Australian delegation attends 11th World Recreational Fishing Conference in South Africa

LAST month, the 11^th World Recreational Fishing Conference was held in South Africa and Australia was well represented by a delegation who are applying learnings and initiatives to benefit recreational fishing in Australia.

A bit of background

The World Recreational Fishing Conference (WRFC) is the largest international conference focusing on optimising the research, management and societal benefits of recreational fisheries. The WRFC attracts recreational fishers, fisheries experts, managers, researchers, policymakers, industry professionals and fishing leaders from around the globe. Held every three years, the WRFC is the global venue to discuss and share opportunities and challenges in managing recreational fisheries. The conferences typically bring hundreds of delegates from 20+ countries together from the global recreational fishing community to share their experience, issues and solutions across a range of themes at the forefront of recreational fisheries.

The WRFC began 30 years ago in 1996 and has since been held locations including Ireland (Dublin), Canada (Vancouver), Australia (Darwin), Norway (Trondheim), USA (Fort Lauderdale), Germany (Berlin), Brazil (Campinas), Canada (Victoria) and Netherlands (Rotterdam/online). You may remember in February 2023, the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) and partners held the 10th WRFC in Melbourne. The Melbourne WRFC attracted 360 delegates from 20 countries and was highly beneficial for information exchange and networking regarding best practice recreational fisheries management.

This time for Africa!

The latest and 11th WRFC was held at Eastern Cape in South Africa on 21st-26th February 2026. Bringing together almost 200 recreational fisheries scientists, managers and anglers from 27 countries globally, the 11^th WRFC provided an exceptional opportunity for Australian recreational fishing leaders to learn and share information and network with the best recreational fisheries experts and test our current approaches with the best minds internationally, to benefit recreational fishing in Australia.

To take advantage of this opportunity, the VFA, in partnership with the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF) applied for and secured funding from the Fisheries Research Development Corporation (FRDC) to lead an Australian delegation to participate in the 11^th WRFC. You can read more about the initiative here, which builds on previous FRDC supported Australian delegations to WRFC’s led by Frank Prokop and Matt Barwick.

After holding an open expression of interest process, our high-quality and diverse Australian delegation for the 11^th WRFC was formed consisting of 13 recreational fishing leaders and emerging leaders from recreational fishing advocacy, science and management around Australia. The delegation comprised of:

• Shea Bloom – Women in Recreational Fishing Network, Victoria
• Sedin Hasanovic – Recfishwest, Western Australia
• Jaki Humphreys – RecFishSA, South Australia
• Kelly Hunt – Tasmanian Association for Recreational Fishing (TARFish)
• Anthony McGrath – VRFish, Victoria
• Lee Spyrou – Albert Park Angling and Yachting Club, Victoria
• Liam Surridge – Recfishwest, Western Australia
• Tom Tyczenko – RecFishSA, South Australia
• Glenn Watt – Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the Northern Territory (AFANT)
• Taylor Hunt – Victorian Fisheries Authority (co-lead)
• Cassie Price – Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation and OzFish Unlimited (co-lead)
• David Ciaravolo – Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation and Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the Northern Territory (AFANT) (co-lead)

As a delegation, we met three times before arriving at the Conference and were able to discuss and explore both opportunities and challenges occurring around Australia from each of our jurisdictions, as well as plan key themes we wanted to explore during the 11^th WRFC.

Conference theme: Sharing global experiences to promote resilient recreational fisheries 

At the 11^th WRFC, we were blown away by the quality of the presentations, discussions and the passion to get the best out of recreational fishing as a global community. 

The keynote presentations held each morning were inspirational and consisted of the world’s best recreational fisheries scientists such as Professor Steven J Cooke (Canada) and Dr Valerio Sbragaglia (Spain), as well as local African recreational fisheries experts in Dr Nelly Isigi Kadagi (Billfish tracking) and Dr Judy Mann-Lang (recreational fisheries communication). 

Over the four days we attended over 200 presentations and workshops, and were able to share, network and connect with world’s best practice in recreational fisheries. From Giant Trevally, Golden Dorado, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Tigerfish, Japanese Eel, Chinook Salmon, Bluefin Kingfish, Striped Bass, Northern Pike, Halibut, Seabream, Flathead, Brown Trout, Largemouth Bass, Coho Salmon, Carp, Steenbras to Murray cod and Barramundi – if you can fish for it, it was probably covered at the Conference, not to mention every hot topic in managing recreational fisheries for these and other species!

In addition to the Conference presentations and networking, as an Australian delegation we also held dedicated roundtable question and answer meetings with four of the most prominent and influential recreational fishing experts globally; Professors Andy and Sascha Clark-Danylchuk (USA), Professor Robert Arlinghaus (Germany) and Professor Steven Cooke (Canada). We were able to share our recreational fishing experiences, opportunities and challenges currently occurring in Australia and get feedback from the world’s best.

A number of Australians also gave excellent presentations at the conference including:

• Crystal Beckmann (SA) – Evaluating bias in app-based fishing data: Insights from probability-based surveys
• David Ciaravolo (NT) – From satisfaction to strategy: Turning recreational fisher experiences into management action in the NT barramundi fishery
• James Florison (WA) – Artificial reefs in Western Australia: a review of over a decade of habitat enhancement for resilient recreational fisheries
• Taylor Hunt (Vic)- Recreational fishers are key partners and not just passengers in the recovery of Australia’s most iconic fish species – the mighty Murray cod
• Cassie Price (NSW) – OzFish – 10 years of lessons from growing the Aussie rec fisher stewardship movement 
• Sean Tracey (Tas) – Profiling recreational fishers to inform recovery of a depleted stock: Insights from Tasmania’s sand flathead fishery and Assessing species substitution potential to support sand flathead stock recovery in Tasmania
• Corey Walker (Vic) – Ancient waters, living knowledge: Strengthening recreational fishing through Indigenous cultural practice and community leadership

These presentations will be uploaded to YouTube and will be soon available for public viewing. Keep an eye on Fishing World for news on when they are available.

Early reflections of key learnings

Overall, we learnt that while there are challenges globally in recreational fisheries with climate change, social licence, rapid technological advances and complexity in recreational fisheries, there are many reasons to be optimistic. A few key takeaways included:

• Long term relationships between recreational fishers, managers and scientists fosters trust and productivity,
• The Recreational Fishing Licence Grants Programs in Australia are seen as model examples of stakeholder ‘co-production’ or partnership, as they foster greater recreational fisher stewardship, understanding leading to excellent outcomes,   
• Competitive angling data is a powerful tool to monitor recreational fisheries and is effectively being used for stock status assessment,
• Angler recall data can be used as an effective recreational fisheries performance indicator, 
• Female participation in recreational fishing is increasing in many countries, 
• Recreational fisheries are being taken seriously by politicians and decision makers, 
• Individual recreational fishers are making a difference through responsible behaviour such as responsible fish handling, communication and advocacy, 
• There are amazing success stories in recreational fishing worldwide, including here in Australia!

World experts also gave us feedback that we are very well placed in Australia with our recreational fisheries with strong recreational fishing participation, public social licence and typically strong government support. 

We also have many excellent examples of co-production in action with recreational fishers, fisheries managers, policy makers, researchers, peak bodies and stakeholders working alongside one another to deliver great outcomes in recreational fishing – other countries are not this fortunate.

What’s next

As a delegation, we’ll be applying our learnings, connections and initiatives to benefit recreational fishing in Australia. Keep an eye out for communications from the delegation sharing our learnings and putting them into practice, including through media interviews, presentations, articles and videos and reports. Thank you to FRDC and our agencies for supporting the initiative.

If you have questions or would like to hear more, feel free to contact any of the delegation members or Taylor Hunt, Manager of Recreational Fisheries, Victoria Fisheries Authority on mobile 0418 478 028 or email taylor.hunt@vfa.vic.gov.au