Summary

The introduction of a general recreational fishing fee in March 2001 generated considerable funding that was used to undertake significant changes in the management of fisheries in New South Wales (NSW).  The Tuross Lake estuary was zoned a ‘Recreational Fishing Haven’ (RFH) following extensive community consultation.  This management initiative changed the allocation of fisheries resources in this waterway between the recreational and commercial sectors.  This major re-allocation of access to the estuarine fisheries resources in Tuross Lake has undoubtedly created additional recreational fishing opportunities.  Thus, there was an important need to assess whether the recreational fisheries in this RFH were improving and providing better quality recreational fishing.  This report focuses on comparisons made between two separate daytime, boat-based, recreational fishing surveys of the Tuross Lake estuary.  The first annual survey was done during the pre-RFH period (March 1999 to February 2000) and the second annual survey was done during the post-RFH period (December 2003 to November 2004).  These annual surveys provide a snapshot of the recreational fishery before RFH implementation and after RFH implementation.  The same on-site, survey design was used in both surveys.  The boat-based fishery was assessed by using an access point survey design and stratified random sampling methods.  Auxiliary datasets consisting of automated traffic records at public boat ramps (both survey years) and boat-hire records (survey year 1 only) were used to supplement the survey data and improve the accuracy and precision of fishing effort and harvest estimates within this recreational fishery.

The two recreational fishing surveys provide evidence of a relatively productive recreational fishery in the Tuross Lake estuary.  Comparisons made between the two separate daytime, boat-based, recreational fishing surveys indicate that the post-RFH recreational fishery was very different to the fishery that had existed prior to the implementation of the RFH.  We documented statistically significant increases in recreational harvest for some prized recreational species and also some significant decreases for some other important recreational species.  Overall, the indicators of recreational fishing quality that we examined indicated that the post-RFH fishery had improved in many ways since the pre-RFH survey period.  A summary of the evidence provided in this report is that:

(a) the recreational harvest (number and weight) in both survey years was dominated by a relatively small number of taxa, however, the relative contribution of these dominant taxa changed markedly between survey years.  These changes occurred even though there was no significant difference, by number, between survey years in the total annual harvest.  A significant increase, by weight (41.6%), in the annual harvest of fish, crabs and cephalopods was recorded during the post-RFH survey year;

(b) the recreational harvest of dusky flathead and sand whiting (number and weight), yellowfin bream (number only) and sand mullet (weight only) had increased significantly during the post-RFH survey year;

(c) the recreational harvest of luderick, yelloweye mullet, large-toothed flounder and small-toothed flounder, by number and weight, had decreased significantly during the post-RFH survey year;

(d) fishing effort (number of boat trips) increased significantly by about 25.2% during the post-RFH survey year;

(e) significant harvest rate differences between corresponding seasons in the two survey years were detected.  These significant differences in seasonal harvest rates between survey years indicate that major changes have occurred in the fishery since the pre-RFH survey period;

(f) comparisons of length frequency information, mean and median lengths between survey years indicated that most species were harvested at larger sizes during the post-RFH survey year.  The mean and median sizes of dusky flathead, sand whiting, river garfish and large-toothed flounder were all larger during the second survey year.  Similarly, the mean and median sizes of sand mullet, tailor, yelloweye mullet and small-toothed flounder were larger during the post-RFH survey year but these comparisons should be treated with caution because of the small sample sizes (<50 fish per species) in one of the survey years;

(g) the dusky flathead population within the Tuross Lake estuary was fished heavily prior to the implementation of the RFH when commercial fishing was still allowed.  The length frequency data indicate that dusky flathead were growth overfished at the time of the pre-RFH survey.  The relatively small improvement measured during the post-RFH survey indicates that the increase in recreational fishing effort of about 25% has been sufficiently large to offset most of the potential gain made by removing commercial effort.

This study provides annual snapshots (point estimates) of the daytime, boat-based recreational fishery in the Tuross Lake estuary prior to and following the establishment of the waterway as a RFH.  On-site surveys of recreational fishing are valuable tools for collecting information to describe the status of a fishery and any changes that may have occurred since previous survey periods.  On-site surveys of the recreational fishery should be repeated regularly (every 3-5 years) to monitor the recreational fishery in the Tuross Lake estuary.