NSW Recreational Fishing $$ Figures Released

[Gad]

I put this in Nth NSW category as there is no general NSW category

Taken from Mondays (19th) Fishing world Email newsletter

State rec fishing figures released

19 Dec 2013

REC fishing brings in around $3.5 billion to the NSW economy each year according to a new independent survey, NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson said.

Ms Hodgkinson said the University of Wollongong survey found fishermen spent more than $1.5 billion on fishing related expenses in NSW in 2012 including travel, fishing tackle and boat?related items. The survey, commissioned by the NSW Government and funded by the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust, found:

• employment benefits of 14,254 full-time jobs;

• $877.3 million injected into household income; and interstate visitors contributed $186.1 million.

“The NSW Government is supportive of both the commercial and recreational fishing sectors, and this snapshot shows how valuable recreational fishing is to our communities,†Ms Hodgkinson said.

“Anglers spent $502 million in the North Coast; $511 million in the Sydney region; $360 million in the South Coast; and $251 million in the inland region.

“Recreational fishing is a vibrant and important part of both coastal and inland communities, and it’s important we have a clear understanding of the benefits it provides to our regional areas.

“It is clear NSW has it all, from the Murray cod and our pristine trout rivers inland, to bream and flathead in our extensive estuary systems, and tuna and marlin offshore.

The outcome of this survey, which is funded by the Recreational Fishing Trust, highlights the benefits that flow from the recreational fishing community.

View the survey at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au

I included the 2 Comments posted with the article for general interest

Chris XXX Now we have some real figures to show the true value of recreational fishing to the economy of NSW.

It should now be time to ensure that rec fishers get proportional representation when dealing with fishing related issues.

These figures show that rec fishing is seven times more valuable to the NSW economy than commercial fishing and provides more than three times as many full time jobs.

Nigel

This survey demonstrates the importance of receational fishing to the NSW economy. The government should recognise the significant diffence in revenue and employment in comparison to the commercial fishing sector that the two are diametrically opposed. This should also be recognised in terms of funding and other fishing matters.

[Do$tylz]

is it just me or does NSW seem to have the s*** together way better than QLD?

[Gad]

in some things yes in others no. eg: it was only in October 2013 NSW fisheries changed the minimum legal length of mulloway for rec and commercial fishos from 45cms to 70cms and also changed the rec legal bag limit from 5 to 2. These changes only came about because mulloway stocks in NSW had been assessed as being overfished and something needed to be done to help rebuild the mulloway stocks

[rayke1938]

The recreational fishing community in NSW does appear to be better organized when compared to QLD.

Whilst you have to have a fishing license for both salt and fresh the monies go to the recreational fishing trust. Whilst I may not agree with how some of the monies are spent overall they do a pretty good job.

In Qld we seem to be more them and us with the freshies against the rustwater and the pros.

A large proportion of the rustys appear to be against any form of licensing and the freshies that are part of the sip are doing reasonably ok and are frightened that they will get less under any changes so tend to adopt a dog in the manger attitude.

And then you have the state government who are broke unless it entails a new palace for themselves .

Cheers

Ray

[sehrguht]

Thats some good money being spent around the place, be interesting to see what SEQ would have spent in it considering the amount of boats around here.

If they could manage the funds well and distribute them towards more fisheries research, bag limit checks and boat ramp/facilities maintenance I would be all for a licensing scheme. I think it would help keep people in check more and stop some of the molesting that occurs.