The hunting and recreational fishing sector incorporates hunting and game management activities, and recreational fishing, including charter fishing. They are included in the measure of the total annual value of NSW’s primary industries this year as they are popular activities that contribute economic and social benefits to the Australian economy, particularly in regional areas.

Some businesses depend on the recreational fishing sector either wholly (the fishing tackle and bait industry and the fishing tour and charter industry) or for a large proportion of their income (the recreational boating industry and the tourism industry).

Similarly, hunting and game management activities support businesses directly related to the manufacture and sale of hunting and outdoor products and services (firearms and ammunition, camping and hunting equipment, and safety equipment related businesses), as well as specialist businesses including private game bird farms and hunting tour operators.

Both sectors also support fuel, accommodation, and food businesses.

It is difficult to estimate the economic value of these sectors because game harvest and fishing catch are not sold and paid for in markets, unlike the catch or produce of other primary industries. They therefore do not reveal the associated value they gain from hunting game or catching fish. As harvest or catch based (i.e. Gross Value of Production based) approaches do not capture all the community benefit elements of game hunting and recreational fishing, they cannot appropriately estimate the value of this sector.

Expenditure based measures of industry output are considered more appropriate for this sector and more comparable with Gross Value of Production measures. Using these methods, the recreational and charter fishing industry was estimated at $2,138 million, with $1,406 million attributed to hunting and game management. The estimated combined industry output of hunting and recreational fishing in 2019–20 was $3,544 million.