Considering recreational catch and harvest in fisheries management at the bio regional scale

The Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia supports several commercial fisheries and a largely tourist-based recreational fishery. The results of a survey of 427 recreational fishing parties visiting the main town, Karumba, between March and September 2006 were examined using the bootstrap method to estimate confidence intervals for mean tourist catch and harvest of grunter, Pomadasys kaakan (Cuvier), and other recreational target species. Tourist anglers harvested between 99.8 and 117 t of P. kaakan and 32.6–38.2 t of blue salmon, Eleutheronema tetradactylum (Shaw), during the survey period. Resident recreational anglers harvested an additional 15–35 t of P. kaakan, but very little E. tetradactylum. In comparison, commercial harvest was 19 t of P. kaakan and 64 t of E. tetradactylum in the whole of the Queensland section of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The results underscore the need for appropriately collected recreational fishing data to support integrated fisheries management at the bioregional scale, and in the case of angling-based tourist destinations, underpin a diversification of the tourist product