Recreational fishing flops: Andrews fails to hook a million anglers

Recreational fishing licence sales have undergone a long-term decline since 2015, despite the Andrews Government pouring $46m into its scheme to hook more anglers into the sport.

Bushfires then COVID-19 restrictions have exacerbated a decline in recreational fishing licence sales.

COVID-19 has dealt a knock-out blow to the Victorian Government’s goal of recruiting a million Victorians to recreational fishing by 2020.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority’s latest annual report, which was finally released last week after a three-month delay, showed recreational fishing licence sales slumped by 38,782 in 2019-20 to just 226,032.

But the on-again off-again nature of the COVID-19 restrictions on fishing seems to have driven many Victorian anglers into seeking short-term licences.

The VFA report showed 83,944 anglers applied for three-day licences, equal to 37 per cent of the 2019-20 total.

Another 7725 anglers bought 28-day licences, 103,281 bought one-year licences and 31,079 took out three-year licences.

“It’s been a tough year for recreational fishers, who haven’t been able to cast a line as often in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and the bushfires,” Fishing Minister Melissa Horne said.

But even when accounting for the impacts of bushfires and COVID-19, the long-term data showed a steady decline in licence renewals, despite the Andrews Government’s promise to spend $46 million trying to hook a million anglers into the sport by 2020.

Since its launch in 2015, the Target One Million scheme has let thousands of anglers slip through the net.

VFA records show licence sales have fallen from 294,051 in 2015-16 to 258,531 in 2017-18 to finally bottom out at 226,032 in 2019-20.

The Weekly Times has previously raised questions about the effectiveness of the Target One Million program and the claims by the Andrews Government that an Ernst and Young report backed its claim that 830,000 adult Victorians participate in recreational fishing each year.

However the study was based on extrapolating the results of a 2014 consultant’s survey of 599 people, of whom just 110 fished, to the entire Victorian population.

EY was commissioned to produce another report, but the Government has not released the results.

Meanwhile another 2019-20 report detailing how $7.56 million into recreational fishing licence fees were spent shows:

$1.12 million was paid out under the Recreational Fishing Grants program for 63 projects allocated to angling clubs, water authorities, catchment management authorities and others.

$2.2 million went to the Target One Million program

$2 million Fisheries Enforcement & Education Branch

$895,839 to fish stocking

$469,631 to fund the recreational fishing lobby VRFish

$229,193 for Fishcare Victoria

$377,251 salaries and on-costs (unspecified)

$270,979 for professional and contract services (unspecified)

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