Anglers upset as bag limits halved Not popular: The recent review of recreational fishing rules within Australia has upset members of the Australian Sportfishing Association. A review of recreational fishing rules in NSW, which includes recommendations to halve the daily catch for most popular target species, has been widely condemned by angling groups as unnecessary and lacking in science or logic. The NSW Department of Primary Industries has received more than 3500 submissions on the discussion paper, which recommends a 50 per cent reduction in fishing bag limits for species such as snapper, flathead, tailor, trevally, luderick and bream. The review also recommends a combined total daily catch limit of 20 or 30 saltwater finfish. President of the Australian National Sportfishing Association NSW branch, Stan Konstantaras, described the review process as "lazy" and lacking any solid science. The first question you have to ask is, 'Are recreation fishing stocks in danger?' That question hasn't been answered ever," he said. He said the review ignored community concerns about commercial fishing activities such as the netting of estuaries. Instead it has just proposed a broad-brush 50 per cent reduction in recreational fishing bag limits. They have taken the easy option. It's no different to the debate we had around marine parks and the sanctuary zones, there was no science there either. The review recommends even tougher bag limits for some deep-water species. A reduction of 60 per cent (five to two) in the daily limit is proposed for blue-eye trevalla, banded rock cod, hapuka and gemfish. The office of NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson declined a request on Friday to speak to the minister about criticisms of the review. Instead, Fairfax Media was referred to the department's manager of recreational fisheries, Bryan van der Walt. "We've developed the discussion paper in light of a lot of issues," Mr Van der Walt said. The recreational sector in NSW is a large sector - there are 1 million fishers in NSW - so we do these reviews periodically, the last one was in 2007. Between reviews we get a lot of representations from the community about various things. One of those things is the potential reduction in bag limits which provides for greater conservation of our fish stocks but also a fairer sharing of the catch. Not all anglers disagree with the proposed blanket reductions. Anthony Stokman, who operates Topcat fishing charters at Batemans Bay, said he liked the fact they were halving the limits. A lot of clients are catching and releasing [fish] these days.