Abstract:
The survey, commencing in May 2000, is the first broad based national recreational fishing survey of its kind in
Australia. While primarily designed to provide biologic and fisher participant data, it provides a platform for the collection of
data applicable to economic policy questions.
The survey methodology is based on a nation wide random selection of households for which base data is collected. Those in
the household indicating their likely participation in fishing over the coming twelve months are invited to join the
recreational fishing survey. These participating in the longitudinal survey are interviewed over the twelve months of the
survey by telephone using the Kewagama Research respondent facilitation diary methodology. The offsite survey is
supported with on-site creel surveys to verify participant responses throughout the duration of the survey.
Because the primary focus of the survey is the collection of biological and fishing data, it is not always possible to link
economic data to a particular fishing activity, species or fishing site. The economic data is identified according to whether it
is at home or away from home expenditure, the economic zone in which the expenditure has occurred and the proportion
of expenditure attributable to recreational fishing activity. The aim in limiting the economic data in this manner is to ensure
the provision of robustness data over the full range of the national survey. The economic and behavioural data to be provided
by the survey will be constructive input to important to policy issues concerning the assessment and the use of fish, marine,
coastal and inland water resources.
