Recreational fishing news

Ningaloo blitz - Operation Aelton

We have been working with local north-west communities to stamp out illegal fishing in the Ningaloo Marine Park, with our officers receiving positive feedback from the public, especially at roadside check points.

Public complaints about suspicious fishing activity and concerns around overfishing have been on the rise, and have led to Operation Aelton, with highly visible land and sea patrols, camp inspections and roadside checks around Exmouth and Coral Bay.

Over six days, 28 fishing offences were detected, with our compliance officers achieving six successful prosecutions in one day in Exmouth Court.

The operation was geared-up to blitz the Ningaloo Marine Park and target rule breakers, as well as educate fishers on new state-wide rules, gather intel on illegal activity and focus on the 18 Sanctuary Zones where fishing is not allowed.

Operation Aelton is a timely reminder that even when you are on holidays you need to abide by fishing rules. If you see anything suspicious, call FishWatch on 1800 815 507 and help ensure there will be fish for the future.

Winners are grinners

Our latest Send us your skeletons quarterly prize draw has rewarded two of the programs’ most consistent supporters. Congratulations to Todd Davies on winning the demersal prize pack, which includes a rod, reel and braid combo, plus a lifejacket; and Les Saxey who won the nearshore prize pack of rod, reel and braid combo.

Todd has been donating frames for 10 years or more and mainly fishes for demersals in Geographe Bay. He has encouraged many other fishers to donate over the years, and believes it is important to support our research for to ensure sustainable fishing into the future.

Retiree Les (pictured) has been donating since the early days of SUYS and also fishes in Geographe Bay. Weather permitting, he is out there in his dinghy a couple of times a week, and depending on the season, catches King George whiting, herring and garfish. The pic shows Les with a King George whiting over 40cm. He would love to land a big pink snapper one day.

Thanks to peak recfishing body, Recfishwest for the quarterly prize packs and ongoing support of SUYS. To get your name into the hat for the next draw, send us your fish frames, or drop them off at one of our participating stores. To find out how, visit fish.wa.gov.au/frames

Proposed south coast marine park consultation gets underway

Consultation is now underway for a proposed marine park on the south coast of WA.

DPIRD is working with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) to consult the commercial, recreational and charter fishing sectors, along with aquaculture, environmental groups, local government, traditional owners, tourism groups and the community, to help inform the planning process.

DBCA and DPIRD highly value the knowledge from all stakeholders and welcome all contributions.

To support the consultation, a series of information sessions is being held during October, where community members can ask any questions about the proposed marine park and planning process. For more information, visit the DBCA website.

The proposed marine park will be jointly managed with traditional owners, who will be closely involved in the planning process. The marine study area under consideration extends from Bremer Bay eastward to the Western Australian border.

More habitat for green tropical lobsters

Our scientists are excited to be working with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation; learning about their sea country and collaborating on a project to improve the natural mortality rate of green tropical lobsters. Whilst these lobsters produce millions of eggs, their natural mortality rates are high due to their long larval life and very specific habitat requirements for juveniles.  They seem to require small holes in the reef of just the right size. 

By increasing the amount of habitat and collecting babies, growing them until they have a greater chance of survival before returning some, we can increase the numbers of lobsters in an area.  Surplus collected babies could also be grown right the way through to a marketable size in a local grow-out facility, providing local employment and economic benefits.

Scallop fishery receives MSC certification

The recent certification of the Abrolhos Island saucer scallop trawl fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), with no conditions, has highlighted the reward of fisheries management focused on long term outcomes.

Following a marine heat wave event in 2012, the Abrolhos Island scallop fishery, which had been operating for 50 years, was closed due to low stock levels as part of a recovery plan. While this had a devastating impact on licence holders at the time, the recovery of stocks and reopening of the fishery in 2017 demonstrated the value of the strategy.

Licence holders continued their long-term strategic approach, by working with DPIRD to achieve MSC certification, working hard to develop sustainable management practices to meet the MSC’s high ecological benchmarks. MSC certification is the world’s gold standard in independent sustainability certification, and the MSC has recently increased the standard to be met.

The fishery’s commitment has been rewarded with an assurance that stocks and the surrounding ecosystems can be sustained, and therefore fished, indefinitely, even in the face of changing environmental circumstances. Additionally, licence holders are now able to use the blue MSC label ‘eco-tick’, which will pave the way to new domestic markets, sustaining their operations and benefiting consumers and jobs growth in WA.

Our Hillarys office hosted a live viewing of the World Fisheries Congress last month. Thirteen of our DPIRD fisheries scientists presented their research at the virtual congress, with 1,200 fellow scientists from 61 countries tuning in across the sessions. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to share our latest research on WA’s sustainably managed fisheries and aquatic resources with fisheries scientists from around the world.

There was a diverse range of themes covered by our staff, including Ecosystem-based fisheries management; Co-management; Sustainable fisheries (recovering and overfished stocks); Habitat; Depredation; Recreational fisheries; Biology and ecology; and Global challenges (pollution). If you’d like to read through the titles of the topics each of our scientists presented, please visit and follow our Twitter page, @FisheriesWA. 

New ARMA legislation gets green light 

The passing of amendments to the Aquatic Resources Management Act by the Western Australian Parliament in August 2021 has given the green light for its implementation.  

ARMA will replace the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 and the Pearling Act 1990 to become the State’s primary fisheries legislation, and is expected to strengthen the State Government’s efforts to sustain our aquatic resources, while at the same time providing greater certainty for the commercial, recreational and customary fishers who access aquatic resources.

A central element of the new legislation, which sets it apart from previous fisheries legislation, is the shift from managing individual fishing activities to considering the aquatic resource as a whole. This means it takes into account the impacts and needs of all fishing sectors, while at the same time ensuring that what is taken does not exceed what is sustainable.

WA is a world leader in fisheries management and sustainability, and ARMA represents an evolution of the sound legislative framework already in place in WA. The new legislation is expected to commence full operation in late 2022/early 2023. Initially, only the pearling industry will move to the new management approach provided for under ARMA, with other fisheries to transition over time. ARMA does not in itself mean that fishing rules will change. Any future rule changes will continue to be communicated through the usual channels.

Rock lobster fisher caught

In a recent court case, a Geraldton man was found guilty of a dozen offences relating to illegal rock lobster fishing activities. Penalties included forfeit of his boat and trailer, fines in excess of $12,000 and loss of his rock lobster fishing licence for two years.

Investigations by compliance officers between July and November last year found that not only had he pulled more than the legal number of lobster pots, he had also interfered with gear belonging to other people and was found with totally protected tarspot western rock lobsters, and gear in breach of whale mitigation rules on board.

Our compliance officers are out and about, when and where you least expect them. If you see or hear of illegal fishing activity, you can do your part and call FishWatch to make a confidential report on 1800 815 507.

Ever heard of a hairy crab? 

Experts from the Western Australian Museum and DPIRD worked together to identify an unusual crab species discovered at Pinnaroo Beach near Hillarys earlier this year.

While conducting a routine nearshore recruitment survey, Fisheries researchers discovered the small furry crab, snapped a few photos, and released it back into the wild. Based on the photos, Museum Curators believed the crab was most likely Pilumnus pulcher. Interestingly, this species has not been sighted South of Port Gregory in WA, up until now.

If you want help identifying a species, email some photos and any relevant information to research.survey@dpird.wa.gov.au. For any species thought to be out of their normal range, report the sighting to Redmap at www.redmap.org.au. An expert in the field will get in touch, and your sighting will help us keep up with changes in species distributions over time.

Give the environment a helping hand

Redfin perch are an introduced pest species, and although they a good to catch and eat, they are detrimental to WA’s aquatic ecosystems.

Introduced to the south-west in the 1890s for recreational fishing, redfin are now widespread, and a voracious predator of our native fish and crayfish, such as marron.

If you catch a redfin, you may be tempted to return the fish to the water so that it can grow bigger for next time, but this puts our native fish and ecosystems at risk. Bigger redfin can eat bigger prey, such as larger marron. We need fishers to be stewards of our aquatic environment and help protect our native ecosystems - give the environment a helping hand and do not return redfin to the water.

Nibbles

Seasonal notes

• Fishing for demersal finfish in the West Coast Bioregion is closed from 15 October  to 15 December (inclusive)
• Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds are closed to pink snapper fishing from 1 September to 31 January (inclusive).
•  All coastal waters, rivers and estuaries from the Swan River down to Minninup Beach are closed to fishing for blue swimmer crabs from 1 September until 30 November (inclusive).
• Abrolhos Islands Baldchin groper closure from 1 November, until 31 January (inclusive).

FishWatch - If you see something that looks a bit fishy, please report it so we can investigate. Anyone who has information on illegal fishing activities can call FishWatch on 1800 815 507.

Illegal fishing could include someone netting in the river, exceeding their bag or possession limits, taking undersize fish, fishing in a closed area, having more fishing gear in the water than they should, or selling or attempting to sell recreationally caught fish

Before you call, make a note of as much detail as possible, such as who, what, when, where and how, including registration numbers. All reports are confidential and many reports made to FishWatch result in successful apprehensions.

Rock fishing safety – Keep the sand between your toes and stay off the rocks – but if you do choose to fish from the rocks, fish with a buddy, always let people know where you are going, and make sure you wear a type 1 life jacket, rock boots and follow the rock fishing safety tips on @Recfishwest's fish and survive website.

Be SharkSmart – SLSWA helicopter patrols to help keep WA beachgoers safe have begun for the 2021-22 season. Help inform others by switching on your Sea Sense and reporting shark sightings to Water Police on 9442 8600, or download the SharkSmart WA app for near real time updates of the latest reported sightings.

Help keep our waterways pest free – You can help us protect WA’s aquatic environment by emailing Aquatic.Biosecurity@dpird.wa.gov.au, or calling FishWatch on 1800 815 507 if you see or catch any ornamental or unusual fish or pest species and please, do not return them to the water.

Find us on Facebook – We regularly share information about fishing rules, safety and aquatic biosecurity through our Facebook page, as well as information of interest to recfishers. Check us out at Fisheries WA and give us a ‘like’ to keep us in your news feed.

Important disclaimer 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.

Copyright © Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2021