With the impacts of COVID-19 likely to be felt for sometime to come, it’s more important than ever for recreational fishers to stand up and be counted. Policy makers and funders need to have a clear understanding of how important recfishing is to the country’s and to the State’s lifestyle.
The peak body for recreational fishing in Australia (the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation) and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation are conducting a national survey to value the social and economic contributions of recreational fishers and quantify the benefits of recreational fishing.
The National Recreational Fishing Survey will provide the first up-to-date picture of the value of recreational fishing in Australia since 2001.Being able to define the economic value of recfishing to governments will clearly strengthen our hand when it comes to decisions being made that support our lifestyle.
To take part in the survey and find out more about it click here
In a post COVID-19 world, it’s also going to be increasingly important for us to be able to demonstrate the mental health and well-being benefits that we all know fishing provides. We have already seen how the State Government in WA has recognised the importance of recfishing as a safe and healthy activity in the way that fishing is one of the activities for which restrictions have been specifically lifted.
As a sector, we will need to build on this knowledge and having good scientific data through surveys like this will allow us to make even stronger cases for many of the initiatives that make fishing better.
Check out this video by TV fishing personality Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling on why you should consider taking part in the survey
There are two versions of the survey – a short version and a longer form and if you want you can also take part in an ongoing monthly survey.
As an added incentive to participate there’s also some cool fishing prizes to be won including a grand prize of a trip worth up to $5,000 with a charter operator of your choice.