The State Government has begun randomly polling households to find out more information about recreational fishing in Queensland.
Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington said survey experts began phoning about 13,000 randomly selected households on Monday.
“These households will be asked questions relating to their fishing activity and boat ownership. From these households, more than 4000 recreational fishers will be invited to participate in the 12-month survey,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“Each participating fisher will be contacted by their nominated fishing survey expert on a regular basis to collect information about their fishing trips.
“Where possible, fishers will be phoned shortly after each of their fishing trips so that information about the trips is fresh in the fisher’s memory and no trips are forgotten.
“Fishing is a popular pastime in our region. This new survey will collect more regionally focused information on where and how people fish, what they catch and the type of fishing experiences they want.”
Fisheries Minister John McVeigh said the survey delivered on a $1 million election commitment by the State Government.
“We are committed to implementing enhanced recreational fishing monitoring to help improve sustainability measures and safeguard Queensland’s marine resources,” Mr McVeigh said.
“Our goal is to understand not just the fish species caught, but also the way we fish, so we can better tailor our fisheries management.
“The results from the survey will be directly comparable to previous surveys and provide a vital time series on recreational fishing in Queensland and help us to make robust assessments of our fisheries.”
