Environmental factors affecting recreational catch rates associated with a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) off the NSW coast, Australia

Folpp, H. and Lowry, M., 2005. Environmental factors affecting recreational catch rates associated with a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) off the NSW coast, Australia. Oral presentation given in the theme session "Artificial reefs in Policy and Management" at the 8th International Conference on Artificial Reefs and Artificial Habitats - Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, 10-14 April, 2005.

Summary

A dedicated recreational FADs program was established by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (then known as NSW Fisheries) in 2002. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the numbers and types of fish that aggregate around FADs and investigate the relationship between angler’s catch rates and environmental variables.

The results of this study illustrate the diverse range of species that can be found associated with FADs, with the number and type of fish found varying between seasons and locations. Angler catches were dominated by dolphinfish, but catch rates were shown to be a poor measure of relative fish abundance, as no direct relationship between dolphinfish abundance and angler catch rates was found. Rather, angler success around FAD’s is primarily influenced by changes in environmental variables such as water temperature and current speed. The findings of this study should prove particularly valuable in achieving management objectives associated with minimising the impact of FAD based fisheries on specific target species.