National News > September 2007

Angler Surveys – What difference can you make?

Every six or seven years Fish and Game New Zealand undertakes a massive undertaking; a survey of a large sample of New Zealand resident anglers to gauge their use of rivers and lakes for sports fishing.  Anglers from all regions are contacted by phone over two month periods over the entire fishing season, including the winter.  We ask where you have been fishing over the previous two months.  From this, we are able to draw up useful and reliable estimates of fishing effort for the 1150 different fishing waters throughout the country.  The last such survey was undertaken over the 2001-2 season and prior to that, for most of the country, over the 1994-5 fishing season.

You can help by keeping some track of your fishing activity this season, in case you receive a phone call or are contacted by email.  The back of your regulation guide has a few pages where you can record some summary diary information, which may help your memory.  The important information for this survey is just where and when you went fishing.  An angler day is any effort on a given day on any water body, whether it is for half an hour or eight hours.  If you fished three different waters in the same day that would count as three angler days.  Some of our larger or longer rivers have been broken into segments to record this information, so be aware of which part of the river you were fishing.  In addition, the diary includes the numbers of fish caught, which may be useful for your information as a record of your fishing.

What do we do with this information?  It is absolutely crucial to advocate the protection of key water bodies.  If we can show that any river or lake receives more than 10 000 angler day visits over the fishing season, it is hard to argue that such a site should not be protected from any development which would interfere with the angling opportunities.  This data has been used in various water conservation order and regional plan hearings throughout the country.  Even rivers or lakes with lower usage can be shown to be important enough to ensure that irrigation does not dry them up or that fish passage should be maintained, for example.  Fish and Game New Zealand can also use the information to prioritise work programmes and compliance efforts.  It also shows that anglers are quite mobile, with some areas like the MacKenzie country, West Coast, and Rotorua Lakes receiving significant use from anglers from other regions.  It also shows the importance of particular fisheries such as East Coast South Island rivers for salmon fishing and how this is affected by good or poor salmon runs.

More detailed surveys of anglers using particular rivers or lakes are sometimes undertaken by Fish and Game staff.  These on-site or phone surveys can ask more about the fish you catch or your fishing efforts or motivations.  This information can help to tease out more about catch rates or fish size; why people fish a particular water; or whether there are any issues of concern to anglers.  It is very helpful to have as reliable a response from anglers as possible, which is why we are happy when you can assist us by completing or responding to these surveys when asked.  The results are put to good use in helping with your fishing in the future.
 

Neil Deans
Manager
Fish and Game NZ
Nelson Marlborough Region
PO Box 2173, Stoke, Nelson
ph 64 3 544 6382
fax 64 3 544 4058
mobile 0274 394 381

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