Assessing the viability of small aerial drones to quantify recreational fishers

Understanding fishing participation assists sustainable fisheries management. Relative to commercial fisheries, however, accurate quantitative data on recreational fishing is often more challenging to collect. The quality and robustness of recreational fishing surveys to assess fisher numbers may be improved with cost-effective remote sensing platforms, such as aerial drones. Here, the precision and cost-effectiveness of drone-based surveys were compared with more traditional vessel-based surveys of recreational fishing participation at four locations on the east coast of Australia. Although vessel-based surveys had greater initial costs, this technique observed more fishers, took less time to complete and did not require post-processing of video footage. In comparison, the drone-based video surveys provided greater precision and a permanent record of fishing activity. Currently, drone-based techniques do not provide a substantial improvement to traditional vessel-based counts of fishers. The complimentary use of drones appears to be an appropriate application of this technology for supporting fisheries management.