WA pro fishers call for COVID-19 recreational fishing crackdown
The pandemic is pushing West Australians to the coastline, with potentially bad outcomes for fish stocks, industry warnsWest Australian professional fishers are calling on the state government to crack down on recreational anglers amid claims that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing sensitive bits of coastline to be fished out.
The WA Fishing Industry Council, a lobby group for the state’s professional fishers, has added its voice to calls for increased monitoring of recreational fishing in areas such as Shark Bay in north-western WA.
Shark Bay is a world heritage wilderness site that is home to Monkey Mia, where tourists can interact with wild dolphins that swim right up to the beach.
However, the region is also known as a fishing Mecca for anyone taking the 10-hour drive north from Perth.
The region has been the centre of more carefully managed recreational fishing bag and size limits since pink snapper stocks were almost depleted in the 1990s.
Some of the more popular fishing spots in Shark Bay include Denham, the nearby Dirk Hartog Island, the difficult to get to Francois Peron National Park, and Steep Point, mainland Australia’s westernmost point.
Other species targeted by recreational fishers include whiting, flathead, squid, tuna, marlin, bluefin, mackerel, cobia, trevally, tailor and kingfish – not to mention shark.
Coronavirus travel
However, the WAIFC said the effects of COVID-19 restricting overseas and interstate travel forcing WA residents had forced people to look to holiday at home – with many looking to fishing the coast.
“While a natural response by keen anglers, the increased fishing effort is placing added stress on the fishery which is only just returning to strength after a decade of careful management to support commercial fishing efforts,” WAIFC said in a statement.
It called for closer scrutiny of the recreational fishing take rather than relying on data that could be up to several seasons old to determine bag and size limits.
Commercial fishing hit
The region’s commercial fishing fleet has had to deal with a marine heatwave in 2010-11 severely affecting fish stocks, while blue swimmer crabs have only just returned to commercial benchmarks after recent floods.
Commercial catches in the state are constantly monitored.
WA currently has closed seasons for blue swimmer crabs and pink snapper in the southern part of the state to help with spawning.
Bag limits for blue swimmer crab in the Gascoyne region are 20 per person a day, or 40 on a boat so long as a minimum of two people are on the boat.
Pink snapper daily bag limits applying to Shark Bay, meanwhile, are capped at two.
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