file no: 00/3169
2 April 2003
Bait and Berley Survey of Recreational Fishers
This Animal Biosecurity Policy Memorandum (ABPM) advises stakeholders of the availability of the report on the National Survey of Bait and Berley use by Recreational Fishers. The report is available on Biosecurity Australia's website.
Biosecurity Australia commissioned Kewagama Research to conduct a National Survey of Bait and Berley Use by Recreational Fishers. This is a comprehensive survey of 8,000 households across Australia. The survey design, combined with very high response rates (in the order of 85 per cent, allows for high levels of confidence in the survey results. The survey provides data on the number of fishers, where they obtain their bait and berley, estimated quantities used, purchase form (live, whole, dead), region used (including whether in salt or fresh water) and season.
The information (both quantitative and behavioural) on the use of aquatic animals as bait or berley is relevant for current and future aquatic animal Import Risk Analyses (IRAs). The use of aquatic animals as bait has been identified as a pathway for the potential introduction of foreign products, and diseases they may carry, into the Australian aquatic environment.
Next Steps
The survey is available on Biosecurity Australia's website. Hard copies of the survey are available upon request from the contact officer listed below.
Please pass this notice on to other interested parties. If those parties wish to be included in future communications on this matter they should contact the officer listed below.
Confidentiality
Respondents are advised that, subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1988, all submissions received in response to ABPMs will be publicly available. Comments may be listed or referred to in any papers or reports prepared on the subject matter of the Memoranda.
The Commonwealth reserves the right to reveal the identity of a respondent unless a request for anonymity accompanies the submission. Where a request for anonymity does not accompany the submission the respondent will be taken to have consented to the disclosure of his or her identity for the purposes of Information Privacy Principle 11 of the Privacy Act.
The contents of the submission will not be treated as confidential unless they are marked ‘confidential’ and they are capable of being classified as such in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.
David Banks
General Manager
Animal Biosecurity
Contact officer: Warren Vant
Phone: (02) 6271 4436
Fax: (02) 6972 3399
Email: Animal Biosecurity