There is a need for accurate and timely recreational fishing catch data to support inputs to stock assessment and reduce uncertainty and increase trust in management advice for many Queensland fish stocks.
Population based phone logbook surveys have been traditionally used to estimate recreational catch, but they are becoming increasingly costly and impractical. Cost-effective alternatives capable of engaging recreational fishers are needed.
Voluntary self-reporting of catches by recreational fishers – e.g. via a smart phone-based application (app) – is one key alternative method that can reduce costs and potentially increase the accuracy, and hence stakeholder acceptance of recreational catch estimates that inform stock assessments.
However, despite the number of smart phone apps targeting recreational fishers growing in abundance, this approach has its own inherent challenges, which have been well-documented.
Further, there has been a lack of rigorous social science initiatives with the goal of understanding the underlying dynamics of mobile app usage in this context, and existing behaviour change programs fostering app usage by recreational fishers are rarely formally documented or evaluated.
Having recreational fishers willing and supportive towards providing their fishing data through Fisheries Queensland’s phone app will improve the accuracy of estimates and the acceptance of the results.
Encouragement of this support and willingness to voluntarily report is needed. Getting fishers to generate large volumes of quality data in a government owned app is the key challenge.
Developing and implementing a behaviour change campaign involving a range of behavioural science informed interventions that promote facilitating factors while overcoming barriers deterring people from self-reporting (e.g. mistrust in the use of the data) and promoting factors that foster self-reporting (e.g., contributing to citizen science, protecting fish species for subsequent generations while not engaging in strategic bias) can be used to meet the need for effective and widespread self-reporting.
One of the high-priority species is Australian east coast Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson). A 2020 stock assessment measured the biomass of the species at ~17% of 1910 levels.
During public consultation on proposed management changes, most survey respondents across all sectors expressed a desire for better recreational catch data for Spanish mackerel. These findings suggest options to improve recreational catch reporting should accompany any proposed management action to rebuild the east coast Spanish mackerel stock.
Most survey respondents preferred a voluntary reporting arrangement for recreationally caught Spanish mackerel over mandatory reporting. Most respondents also preferred the use of a smartphone app for any recreational catch reporting of Spanish mackerel.
Improved monitoring and research is a foundational reform of the Queensland Sustainable Fisheries Strategy (SFS) 2017–2027 that includes several actions relating to improved data collection, additional monitoring of key biological stocks and the use of novel technologies such as apps.

Our revised application has been streamlined into three phases with an investment of $400,830 (excl. GST) in line with the budgetary guidance. This covers the research, design, delivery and evaluation of a pilot behaviour change program covering one fish species at two sites along the Queensland coast. A review of challenges and adjustments will follow each phase, as required.