Fishing ban backlash: Albany anglers criticise State Government’s fishing ban plan, call for alternatives

Prominent Albany anglers have criticised the State Government’s “heavy-handed” plan to dramatically scale back the dhufish and pink snapper fishing season, calling for a more nuanced approach to protecting the State’s fish stocks. The State Government has faced severe backlash since revealing its plan last month to rebuild stock of demersal scalefish such as dhufish and pink snapper in the West Coast Bioregion between Kalbarri and Augusta. The proposed restrictions would result in either a 94-day recreational fishing season in staged openings from December to May, or a 123-day season from April to October. Recreational anglers can currently fish for demersal scalefish in the WCB region for 10 months of the year, with the season closed from October 15 to December 15. The restrictions would also limit the hours commercial businesses can fish and introduce a tagging system and specific limits for charter businesses. The proposals were met with a flurry of petitions and threats of a class action, prompting Fisheries Minister Don Punch to extend the public consultation period by two weeks to September 30. Albany recreational fishing guru and Western Angler editor Scott Coghlan said he felt the State Government’s plan was “a little heavy-handed”. “It’s like using a chainsaw to fillet a herring — it’s a bit over the top,” he said. “Hopefully there will be some more discussions with government and we can come up with some measures that won’t have the social and economic pain that these announcements would have if bought on, while making sure we look after the sustainability of fish stocks.” In February, Mr Punch announced the annual demersal catch limit of 750 tonnes across the WCB would be halved to 375t, with 135t allocated to recreational fishers and 240t to commercial to help meet the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s 2030 demersal stocks recovery plan. The commercial sector’s retained catches of demersal species in the WCB was 247t in 2019-20, which was well below the recovery benchmark of 450t at the time, according to DPIRD. Recreational fishers’ retained catches of the 15 top demersal species in the WCB was between 271 and 314t in 2017-18, above the recovery benchmark of 250t. Commercial fisherman and Albany Seafoods managing director Bryn Westerberg said the commercial industry was already catching under its allocation to help enable fish stocks to recover. “I think some form of action is needed, although probably a little heavy-handed, but I think they could probably do a little better,” he said. “Sustainability is number one. “The commercial sector has been keeping to their allocation, and actually catching under their allocation since the recovery plan started while the recreational fishers haven’t.” Mr Coghlan was a part of a Recfishwest working group that put forward a list of 17 recommendations for the management of west coast demersal scalefish to the State Government in July. One of the recommendations included replacing the current two-month season closure with a closure from January 20 to March 20 to align with the peak spawning period for dhufish, according to Recfishwest. “I know this will affect our tackle industry a bit, but I think there is a general belief in having a closure over February and March, which is considered to be spawning time for dhufish, would be a good option,” he said. “I think most recreational fisherman wouldn’t complain about a closure to protect spawning fish.” Mr Coghlan said if the plan was adopted it could create some issues for south coast fish stocks. “North of Kalbarri and particularly the south coast, should that ban go ahead for a total nine months, you can guarantee people will come to the south coast looking to catch a feed of fish,” he said. “We have already seen that in the last two or three years there has been an increase . . . we’ve got pretty generous bag limits down here compared to the west coast, so we have already seen people come down here to catch a feed of fish and take it with them. “That would then happen on a much bigger scale which would then create some other issues that will need to be dealt with. “It certainly has the potential to be an issue for local fish stocks.” Mr Westerberg said he would like to see a catch logging system introduced for recreational fishers to help manage fish stocks. “Commercials have to fill out either a daily or monthly long books and submit them to the department so they know the numbers and kilos of fish coming out of a fishery,” he said. “It would be good for the recreational fishers to log their caches through a log book or phone app because to manage a stock of any fish species you need to know what’s coming out. Mr Westerberg’s family also owns WA Bait Supply in Perth which sells bait to recreational fishers and sardines to restaurants. He said their businesses would take a huge financial hit if the nine-month recreational fishing ban came into effect. “If the nine-month closure goes through we are going to take way more of a financial hit than most of your tackle shops,” he said. “Then on the same side with us being commercial fishers, we know that sustainability is the most important thing. “The writing has been on the wall for a long time, they could have been proactive and reduced catches 10 years ago. “We are going to lose millions over the next seven years through loss of income, but I’m not expecting any handouts.”