Survey Methods for Monitoring Recreational Fisheries in Support of Stock Assessments and Fisheries Management Part 1

For many fish stocks, the recreational fishing sector takes a significant fraction of the total amount of fish caught in a given year.  Hence, the accuracy and timeliness of recreational catch statistics has become a more important component of both stock assessments and fisheries management. Recreational fisheries are important and growing components of many marine and freshwater fisheries.  Because recreational fishing is characterized by a large number of people accessing marine or fresh waters from many different points, it is usually more feasibly monitored and managed with different techniques than those typically used for commercial fisheries.  Each fisher typically harvests a small number of fish, but collectively the participants may take a very significant fraction of the total catch of a given fish stock. Recreational fishery catch limits are being managed in different ways for different fish stocks, but the limits set for some stocks are sometimes greatly exceeded.  The adequacy of a particular survey design for supporting effective management depends on both the temporal (in-season, annual, or mulit-annual) and geographic resolution required.  Many stocks are managed on a coast-wide basis, but some are currently managed on a country-by-country or state-by-state basis.  Different management strategies may require different survey designs or different levels or allocations of sampling among different modes of fishing (shore, private boat, or for-hire boat).