun. I fish because I love it! When I think back over all the years, I can’t remember a single bad day spent fishing. I know I’ve had fishless outings, but they’re not bad days (even though I can’t remember specifics). Having said that, if there wasn’t the hope of catching a fish, I wouldn’t go out. Let’s face it… abundant and accessible desirable targets are necessary for fishing success, and it’s the dream of fishing success that inspires us to participate in our sport.
Let’s face it… abundant and accessible desirable targets are necessary for fishing success, and it’s the dream of fishing success that inspires us to participate in our sport. In Australia, we place the responsibility of managing and maintaining our fish stocks on government agencies, both state and federal. They make their management decisions based on data, which has Fishing News - Page 18
traditionally been sourced from the commercial fishing sector through their mandatory log books and catch data, on-board monitoring, sampling of catches through co-ops, etc. More recently, our sector has been contributing to data collection as well. Did you know, for example, that the Game Fish Tagging Program in New South Wales has been collecting tag data since 1973? Tournament statistics and tagging programs are some examples of the fun ways we willingly participate, but there are many longstanding, research programs that anglers have been participating in too. Increasing numbers of grassroots, non-government organizations, like OzFish Unlimited, to name one example, are taking the initiative to address questions related to the management of recreational fisheries. Our involvement in recreational fisheries research can range from simply sharing insights and catching fish to be used in studies, to direct participation in experimental design, fundraising, and project coordination and implementation.
Why do we need citizen science in recreational fishing? Such projects enable our contribution towards the data that is used to manage our fisheries, which is important if we are to trust the data behind the decisions made. Fishers who’ve participated in the many and various citizen science projects around the country report feeling an increased sense of ownership of fish resources. Their involvement also informs their understanding of the processes and intentions, which helps debunk community scepticism and leads to greater understanding and acceptance of management decisions, which is critical for the long-
term sustainability of our fish stocks… and therefore to the long term viability of recreational fishing, remembering that the key motivation to going fishing is the promise of actually catching a fish! One thought-provoking insight I gained whilst researching this article came from a West Australian paper into the “Send Us Your Skeletons” project that tracked the recovery of demersal fish stocks, after the implementation of what some perceived as drastic measures between 2007 and 2010, to rescue the overfished fishery. One of the measures included the banning of commercial fishing in some zones, posing a problem to scientists tasked with monitoring the effectiveness
The “Track My Fish” app has revolutionised tournament and personal catch data recording, building a national database on fish stocks. Photo credit: Stefan Sawynok
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