00:00School holiday fishing at Margate in the state's south.
00:06Omar and his daughter Sienna are among many casting a line.
00:10It's good to get out, especially on days like this,
00:13and it's the outdoors and my daughter's experience,
00:19so hopefully when she gets older she can bring the kids along
00:22and she learns one or two things from me.
00:25A five-yearly survey by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
00:29released today providing a snapshot of recreational fishing
00:33and what people are catching.
00:35The participation rate has increased,
00:37with the biggest growth coming from young people.
00:40The Institute's latest survey results show 130,000 Tasmanians
00:45are recreational fishers and sand flathead is still the most caught species,
00:50making up half of the total catch.
00:53That popularity led authorities to introduce smaller catch limits
00:57for flathead last year.
00:59It's too soon to tell if that's making a difference.
01:03We are monitoring the stocks closely around the state,
01:06and again through state and federal money we've been able to ramp up
01:09those efforts to keep a really close eye on how things are going
01:12and hopefully early next year we'll have the first report.
01:15The state government's spending $1.2 million
01:18to help restore depleted stocks.
01:21All of us grew up catching sand flathead
01:23and we don't want the next generation to miss out on that opportunity.
01:26IMAS is investigating the use of a marine hatchery facility
01:30to breed flathead and release them into the wild.
01:33There may also be some potential to get some faster growing fish
01:37from areas that have been lightly fished and breed them up
01:40and put them into areas that have had a lot more fishing effort,
01:42like the south east, to have faster growing fish in those areas.
01:47Working to keep future generations hooked on flathead.
01:53For more UN videos visit www.un.org
Comments