An evaluation of the use of fishing club records in the management of marine recreational fisheries

Although there are limitations to the usefulness of data from fishing club records in management of marine recreational fisheries, the present study shows that, with careful analysis, trends relevant to resource management can be discerned. Club records analysed in the present study show that there are very large differences in catches and catch rates over time, including seasonally throughout the year. Increases in catch do not appear to be related to river floods, or to changes in angler effort or angler success rate. The changes in catch and catch rates have significant implications for measures for marine recreational fisheries management based on survey data. Results from this study relating to species caught and catch per unit effort are consistent with findings from other studies on recreational fishing, suggesting that data from fishing club records may be broadly representative of recreational fishing overall, at least for these aspects. The value of fishing club records for fisheries management could be substantially increased if clubs collected data in a more standardised format.