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Recreational Fishing Survey
On a national basis, the Recreational Survey has shown that in the twelve months prior to May 2000:
- 3.36 million people, or 19.5% of the population over the age of five years fished at least once
- 67.6% of fishers were male
- 24.4% of households had at least one recreational fisher living there
(Photo: A.Caton)
And in the twelve months prior to May 2001:
- There were a total of 20.6 million fisher days, with each fisher fishing on an average of 6.13 days; 23.2 million events; or 102.9 million fishing hours
- 76% of the fishing events were undertaken in coastal or estuarine waters
- Fishers harvested
- 60.4 million finfish
- 11.5 million small baitfish
- 6.1 million crabs and lobsters
- 47.7 million prawns and yabbies
- 1.8 million squid, cuttlefish and octopus
- 7.3 million other molluscs (shells)
- 1.2 million other taxa - Whiting were the most numerous group of finfish in the recreational harvest
- Fishers spent an estimated $1.8 billion on fishing related equipment and activities, an average of $552 per fisher
Figure 1: States and Territories of Australia
Tables of comparisons between States and Territories for particular items are listed below. For information on the main finfish species targeted by recreational fishers click on the links below:
(Photo: J. Larcombe)
Recreational Participation
Table 1: Estimated number of persons and proportion of the Australian resident population aged 5 or older who fished recreationally in the 12 months prior to May 2000 by State or Territory of residence, Statistical Division and sample stratum.
Table 2: Number of recreational fishers and proportion of the resident population by age class and gender and State or Territory of residence.
Recreational Harvest
Table 1: Estimated annual harvest (numbers) taken by Australian recreational fishers, aged 5 or older, for key species by State or Territory fished.
Table 2: Estimated annual harvest and released/discarded catch (numbers) taken by Australian recreational fishers, aged 5 or older, for selected species. Proportion of the catches released are indicated.
Table 3: Estimated annual harvest (kilograms) taken by Australian recreational fishers, aged 5 or older, for selected species by State or Territory fished.
Recreational Fishing Effort
Figure 1: Mean annual number of days fished per recreational fisher aged 5 years or older, by State or Territory of residence.
Figure 2: Annual recreational fishing effort (events) by water body type for Australian recreational fishers aged 5 years or older. Error bars represent one standard error.
Figure 3: Proportion of annual fishing effort (events) by fishing platform and State or Territory fished for recreational fishers aged 5 or older.
Table 1: Annual fishing effort (fisher hours) by fishing method and State or Territory fished for Australian recreational fishers aged 5 or older.