Recreational Fishing Licence Strategic Plan
Key Information
To support the best use of recreational fishing licence (RFL) fee funds, a 10-year strategic plan has been developed.
The plan establishes a vision for the RFL investment: ‘To invest in improving recreational fishing opportunities for all Victorians’, includes 12 priority investment areas and objectives, and 24 strategies to achieve those objectives.
The RFL Strategic Plan was developed by a working group of recreational fishers from the Statewide Recreational Fishing Roundtable and VFA staff.
The Working Group is thanked for their time, effort and expertise in contributing to the development of the RFL Strategic Plan, which will enable the continued growth and improvement of recreational fishing opportunities for all Victorians.
For a full copy of the plan, please click below:
Background
To recreationally fish in Victorian marine, estuarine and inland waters, a Victorian Recreational Fishing License (RFL) is required for any individual between the ages of 18 to 70 years old (exemptions apply).
Revenue derived from the sale of RFLs is held in the Recreational Fishing License Trust Account (RFLTA), for funding projects and services that improve recreational fishing outcomes in Victoria. Close to $100 million of RFL funds have been invested in projects to improve fishing since the licence regime commenced in 1998.
In early 2019, a review of the RFLTA found that it was achieving good results but identified the ten key areas (recommendations) where improvement would be beneficial. One of the key recommendations included the development of a strategic plan across RFLTA expenditures.
In August 2020, the Minister for Fishing and Boating approved the VFA to form a small working group of recreational fishers (subset of members from the Statewide Recreational Fishing Roundtable members) and VFA staff to develop a draft RFL Strategic Plan. The working group consisted of:
- Mike Burgess – VRFish
- Tom Camp – State-wide Recreational Fishing Roundtable
- Tim Curmi – Native Fish Australia
- Terry George – Australian Trout Foundation
- David Grisold – RFL Trust Advisory Committee
- David Kramer – Futurefish Foundation
- Sarah Van Stokrom – Fishcare
- Andrew Hodges – Victorian Fisheries Authority
- Taylor Hunt – Victorian Fisheries Authority
- Dallas D’Silva (Chair) – Victorian Fisheries Authority.
The Working Group met on four occasions (20 August, 14 October and 26 November 2020, and 28 January 2021) and developed the draft RFL Strategic plan by considering information including:
- An understanding of what Victorian recreational fishers want investment in from four previous social surveys. Common trends included:
- Improving fish habitat
- Increasing fish by fish stocking
- Enforcing fishing rules
- Educating sustainable fishing
- Improving access and facilities
- Research and monitoring.
- Current Victorian RFL expenditure and proportions within angler preference categories.
- Record Victorian Government spend in recreational fishing from non RFL sources – $40 million commercial fishing buy-outs – Port Phillip Bay and Gippsland Lakes, $7 million new native fish hatchery at Arcadia etc.
- Significant improvements in efficiency of administration of RFL including 99% online sales.
- Other states RFL expenditure total and categories.
- Recommended approaches to developing the strategy
- An overview of VFA budget
- History of the RFL Trust Account
The draft RFL Strategic Plan was presented to the Minister for Fishing and Boating who approved the draft plan to be finalised through a 30-day public consultation period in May/June 2021. The public consultation yielded significant commentary and two written submissions. In response to the submissions, minor changes were made to the RFL Strategic Plan. To download a copy of the submissions and responses to submissions, please click below:
The Working Group is thanked for their time, effort and expertise in contributing to the development of the RFL Strategic Plan, which will enable the continued growth and improvement of recreational fishing opportunities for all Victorians.