WA Fishing Regulations Changing...

[Dynamite]

WA Fisheries Department has admitted it will be powerless to enforce its new bans and fees to protect dwindling stocks.
Its 100 officers will have to oversee more than 600,000 recreational fishers and 50 commercial operations on over 12,500km of coastline under a licensing decree issued this week, according to principal management officer Nathan Harrison.

From mid-October, anyone fishing from a boat will need a $30 permit and those chasing demersal, or bottom-dwelling scalefish, will need to purchase additional licences.

A demersal licence costs $20 a day or $150 a year. Keen fishers could be hit with up to $400 in extra bills each year. Demersal fishing has also been banned from October 15 to December 15 from Kalbarri to Augusta.

The Fisheries Department says it will depend on fishers ``doing the right thing'' with only 5 per cent of people expected to be checked for licences.

``It's not enough,'' Mr Harrison said.

``There is no question when it comes to recreational fishing, not just with the licensing arrangements, but bag limits and things like that, we have to use education as the primary strategy because we can't have a Fisheries officer checking everyone on every jetty or boat ramp.''

If most people abide by new laws, the department is expected to generate an extra $4million in revenue.

This money, Mr Harrison says, will go straight back into fisheries management and be used, in part, to hire another 10 to 15 patrol officers.

Mr Harrison said fines for not having the correct licence will range from $100 to $400.
The new fees have angered fishing representative group Recfishwest.

[Captain Starfish]

...Mr Harrison said fines for not having the correct licence will range from $100 to $400...

Well, that's alright then.

$180 for a licence.
$100-400 for no licence.

Fuck 'em and their stupidity. That sounds like pretty good odds to me.

[Ozboy]

What activities does a Recreational Boat Fishing

Licence apply to? A Recreational Boat Fishing
Licence will be required for any person fishing with
the use of a boat. Activities will include:

•

Line fishing (handline, rod and line,

squid jigging)
•

Catching crabs

•

Spearfishing

•

Octopus trapping

•

Dip-netting for prawns

•

Any activity where fish, crabs or shellfish

are taken where a boat is used to access
the fishing location.
NOTE:

A Recreational Boat Fishing Licence will

NOT be required where an existing licensed
fishing activity (e.g. rock lobster or abalone
fishing) is conducted with the aid of a boat,
providing that the only type of fishing undertaken
on that trip is within the scope of the licence.
Example:

A recreational rock lobster fisher

setting or pulling rock lobster pots with the
aid of a boat would not require a Recreational
Boat Fishing Licence if that is the only activity
undertaken. If the rock lobster fisher also fishes
by line on the same trip, a Recreational Boat
Fishing Licence would be required to cover the
line fishing activity.
Do all passengers on board a boat on a fishing
trip require a Recreational Boat Fishing
Licence? No. Only those who are actively
engaged in fishing need a licence.
Will a person fishing from a charter boat require
a Recreational Boat Fishing Licence? Yes. They
would also need to hold a West Coast Demersal
Scalefish Licence if they are fishing for demersal

scalefish in the West Coast Bioregion.

You only need one licence per boat, as you are probably aware you have a limit for each boat, not the amount of people on board,

[Gryphen]

You only need one licence per boat, as you are probably aware you have a limit for each boat, not the amount of people on board,
[/left]

FROM THE FISHERIES WEBSITE

Do all passengers on board a boat on a fishing
trip require a Recreational Boat Fishing
Licence? No. Only those who are actively
engaged in fishing need a licence.
Will a person fishing from a charter boat require
a Recreational Boat Fishing Licence? Yes. They
would also need to hold a West Coast Demersal
Scalefish Licence if they are fishing for demersalscalefish in the West Coast Bioregion.

So anyone who actually fishes needs a license for 1. fishing from a boat and 2. demersal fishing.

So it depends on how many people are fishing, not on it being a boat, if its a cruiser used for anything other than fishing then no fishing licence is required.


Here's the link to the PDF from the fisheries site

http://www.fisheries.wa.gov.au/docs/...uly%202009.pdf

[ranmar850]

Commercial demersal fishing has been banned in the zone from Perth (Mandurah, Busselton?) to Ledge point for several years now. Rigid restrictions on remaining commercial fishers in the rest of the zone have been in place since last year. A lot of "casual" wetliners lost their right to fish altogether. There is now a system where fishers have been allocated a certain number of days per year to fish. These are tradeable, but fixed in overall number for the zone. There are also species-specific restrictions, ie, nobody from Kalbarri can now commercially catch spanish mackerel.
Having an FBL no longer gives you the right to catch wetfish, meaning that rock lobster fishers have not been able to sell fish for several years now,in fact, they don't even have the right to catch a feed for their families within recreational limits, unless they first come in and unload their catch. This has been in force for some years now--they weren't even able to bring in pot-caught bycatch. Bring up what used to be a bonus, like a nice bluebone, in a pot, and you have to throw it back and watch the ever-present following bronzies polish it off what a waste. Thankfully, that rule has now been relaxed, but don't think you can get away with having a handline on the boat at the same time as rock lobster, fines are heavy, and they DO search boats.
Snapper stocks collapse? What a joke. And jewfish? Taking the wetlining rights from crayfishermen did a lot to protect them, because there were a lot of crayboats that targetted jewies may-july, and that is now finished.

I drove a crayboat for 26 years, including some serious off-season wetlining, so I think I can claim to know my fish. I was always involved in the consultative side of the industry, representing fishermen on research and regulatory committees, and I can't begin the describe how frustrating that can be. They can get it so wrong, witness was has happened with rock lobster this last year. Does anyone remember how bronze whaler stocks were "under serious threat" in the early noughties? I did a pre-season breeding stock (cray)survey for the Department one year, and the researcher was gobsmacked by the numbers of whalers we had following the boat. He took video-we rigged his waterproof camera up on an alloy pole and held it under water--the footage was priceless. Including full-mouth shots as they tried to eat the camera. He took the footage back, and the whole "under threat" thing quietly disappeared. I think there was some kind of mumbled"not getting out in the field enough" type response

I see this as yet another ham-fisted attempt by fisheries beaurocrats in response to some poor research, only lightly based on credible field research.

[Gryphen]

At least it is somewhat lower than what this idiot Minister wanted to start with... the original License was going to be $500...

What amazes me is that the closure is only for the West Coast region and nowhere else, so go up past kalbarri and you can catch them... if they are so in danger why not protect them statewide? And make it a closed season for the Commericals as well... would be very quiet on the water then...

[XSorXpire]

So sitting on my sit-on-top (kayak) towing a baby bath to pull up crab nets and eat crabs is now going to cost me $30, but to walk and scoop of wade and drop the nets or drop the nets from the jetty at the back of the deputy premiers house is free.
Hmm.


Posted via Mobile Device

[Gryphen]

Searching through the Commercial fishing report for the West Coast Bioregion I saw these figures.

.....................Dhufish.. Snapper ...Baldchin
Recreational .....207 ......57 .............38
Commercial ......139 .....232 ............29

(tonnes)

Recreational figures include all Charters.
The Commercial fishing in the West Coast Bioregion employees about 380 people, they fished for 44 days each.

The Commercial catch was worth $4.8 Million Dollars.

[ranmar850]

Pinning down the actual recreational catch is always hard--could vary widely from those figures, either way. Is the Shark bay snapper catch included in the West Coast bioregion? That is , and has been for many years, a separate endorsement to participate, and it was halved without warning at least four years ago. It was always a problem, anyway, as all those fish coming onto the market at once used to drop the price obtained. For those that do not know, the inner bay, where the restrictions on amateur snapper catch exist, are not part of that fishery. Commercial fishery is out around the islands, and extends down to 26degrees something south, about 60 miles north of Kalbarri.

I am planning on buying a recreational boat again, haven't had one for about 8 years, looking now. Will this mean there are even more boats for sale?

[Gryphen]

No the figures above are exclusive of the Shark Bay figures, the West Coast Bioregion ends just North of Kalbarri.

[Gryphen]

Unrealistic fees for WA recreational fishers Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

Petition...

[Captain Starfish]

Erm, needs to have a little more text before I'll sign it...