A ban on recreational fishing for species such as snapper and dhufish along 900 kilometres of WA's coast has been extended to six months of the year under new measures to ensure their survival and population recovery.
The current two-month ban on catching demersal scalefish species between Kalbarri and Augusta is being extended by another four months, at different intervals through the year.
Fisheries Minister Don Punch made the announcement today, after six weeks of consultation with the recreational, charter boat and commercial fishing sectors.
The six-month ban is one month more than RecfishWest, the peak recreational fishing group, wanted.
Mr Punch said it was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the fish.
"I understand the changes will be difficult for recreational fishers," he said.
But it is significantly less than the nine month ban previously mooted, and which industry strongly opposed.
Catching demersal scalefish from a boat will be prohibited from February 1 to March 31, from August 1 to the beginning of the September/October school holidays, and from the end of those holidays until December 15.
There will also be a boat limit of four demersal scalefish per vessel, with the new rules for recreational fishers starting on February 1, 2023.
Commercial catch limits slashed
In other measures, the commercial catch is being cut in half, to 240 tonnes, from January 1.
"It is very significant and we know it will have a profound impact on that sector," Mr Punch said.
This will be controlled by the number of hours each license holder can fish, reducing their time by on average 20 days per year.
There will be a range of support measures for the industry, including a voluntary buyback of fishing licenses.
Charter boat operators will move to a quota system, with specific limits on the number of demersal fish that can be kept each year.
Bag limits and a two-month fishery closure were introduced for recreational anglers in 2010, as well as limits for the commercial sector, to address overfishing.
However, a review of demersal scalefish stock off WA's coast last year found populations were not recovering in line with 2030 targets.
Action to protect 'vulnerable' species
"If we don't act now, if we don't put these measures in place, then we may well be facing a much more challenging situation in two or three years' time that could even lead to the closing of the fishery in a similar way to that which has occurred in South Australia with the pink snapper sector," Mr Punch said.
The government is also putting forward $10 million to fund the license buyback, extra monitoring and research on the species, and an education program to help fishers better understand the state of the fishery and the new rules.
"This is not a ban on fishing," the minister said.
"This is about the protection of a particular range of species that at this point in time are very vulnerable both in terms of numbers and in terms of the age profile of the fish."
The announcement was met with disappointment by the commercial fishing sector.
WA Fishing Industry Council chief executive Darryl Hockey said the recreational fishing limits did not go far enough.
"We hoped we would see the sustainability of the west coast demersal fishery as a result of that," Mr Hockey said.
"The commercial industry has put forward its offer to take a full 50 per cent cut and we're going to deliver that.
"But unfortunately what's been offered by the government will not deliver a 50 per cent cut on behalf of the recreational sector, and then overall, we see the sustainability of this fishery as being under threat."
Commercial sector 'preferenced'
But Andrew Rowland, chief executive of RecfishWest, disagreed and said the announcement was deeply disappointing and unnecessary.
Dr Rowland said RecfishWest's proposal for a five-month ban would have led to a 50 per cent reduction in overall demersal fish mortality.
"There's simply a better way to deliver sustainability...without keeping mums and dads off the water," he said.
"We are really concerned that the minister has gone forward with the extended six-month ban, and he's clearly preferenced the commercial fishing sector over the public good."
Fears for charter operators
Catch quotas for almost 100 charter operators in WA will be governed by an allotment of tags under a quota system.
However, Dunsborough-based operator Paul Cross said the announcement lacked detail on how the tags would be distributed among the companies.
"The recreational sector probably got a better outcome than the charter sector and we are still really unsure on how many tags each operator will receive," Mr Cross said
"From what we know, if the tags are distributed equally, there will be 7,100 tags for the 99 operators, which would allow us to take home for our paying passengers 71 fish per year, per licence, which is pretty much business-closure for every operator."
Mr Cross said the outcome looked to be another blow for a sector, which was "still on the rebound" out of the COVID-related tourism downturn.
"It's looking to be a case of a charter boat business with half-a-million dollars tied up in a boat can only get 71 fish as a return on that investment for a whole year," Mr Cross said.
"We have heard nothing for the past eight weeks leading up to this announcement, which has been concerning given we've had to juggle taking bookings leading up to the summer period without knowing if we should be taking people's money."
