A healthy fishing future is in your hands and creating a positive community of fishers is fundamental to safeguarding our waterways and supporting sustainable fishing, ensuring thriving oceans and marine resources for generations to come. By protecting fish stocks and preserving and ensuring the places we love remain safe and accessible for all, we can maintain the incredible fishing experiences found in NSW.
Fishing spots can become quite crowded especially during holidays, long weekends and good weather days. Being a responsible fisher means being mindful of your surroundings and how you interact with others, including other fishers (commercial, cultural and recreational) tourists and water users.
For many, fishing is an enjoyable family friendly activity that creates bonds through quality time spent in the environment, sharing knowledge and fun together. It connects us with the natural world and can alleviate stress and keeps people active. Responsible fishers not only teach young fishers the basics of fishing, from casting out to unhooking fish, but also convey knowledge of responsibility, how to respect and interact with others, the importance of following rules and regulations and the proper way to fish ethically and sustainably.
This means that recreational fishers should always act responsibly when they are fishing or when they are travelling to and from their chosen fishing location. Fishers should also acknowledge that illegal actions by others can damage our aquatic environment and can also be harmful to people.
Acting responsibly means:
Social licence for fishing is dependent on broad community acceptance and support of the activity. The broader community has a range of views on fishing including on the ethics of consumption of fish. To maintain social licence, recreational fishing must meet community standards on the ethical and humane treatment of fish, minimise impacts on the environment and be respectful to other members of the community to ensure a positive future for the sport.
When taking the boat out to fish follow these tips to ensure a safe trip:
The NSW Oyster industry supports valuable regional employment and investment. Please ensure that your vessel, your vessel’s wash and your fishing tackle does not interfere with any part of an oyster lease, including the Oysters. Hooks and lures abandoned on Oyster sticks, baskets and trays may cause serious injury to oyster industry workers so please fish responsibly around oyster leases. Boat wash may wash over Oyster crops from lease infrastructure and may pose significant risk of injury to industry workers on the lease. Do not tie up to lease marker posts. For more information on responsibly fishing around oyster leases, please check out this page and watch the video on responsible fishing around oyster leases.