2015-11-10 - P&O Agenda - Item 7, Attach 1 - Historical Ecology of the Noosa Estuary Fisheries

While we cannot be certain about why these declines occurred, interviews with
long-term fishers suggest it is unlikely due to changes in attitudes towards
conserving fish stocks (at which point, catch rates would have fallen because
fishers would have targeted stocks differently). This certainly occurred, but such
shifts occurred several years after the conclusion of this time series with the
introduction of bag limits and the increasing popularity of catch and release
fishing (pers. comm., interviews).



                                 150
 N fish fisher-1 competition-1




                                                           Competition best
                                                           Competition average
                                 100



                                  50



                                   0
                                       1920   1940      1960      1980
                                                 Year
Figure 9. Catch rates of fish caught during recreational fishing competitions.
Best equals the highest number of fish caught by a competitor, average equals
the total number of fish caught divided by the number of people recorded as
taking part in the competition.




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