From the Department of Primary Industries

Wednesday 2 April 2008

YOUR FISHING LICENCE FEES AT WORK IN ANDERSON INLET

Licence-funded research and monitoring projects are providing valuable information about recreational fishing, fish stocks and fish habitats at Anderson Inlet in accordance with the commitments made in the Anderson Inlet Fisheries Management Plan, Executive Director of Fisheries Victoria, Dr Peter Appleford said today.

The $75,000 grant from the Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Account has contributed to several monitoring and assessment projects currently underway and one fish habitat study that is complete.

$37,000 of the grant is for a 12-month creel survey to obtain fishing catch and effort information by asking recreational fishers about their fishing experiences in Anderson Inlet.

“Creel surveys are a great way to interact with anglers and find out what they are targeting, what they are catching, their motivations and their levels of satisfaction,” Dr Appleford said.

A further $18,500 of the grant is to establish a voluntary angler log book program and to analyse the size and age structure of catches of key target species such as estuary perch.

“This program relies on finding anglers who regularly fish the Inlet, really know their stuff, and don’t mind keeping a detailed record of their catches in a log book,” Dr Appleford said.

The volunteer log book anglers measure all of their catch every time they go fishing. This information provides scientists with a picture of what local stocks of key target species are doing.

“The log book program is a cost effective way to monitor natural recruitment and stock status of key recreational species such as estuary perch, flathead and King George whiting in small estuarine fisheries such as Anderson Inlet,” Dr Appleford said.

A third project, which is now complete, was a seasonal survey of Anderson Inlet to identify the habitat preferences of key recreational target fish species.

The survey, led by Dr Jeremy Hindell who is now a Senior Scientist with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, sampled forty-eight fish species, including nineteen of recreational value.

Channels supported the greatest diversity of adult stages of recreationally important species with juvenile stages more likely to be found in or along the edges of vegetated habitats adjacent to the channels, including seagrass, saltmarsh, mangroves and Phragmites (water reed).

Anderson Inlet currently has one of the healthiest populations of estuary perch in Victoria.
Large numbers of juvenile estuary perch were found in estuarine sections of the Tarwin River, Screw Creek and Pound Creek. Larger perch were also common throughout the estuary.

The $75,000 provided for the Anderson Inlet projects was one of 25 grants, worth $1.2 million in all, which were funded in the 2005/06 round of the Victorian Recreational Fishing Grant Program.

For more information about how angling licence fees are being spent to improve fishing opportunities and ensure fish for the future visit www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fishing/feesatwork or ring the DPI Customer Service Centre on 136 186.