Changing times for Vic Angler Diary programs MELBOURNE
Ross Winstanley
Victoria’s angler diary programs are being revived and refocused on high priority fisheries, making way for the GoFishVic app that’s attracting young anglers wanting to report and track their catches across Victoria. While their importance for fisheries assessments continues, the diary programs have taken a back seat as the Victorian Fisheries Authority concentrated on developing the app. Now, there’s a clear purpose and opportunity for both programs. BACKGROUND Since 2000, the closure of most of Victoria’s bay and inlet commercial fisheries has ended the century-long data series that underpinned the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s fishery assessment programs. Over much the same period, the VFA developed its ‘Reel Angler’ volunteer angler diary programs to provide the vital continuous time series of reliable data needed to support these assessments. However, the volunteer Angler Diary and Research Angler programs are no longer getting the level of support that they used to, particularly since the VFA turned their attention to developing the GoFishVic app in 2015. Vital support, feedback and engagement of volunteers have mainly ceased, and volunteers have been excluded from assessments that are based on diary data. This has resulted in the numbers of active volunteers in the Angler Diary Program (ADP) falling from over 300 to below 50. Spread across fisheries from Mallacoota to the Glenelg River, plus some inland waters, this is inadequate for meaningful statistical coverage. Similarly, the numbers of the more specialised Research Angler volunteers, recording more structured data from the two bays, have fallen from over 60 to 23. THE PROGRAM’S PROUD HISTORY At their height, in 2011 the Angler Diary and Research Angler programs received prestigious awards: a United Nations Association award for excellence in Marine and Coastal Management, and a Victorian Coastal Council Award for Excellence. At the time, Victorian anglers’ involvement in fisheries research and management was recognised as a national benchmark for ‘Citizen Science’ in fisheries. The birth of the ADP stemmed from VFA researchers’ encounter with 104
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Diary volunteers have assisted in tagging and collection of fish otoliths. a remarkable Melbournebased angler, John Kirk, who kept meticulous records of every black bream he caught in twice-yearly trips to the Bemm River, East Gippsland. Recorded for his own interest over decades, and measured across the full size range of hookable bream, the data traced the highs, lows and recoveries of the population in the Bemm. After well-defined downturns in the fishery, the emergence of 10-12cm ‘cohorts’ or year-classes indicated recent highly successful spawning. Sure enough, John tracked their progress over the following years until they entered the stock of legal-sized fish. John Kirk’s records demonstrated the power of an individual’s dedicated record-keeping of all trips, fishing much the same way in the same waters, over many years. While this is not for everybody, the sorts of anglers suited to it need little more encouragement than to be given regular feedback and the chance to be involved in periodic assessment of ‘their’ fisheries. A MODEL FOR OTHER STATES The simplicity of Victoria’s volunteer diary programs, and the value to fisheries research and management, have been picked up in other states. WA’s Research Angler Program started in 2005, focusing on popular, but ‘data-poor’ inshore and estuary fisheries. However, as in Victoria, WA’s diary program has declined as the research focus and resources have shifted towards app development. In contrast, the NSW Research Angler Program
began in 2013 and has been well resourced, funded from the recreational fishing licence trust ($193,000 in 2021). As well as ‘Keen Angler Diarists’ who record details of their fishing trips in fisheries of high interest, the more ‘general’ program volunteers tag mulloway, dusky flathead and snapper. They also donate frames of mulloway, snapper and several other species being studied by fisheries researchers. Every year, three or four very detailed 20-plus page newsletters are posted, reporting research progress, giving feedback and inviting further volunteer involvement. VICTORIAN DIARISTS REMAIN VITAL Despite its declining support for volunteers, the VFA continues to rely on diary data. The 2016 report on Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL) funded project, titled ‘Recreational fishing assessment 2016 – small eastern estuaries’, described how assessments for the three key target species examined across five estuaries relied entirely on volunteers’ diary data. The report stated that, “The collection of information needed to support management decisions that promote sustainable use of key recreational fisheries is not possible without the volunteer angler participation in the [ADP]”. Posted in 2012, the VFA’s Reel Scientists website still acknowledges that the diary programs continue to provide the only time series of data for the small-scale recreational fisheries. As commercial fisheries between Western Port Bay and Mallacoota
Inlet closed, a century of continuous detailed catch reporting ceased. Since about 2000, while the RFL funded buyouts of commercial fishing licences, volunteer diarists stepped up, encouraged by the VFA. In the national Status of Australian Fish Stocks 2020 report, the nationwide assessments of black bream stocks make several references to their dependence on data from Victoria’s angler diary volunteers in the State’s eastern and western estuaries. However, the report also warned that the diary program decline has thrown doubts on the reliability of diary catch rate data. It concludes that this has reached the point where it is insufficient to “confidently classify the status” of some fish stocks. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GOFISHVIC APP At the VFA’s June 2015 ‘Roundtable’ forum, recreational fishers were told “Fisheries are developing options” for the ADP. At the March 2016 forum, members learned of progress towards “expanding the angler diary program” to boost volunteer numbers and species coverage, and to “improve engagement with recreational fishing stakeholders”. In fact, the opposite has occurred; the ADP and the app are treated and resourced very differently, and engagement with diary volunteers has halted. Today, the VFA’s GoFishVic app has been well resourced and implemented as a key part of the Government’s ‘Go Fishing Victoria’ program
supported by $2.1 million of licence funding. WILL IT BE THE ‘APP’ TO THE RESCUE? If the original intention was to transition 300 or so ‘current’ diary volunteers across to the app, that horse has bolted. We’re now down to fewer than 50 volunteers, spread thinly across several species and several fisheries. As a 25-year diary veteran, I for one will continue with the simple paper diaries. That said, the app is certainly a good addition to the program. Since the diary programs began in 1997, new generations of anglers have made up the bulk of the fishing population. It is realistic to look at contemporary technology to attract young anglers and improve the efficiency of reporting catch details. Victoria is not alone in the quest to develop apps as a contemporary means of engaging with recreational fishers, and collecting useful catch data. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation has funded a $1 million 4-year multi-state study comparing the relative merits of smart-phone applications and traditional phone-diary and on-site (e.g. creel) surveys. Apps are also being used successfully for mandatory reporting of catches in strictly managed recreational fisheries (eg rock lobster) and reporting tag recaptures. However, nowhere in Australia is a voluntary app able to underpin fishery monitoring and stock assessments in the way Victoria’s ADP has done. A recent review of apps used in Australian recreational fisheries stated,
NSW Research Angler volunteers receive 3-4 newsletters annually.
“Citizen science projects thrive when information and conversations flow both ways.” App support fails when fishers are not given the opportunity to review their own data, including regular summaries. It seems unwise to continue neglecting the volunteer diary program – at least until the GoFishVic app has been shown to be capable of seamlessly replacing the diary programs, and has developed adequate volunteer numbers and a solid time series of credible data. The program should also offer reciprocal benefits to dedicated volunteers who choose to continue providing ‘hard copy’ diaries. INVESTED THROUGH THE RFL Over the past 20 years, recreational fishers have invested more than $1 million directly in Angler Diary projects and, probably, as much again in related assessment and management advice. What have they got for their money? Quite a lot: • Whole fisheries and individual stock assessments demonstrating the effectiveness of management changes, and the sustainability of their fishing, • Predictions of surges in fish numbers from successful spawning events, and • Understanding of catch downturns after periods of low spawning success, and more. Diary volunteers, themselves, are hugely invested in these diary programs. The only return they seek is a level of involvement in and communication on how the data are used. That has unfortunately ceased in recent years. WHERE NOW? Wi t h COVID restrictions eased and Victoria’s fisheries in good shape, there’s an opportunity to develop the traditional diary and app approaches in tandem. VFA researchers can focus traditional diary volunteers on the stocks and fisheries of key management concern: snapper and whiting in the bays, bream and dusky flathead in the eastern inlets, and the recreational fishing responses to the closure of net fisheries in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes. At least for now, the GoFishVic app seems best suited to more broadscale application, providing anglers with a log of their own catches while contributing catch and related data for marine and inland fisheries across the State.
