THE 2017 World Recreational Fishing Conference has just concluded in Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Canada. The conference is held every third year and sees the world’s leading fisheries research scientists and managers converge for four days to showcase leading research and management strategies.
Some of the hot topics at the conference this year included post release survival and post release predation in catch and release fisheries, post release survival related to water and air temperatures, eradicating invasive species, artificial reefs and habitat restoration, satellite and telemetry tagging of key recreational species, management strategies for declining fish stocks, managing a shared resource, fish stocking programs and data and statistics collation. A lot of information was delivered over the four days, which will be discussed, dissected and filtered through to the general recreational fishing public via various means.
Proving the FRDC’s commitment to the recreational fishing sector, travel bursaries were awarded to nine young Australians who had demonstrated leadership qualities and a commitment to Australia’s recreational fishing sector to attend the conference. The group also visited the Seymour fish hatchery (Chinooks, Coho and steelhead), plus some habitat restoration work currently underway on the Seymour River.
Out of the 21 countries represented at the WRFC8, Australia was well represented with 38 delegates out of the 396 attendees. Australia also had a number of key presenters at the conference, including Frank Prokop, Craig Copeland, Alan Hansard and Fisho‘s own Ben Diggles. Fisho‘s UK correspondent Martin Salter was also present, reporting on the UK’s experience in engaging recreational anglers.
For Australia’s nine bursary recipients, the study tour is about to commence where the group will meet with key industry personnel and visit some important recreational destinations and managed fisheries over the following week.
