A national recreational fishing survey of social and economic contribution is proposed for 2017-18.

The recommendation of the 2015 scoping study for a national recreational fishing survey was to implement a phone-diary survey to deliver the multiple objectives of assessing recreational catch, effort and socio-economic information. Since the focus of the proposed survey has now shifted to specifically focus on the socio-economic aspects of recreational fishing there is a strong need to reassess the priority questions and data needs of key stakeholders relating to this objective and re-assess the most appropriate survey technique to deliver a statistically robust and stakeholder relevant socio-economic survey.
Note: extrapolation from small, unrepresentative, or biased sampling can lead to large errors in survey estimates and in recent times, certain recreational fishing surveys have produced questionable results due to such factors.