❓ Hon. Colin de Grussa questions the Minister for Fisheries regarding the scientific basis for new recreational fishing regulations aimed at reducing dhufish catch by 50%. The Minister tables a consultation paper outlining the methodology based on recreational fishing surveys.
AnsweredQoN 17Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
FISHERIES — RESOURCE MANAGEMENT —
DHUFISH
17. Hon
COLIN de GRUSSA to the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister
for Fisheries:
I refer to the west coast demersal
scalefish resource management arrangements currently being implemented by the
McGowan government. Specific to the recreational fishing sector, can the
minister please table the scientific data and calculation methodology used by
government to determine —
(a) the new management measures set in place to ensure
the sector will achieve its agreed 50 per cent reduction in benchmark
recovery levels; and
(b) the per person and per boat bag
limits for WA dhufish?
DHUFISH
17. Hon
COLIN de GRUSSA to the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister
for Fisheries:
I refer to the west coast demersal
scalefish resource management arrangements currently being implemented by the
McGowan government. Specific to the recreational fishing sector, can the
minister please table the scientific data and calculation methodology used by
government to determine —
(a) the new management measures set in place to ensure
the sector will achieve its agreed 50 per cent reduction in benchmark
recovery levels; and
(b) the per person and per boat bag
limits for WA dhufish?
AnswerView source ↗
I
thank the member for some notice of the question. The following answer has been
provided by the Minister for Fisheries.
(a) The
methodology used to determine the new management measures for recreational
fishing for demersal scalefish in the west
coast bioregion to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in benchmark recovery levels
was primarily based on catch and effort information derived from
periodic surveys over the last 10 years of boat-based recreational fishing in Western
Australia. The west coast demersal scalefish resource consultation paper
released in August 2022 sets out the rationale behind the new management
package. I table this document.
[See paper 2007 .]
(b) WA dhufish
and other demersal species are known to suffer from high levels of post-release
mortality, with a high percentage of returned fish not surviving. Under the new
management measures for the west coast bioregion, there will be a mixed bag
limit of two for individual fishers, both of which can be dhufish. The boat
limit, excluding charter, when there are two or more licensed fishers for this
region is a mixed bag of four demersal scalefish, which can all be dhufish.
These new measures are designed around fishers retaining the first demersal
fish they capture up to these limits, which will reduce discarding of fish and
the overall level of fishing mortality for these species.
thank the member for some notice of the question. The following answer has been
provided by the Minister for Fisheries.
(a) The
methodology used to determine the new management measures for recreational
fishing for demersal scalefish in the west
coast bioregion to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in benchmark recovery levels
was primarily based on catch and effort information derived from
periodic surveys over the last 10 years of boat-based recreational fishing in Western
Australia. The west coast demersal scalefish resource consultation paper
released in August 2022 sets out the rationale behind the new management
package. I table this document.
[See paper 2007 .]
(b) WA dhufish
and other demersal species are known to suffer from high levels of post-release
mortality, with a high percentage of returned fish not surviving. Under the new
management measures for the west coast bioregion, there will be a mixed bag
limit of two for individual fishers, both of which can be dhufish. The boat
limit, excluding charter, when there are two or more licensed fishers for this
region is a mixed bag of four demersal scalefish, which can all be dhufish.
These new measures are designed around fishers retaining the first demersal
fish they capture up to these limits, which will reduce discarding of fish and
the overall level of fishing mortality for these species.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.