ONE fishing guide to cover the whole of WA and a reduction of the finfish bag limit categories from 13 to four are among the changes for the state’s new rec fishing rules that that are now in force.
Strategic Fisheries Policy Manager Nathan Harrison said, since the changes were unveiled late last year, there had been a positive reaction from many recreational fishers.
“The peak representative body Recfishwest was involved in the community consultation phase for the development of the new rules and the result is a welcome change, designed to remove the complexities and make it a simpler experience for responsible recfishers,” Mr Harrison said.
“These new rules aim to simplify rules relating to recreational fishing and better position the recreational sector to meet future challenges. From today, the new State-wide bag limit structure for finfish is based around four new resource-based categories, covering pelagic fish, demersal species, nearshore/estuarine fish and freshwater species. Applying this simplified bag limit structure eliminates many of the inconsistencies in the current bag limits, which previously existed in different areas of the WA.”
All the new rules are contained in one easy-to-read brochure and replace the four regional guides that, until now, were used to explain the recreational fishing rules.
Mr Harrison said the new guide would help the State’s estimated 600,000 recreational fishers, who fish in a diverse range of locations along WA’s 12,000 kilometres of coastline.
“We want fishers to enjoy the experience and the new guide will go a long way to learn about fishing rules and fish in a sustainable and responsible way,” he said.
“Complex rules around filleting fish at sea and when staying overnight on an island have been removed, so that fish with a size limit can be filleted and transported at sea provided the fillet length is 30cm and skin and scales attached. For fish without a size limit can be filleted and there is no minimum fillet length, but skin must be left on for ID purposes.
“In addition, recfishers can no longer use commercial couriers to transport unaccompanied fish”
More info available at www.fish.wa.gov.au.