Australia now has its first evidence-based picture of how recreational fishers understand and practise stewardship. Fishers aren’t a single audience, so the stewardship messaging shouldn’t treat them like one. 

The findings come from FRDC Project 2024-073, A national study of stewardship in recreational fishing, led by Neil Howells of Hudson Howells. The project combined a literature review, sector-wide interviews, and a national survey of more than 2,500 recreational fishers to build a picture of stewardship behaviours, motivations and barriers across the country. 

This research delivers directly against priorities ARFF helped set. In partnership with FRDC, ARFF co-developed the RecFishing Research, Development and Extension Strategy 2024–2029, which set six Areas of Impact as research priorities for the sector. Project 2024-073 contributes to three of the strategy’s six pathways: 

• Pathway 4: Stewardship – supporting the recognition of recreational fishers as environmental custodians by enhancing engagement, participation and awareness 

• Pathway 1: Thriving Fisheries – providing evidence-based insights to improve fisheries sustainability through fisher-driven conservation actions 

• Pathway 5: Capacity Building – strengthening governance, leadership and capability within the sector to support long-term stewardship initiatives 

Under Pathway 4 specifically, the strategy called for an “audit of recreational fishing stewardship activities and understanding of stewardship in the sector” as a required output, working toward the long-term outcome that recreational fishers are recognised as trusted custodians of fisheries resources and their environments. Project 2024-073 delivers exactly that output — and the findings, roadmap and communication toolkit now come back to ARFF as one of the named organisations set to put them into practice. 

The headline finding is a new segmentation model that splits recreational fishers into four distinct groups, each with different motivations, behaviours and responses to stewardship messaging. That has direct implications for ARFF and the wider sector: a single national campaign line won’t shift behaviour equally across all four groups. Engagement strategies need to be built around who’s already on board, who’s close, and who needs a different message entirely. 

The research also puts a number on something ARFF has flagged anecdotally for a while: a large share of fishers already carry out stewardship actions like picking up litter, practising catch-and-release, reporting environmental issues without identifying any of it as “stewardship.” Fishers connected to clubs or associations were significantly more likely to be engaged, underlining the value of structured pathways like ARFF’s own network. 

The project has delivered a set of practical tools, not just a report: 

• A national stewardship roadmap 

• A communication toolkit for agencies, peak bodies and organisations working with fishers 

• A segmentation methodology and dataset, giving the sector its first national benchmark to track stewardship engagement over time 

These are designed to be used directly by state and territory recreational peak bodies, and fisheries management agencies to shape targeted, better-informed engagement programs. 

Watch the webinar 

The project team walked through the findings and what they mean for the sector in a recent webinar: 

Full project details, the final report and all supporting attachments, including the plain language summary and communication toolkit, are available on the FRDC project page: frdc.com.au/project/2024-073 

This research sits squarely within the Stewardship Pathway of the Recfishing Research Strategy. It provides ARFF with a solid evidence base to build on as we shape stewardship initiatives with our members and partners going forward.