Published 9 October 2024Limiting the environmental impacts of recreational fishing by completing an environmental impact assessment and a recreational fisheries strategy.
Overview
What are we doing?
We are preparing an environmental assessment (EA) to consider the effect of recreational fishing on:
target species
by-catch
protected species
fish habitat
the broader ecosystem
economic and social issues.
This process will be guided by the threats and risks associated with recreational fishing identified in the statewide Threat and Risk Assessment and enable the development of a NSW Recreational Fisheries Strategy (RFS).
The RFS will provide a long-term vision and ensure fishing activities are sustainable and provide quality recreational fishing into the future.
An EA and RFS will be conducted for both NSW saltwater (Phase 1) and freshwater recreational fisheries (Phase 2).
‘The Fish for Life’ project, partly supported by the Strategy and in collaboration with Oz Fish, delivered the marine debris based ‘Keep it clean campaign’. This project is designed to address marine litter, specifically targeting ways to encourage recreational fishers to dispose of litter appropriately and learn and use techniques to prevent gear loss.
Educational and advisory content for the Responsible Crab Fishing campaign was published to provide guidance on this activity.
Seven responsible fishing clean-up events have been organised across the state this trimester. The clean-ups are having a direct impact by removing litter from fishing hotspots. Additionally, they support positive behavioural change and help maintain social license for recreational fishing.
