West Coast Demersal Scalefish fishery to be shut for nine months

The plan released today says that recreational fishers will not be able to catch iconic species such as dhufish, baldchin groper and pink snapper for up to nine months of the year.

Fisheries Minister Don Punch said that because of serious sustainability concerns, catches needed to be halved in the West Coast Demersal fishery, which runs from Kalbarri to Augusta.

The proposed management options released by the government would see the commercial sector operating under limited fishing hours while the recreational sector would close for six months in order to reduce the fishery catch to 375 tons.

A statement from the fisheries minister said:

Two options have been provided, one which allows fishing for recreational demersal scalefish over the popular summer and autumn seasons, or the second option that allows fishing over autumn and spring seasons to avoid peak spawning periods for key demersal species. These options are designed to minimize the impact on tourism and regional jobs while supporting the recovery of demersal stocks. The proposal would see the recreational fishery open for 94 days or 123 days.

The charter industry would have a specific limit for the number of demersal species that could be retained each year.

Recfishwest Andrew Rowland, the chief executive officer of recreational fishing, said he was shocked and disappointed with the proposed changes.

The advice and recommendations that we put forward, important parts of those, have been ignored largely in the papers that came out for public comment today, he said.

We're supportive of taking action, fish come first, sustainability is paramount.

Rowland said he did not believe that the proposed management changes represented the best interest of the WA community.

This West Coast Demersal Scalefish fishery is only five per cent of Western Australia's local demersal scalefish supply. The majority of it comes from the north west of the state.

The WA Fishing Industry Council's Chief Executive, Darryl Hockey, said that the commercial sector was broadly supportive of the proposed changes.

Over the past 10 years, the commercial fishing sector hasn't contributed to the problem, so we haven't contributed to it.

We are going to be part of the solution, and we are certainly putting our hand up and saying that we are going to be part of the solution.

We've always argued for action by government and unfortunately they've kicked the can down the road for a number of years and we've got to this unfortunate point where some really hard decisions have to be made.