Queensland fishing survey

Queenslanders love to wet a line. And while the latest official data comes from 2013/14 statewide recreational fishing survey, it's still relevant to today.

The survey had two main phases: the first  collected information about the number of fishers in Queensland and their characteristics, such as their age group and where they live; the second phase recorded the fishing activities of more than 5000 people from Queensland recreational fishing households in the 12 months to October 2014.

To allow regional comparisons with previous surveys, Queensland was  divided into nine main residential regions. However, this survey has an enhanced regional focus and these nine main regions have been split into a total of 16 sub-regions.

REC FISHING IN POPULAR
Recreational fishing continues to be a popular outdoor activity in Queensland. Approximately 642,000 or 15 per cent of Queenslanders aged 5 years or more went recreational fishing in Queensland in the 12 months prior to November 2013.

Fishing is more popular than sports and physical recreational activities such as cycling (7.5 per cent), tennis (3.3 per cent) and golf (4.4 per cent) (Australian Bureau of Statistics publication 4177).

REGIONAL TRENDS
Many people enjoy the abundant marine and freshwater fishing experiences on offer across the state. More than a half of Queensland's recreational fishers (approx. 350,000) live in South East Queensland.

 However, the highest participation rates were seen in the north of the state with the top areas being Mackay Hinterland (30 per cent), Far North Hinterland (28 per cent), Northern Hinterland (26 per cent) and the Fitzroy Hinterland (26 per cent) sub-regions.

The lowest participation rates were seen in the more urbanised sub-regions such as the Gold Coast (9 per cent) and Brisbane (12 per cent).

REC FISHING ACTIVITY TRENDS
Fisheries Queensland has used the current method to monitor recreational fishing activity in 2000, 2010 and 2013, a period obviously spanning 13 years. Whilst recreational fishing in Queensland is popular, the recreational fishing participation rate has declined slightly from 17 per cent to 15 per cent from 2010 to 2013.

FISHING BY AGE
Of the FIVE age groups  examined, the 5 to 14 year olds have the largest participation rate followed by the 30 to 44 year olds. This may be a reflection of the family nature of recreational fishing.

FISHING REGULARITY
During the 12 months between November 2013 and October 2014, Queensland residents fished for approximately 2.5 million days in Queensland, similar to the effort in the 2010–11 survey. Fishing with a line was the most popular method and around half of all effort was shore based (the other half was boat based).

Residents living in the Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay-Burnett regions were responsible for nearly 56 per cent of all fishing effort. Fishers did travel away from their local area to fish, but most fished close to where they lived.

TOP CATCHES
Resident recreational fishers captured a diverse range of bony fishes and sharks, skates and rays.

Yellowfin bream was the most commonly catch, with 1,156,000 landed. Whiting were the next most commonly caught fish, with 1,090,000 sand whiting and 679,000 trumpeter whiting caught. Flathead also formed a considerable part of the total catch, with approximately 412,000 fish caught, of which 85 per cent were dusky flathead (352,000 fish).

Other commonly caught species were dart (352,000 fish), barred javelin (329,000 fish), pikey bream (234,000 fish), snapper (203,000 fish) and barramundi (174,000 fish).

Large numbers of freshwater fish were also caught, with Australian bass (171,000 fish) and golden perch (146,000 fish) being the most common.

The recreational catch also included large numbers of non-fish species, such as crustaceans (e.g. crabs), cephalopods (e.g. squid) and other taxa. Mud crabs were the most commonly caught non-fish species, with 1.7 million estimated to have been caught.

The next Queensland Fishing is expected to kick off and start collecting new data in mid-2016. Meantime, happy hooking these summer holidays.