Fishing charter operators are divided over an announcement by WA Fisheries Minister Don Punch on the expansion of a “catch to cook” scheme during a demersal fishing ban.
Key points:
- From July, only 21 charter operators will be able take demersal species to shore
- The new rules will allow all operators to catch the fish as long as they are consumed on the boat
- A charter boat owner says cooking on smaller boats could become a safety issue
From July, just 21 out of 97 fishing charters will have tags that will allow them to fish for the species in the West Coast Bioregion.
But Mr Punch told ABC Perth’s Nadia Mitsopoulos charter boats without tags would still be able to fish for species such as pink snapper and dhufish — as long as they were consumed on the boat.
“One dhufish could feed three or four people very effectively — if they have seven or eight people on board it might be a couple of dhufish,” he said.
Keeping stocks sustainable
Mr Punch said there was no limit to the number of fish the charter boat could catch and eat, but operators would need to log how many fish were consumed.
The new rules follow a suite of changes to recreational and commercial fishing announced earlier this year in a bid to help keep fish stocks sustainable.
“You can’t build a business on a fish that is in recovery, essentially a fish that is scarce and getting scarcer,” said Mr Punch.
“We have to work hard to try and get this fish back on to a sustainable basis and make sure our fisheries are fishing what is sustainable in the future.”
Operator ‘can’t see benefit’
Alan Bevan, who runs a fishing charter out of Fremantle, said due to the smaller size of his boat, trying to cook and eat onboard could become a safety hazard.
“BBQ on a boat is a pretty expensive way to have a BBQ,” he said.
“I can’t see any benefit at all on the catch and cook proposal.”
He was also concerned about the sustainability of the industry, but said with these changes in place, he was not sure how his business would survive the winter months.
“If we bugger up the fish stocks, we’re not going to have a business and no-one in this industry wants that,” he said.
Some view scheme as ‘lifeline’
Batavia Sea Safaris’ Steve Smith offers charters between Geraldton and the Abrolhos Islands.
He said he was devastated to have missed out on any fishing tags under the new quota system.
“We’ve always run quite an eco-friendly type of charter business where we don’t take massive amounts of demersal scale fish,” he said.
“So to receive zero tags was quite heartbreaking, because it just doesn’t allow me to run a full tour experience.”
Mr Smith described the announcement of the catch and cook rule for charter fishers without tags as a “lifeline”.
“I would much prefer to see a one fish per person policy,” he said.
“But in the short term … it is something that will at least allow me to run a tour.”
The state government said the quota tag system and catch and cook scheme would be reviewed in 12 months.