also very much interested in this subject for the same reasons. 

Google turned up the following though, 177 onwards is relevant

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/frma1994256/

For number 2, only if a/ you give them permission or

b/ they  "suspects on reasonable grounds that a person has committed an offence against this Act; and 

                  (ii)         has pursued the person without interruption from the place, or near the place, where the offence was suspected to have been committed to the premises. 

 if ya got nothing to hide why wouldnt you let them check your boat ? 

......gotta remember they may not be police & there just doing a job but in reality there doing this for the greater goods of our fishery. Trying to preserve the stocks so there is a future here to fish for many of years.

All my dealings with fisheries have been positive and nothing negative. 

 I have been checked last two times out. They boarded the boat and checked our catch. Nothing to hide so doesnt bother me. Found them to be friendly and professional. I think they do a very worthwhile and important job..

that's what will happen if you ignore their lawful request

sure you can be a smart a..... and tell them to f..o

but you will be charged

nothing to hide, then let them do their job

 Sorry Rob, was reading a couple of different posts.

 197 is quite interesting:

        (1)         A fisheries officer may, if in the fisheries officer’s opinion it is reasonably necessary in the circumstances to enable the fisheries officer to perform any duty or exercise any power under this Act, require — 

            (a)         the master of a boat or the person in charge of any vehicle to make the boat or vehicle available for the use of the fisheries officer; or 

            (b)         any person to provide such assistance to the fisheries officer as the fisheries officer considers necessary. 

        (2)         A person must not, without reasonable excuse, refuse or fail to comply with a requirement made under subsection (1). 

        Penalty: $10 000. 

        (3)         If a fisheries officer uses a boat or vehicle under subsection (1), the person who would otherwise have been entitled to the use of the boat or vehicle at that time may apply to the CEO for compensation for loss of use of the boat or vehicle. 

        (4)         If a person applies to the CEO for compensation under subsection (3), the CEO is to pay to the person such amount of compensation as the CEO thinks fit. 

        (5)         A person is not personally liable for anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by that person in the course of giving any assistance to a fisheries officer in accordance with a requirement under subsection (1)(b). 

At least you can apply for 'compensation for loss of use of the boat or vehicle.'

Interesting questions though walloped.

I don't have anything to hide and I understand the reasons why they need to check your boat - but I don't have to like it.

I go boating and fishing to escape a world of laws, bureaucracy and ya can't do this and ya can't do that..

 have you been breath tested on the road - would you feel the same way?  You've been checked over a dozen times - how many boat trips would that involve and over what period of time?

 Hi Walloped,

Good query you have raised, here's my take on it.

1.If a person refuses to allow fisheries to board their boat the person could face a 10k fine.

2. If a person denies them permission to search, what do they need to enforce this? I dont think they would attempt to force their way in as any form of force would be a last resort and I doubt that they are trained specifically for it.  Most likely the process would be to call the police to assist the fisheries officers to gain entry to the premisis.  If it escalated from there it would all land in the property owners lap and would be potentially very messy.

3. Like yourself I'm not a big fan of big brother antics, in this case I take the view that big brother is on our (recreational fishers and the community in general) side by working to prevent our fish stocks being ripped off to unsustainable levels by those that take to much, take undersized, breeding, out of season or protected species.  If this was left up to us to enforce the place would go pearshaped in no time with potential harm to people (both guilty and innocent)

To date all the fisheries officers I've encountered in WA have been good operators,  the occassional individual (usually new to the game) can have a bit of a chip on their shoulder but it is a temporary part of the learning curve.  One thing they are alligned on with myself is looking after the ocean and our fish stocks.

Cheers

G 

 This is gold

nothing beats hearing this twice in a day...

what exactly are u hiding on ur boat walloped if u dont want to be checked

While I agree that most of time it's best to be as co-operative as possible with law enforcement officials, the reason legislation is created is not only to ensure that people generally behave within a certain accepted set of guidelines, but also that those who are responsible for upholding laws do so whilst being lawful themselves.

I was, once upon a time, a member of Vicpol and as such have a little knowledge regarding the questions you're asking . During my time I was present during the execution of a couple of fisheries related warrants on premises, and while I understand that this was over the other side of the country, essentially the legislation is the same.

Re question 1: Section 191(1)(b) of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 states; "A fisheries officer may, for the purposes of this act, board a boat and enter and search a boat or vehicle." - So no it's not piracy, and yes, they have every right under the act to stop your boat, board it, and inspect it, and if you were not to comply you would likely be charged with an offence under the act.

Re question 2: As per section 185, if fisheries don't have a warrant and they have not pursued you, without interruption, from or near a place where an offence was suspected to have been committed to the premises (as pointed out above by Rob H) then they do not have a right to enter your premises without your permission, and it could be argued that it would be an offence for them to do so. However, the vagaries involved with words and phrases contained in the act such as "without interruption", "from or near" and "suspected" mean it is very difficult to define each hypothetical situation, especially without going through the hundreds if not thousands of court set precedents regarding fisheries law.

From my experience, fisheries would be loathed to search a premises in any situation without a warrant, unless it was abundantly and emphatically obvious that they had complied with witnessing the offence and subsequent persual to the premises in question, as per the act. Magistrates can and will be particularly harsh on law enforcement officials who breach the sanctity of a persons home without a valid and lawful reason. From my own experience it would also be unusual for fisheries officers to conduct a search on private premises with a warrant without the aid of police, especially as private premises can often be the most dangerous places to be doing that sort of job, especially when you're not invited.

I hope that goes some way to answering your questions.

 i think they do a great job yes it can be annoying being checked becuase i try and do the right things but keep in might how many dont and just think if we took everything we caught we wouldnt have the great fishing we have today

I was travelling back from Jurien after the Labor Day weekend in 2013. Just before Wedge every car was being waved into a rest stop. First was the Police breathalysing, then if you had a boat, Fisheries checked the catch. No issues for us as we were doing the right thing.

I was talking to a Policeman mate about this dual operation, and what he told me was interesting (if true). He told me that the Fisheries officers don't have the power to pull your car over for the purpose of a catch check, but can ask to see your catch once stopped....that's why they run the dual operation. Interesting...

BTW, I have no issues at all being checked...the more the better I reckon.

absolutely peeved off with all these rules and regs.  When Bob and I went fishing if Fisheries was their we'd do the right thing.  We never gave the erflo's any info as that went into the research and most times ended up less in our bag limits etc. 

One time down the club I was waiting for Bob to come back with the trailer and the Fisheries came up to me and said can we look in your boat I said go for it, of course when they left he said why did you let them in the boat you aren't skipper I yelled back, we have nothing to &^%$ hide, as we'd gone squidding and caught about 15 squid and a couple of nice whiting.

What gives me the total sh...ts is when shopping and you go through the cash register, the young check out chick asks to look in my persona handbag, I refuse as that is my personal hand bags and yes fellas its against the law, as the only person to look in your personnal hand bag is a Police Officer.  I can be a biatch (so sick of being asked all the time)  at times and stare into the check out chicks eyes and say "Are you accusing me of stealing,"  I never stop then looking into shopping bags from other shops (but they cannot put their hands in those bags by law) as they are not my personnel handbag.

“ Clayton Inspections “ in my experience , they’ve only ever be on board for 2 minutes lifting the esky lid and checking the RBFLs .. presumably most of the busts would be people a few mm undersize .  I’m sure if I had intent to deceive , I’d find a better stash spot for my excess fillets ..

I think most people with boats tend to stick to their limits because they know there's a good chance they will get checked or most important they are respectful of protecting the ocean.

It's good that fisheries checks and i have no problem with them.

only thing i'd like to see is more foot patrol on jettys, rivers, dams etc.

I dont have a boat so i always fish on land and even though i dont have a whole lot of experience i know when someone is taking the p... you always see these types keeping everything they catch regardless of species or size. mostly off hillarys rocks, freo etc. i hear it happens on the river too.

people like this should be hit with hefty fines because they care a lot about money, more so than any animal. if they kept getting hit with fines everytime they thought it was a good idea to r..e the ocean, they may either give up fishing or realise it's better for the restaurant to buy cheap basa and sell it as "pink snapper" than to go fishing for anything that moves.

the ocean is nobody's right, it is everybody's privilege. i know most people on this forum know that though so i am not preaching to you.

Generally I find that the FO's are pretty good. They are welcome to board my boat at any time provided they dont put me at risk or damage my boat whilst they are doing it. I am particularly against them boarding on land unless they remove their shoes first as I had some clown board my boat at the old boat ramp in Carnarvon during Carnarfin wearing heavy boots that had mud and stones embedded in the soles that scratched the glass on my boat and then traipsed red mud all over my carpet. I take my shoes off and go barefoot or don boatshoes when I board as do my crew. I see nothing wrong with Fisheries doing the same.

One Fisheries Officer would not remove his boots so I told him to stay off. He was welcome to look over the side but not standing on my plastic guards. He got a little cranky and called one of his "juniors" to shed their boots and get on. Found nothing as we fish to the rules. The bugger targetted us every day thereafter but we didnt need to have the same conversation again. Courtesy cuts both ways and on some occasions FO's can do with understanding what that means.

Never had a problem with fisheries, and I always let them know I welcome their presence.

They are just trying to do their job.

Was fishing late arvo near GI a couple of weeks back on a Sunday. Marine safety came past for a "safety check". Totally professional and friendly, but quite thorough (checked dates on RFBL, flares, EPIRB, Fire Extinguisher) all was in order and no problems. Happy to see them anytime.

Have had one minor issue with fisheries when being checked, muppet skipper bumped the flash RIB into my runabout, no damage or real problems, but it was a completely glassed off day with no swell, so what's the excuse for poor seamanship? Anyway, happy to see fisheries out there, seen too many undersize snapper/dhu frames at the cleaning station or worse still thrown in the water at the ramp!

Best Fisheries experience was when retrieving the boat at the ramp with my dad (mid seventies) a pair of fisheries officers rock up and asked him if he was a pensioner, which he said he was. They then offered him a bag of nice KG's (all sized) that they had just confiscated from some younger guys illegally spearing at Point Peron. Said they normally take the confiscated fish to retirement homes, but they didn't think they would get there for a few hours so better to give them to someone heading home. Again, totally friendly and professional.

Agree they could look closer at Jetties etc, as it seems a lot of ocean raping goes on landbased. (Not having a go at landbased fisho's, just an observation - again 99% do the right thing)

My 2 cents.

BD.

Always had good respectful (both ways) experiences with fisheries down Mandurah way. They have stopped me on the water and at ramps and had a good look over safety gear and catch (crays).
A story doing the rounds around Mandurah last year went like this, a group of thugs virtualy took over the Jolly Frog jetty when the yellow fin whiting were running. This pack of bullying rat bags used to really intimidate and threaten everyone so that they had the jetty to themselves, and took way in excess of the bag limit. They would put bucket loads of whiting in the boot of their car and then continue on and catch more. Well some one phone fisheries and they rocked up, one a small size female and one a mid dle aged guy, questioned the thugs and wanted to see in the car boot of their vehicles. Go take a flying hike or words to that effect came back to the request, coppers called by fisheries one of the thugs told the copper that they had no right to search his car without a warrant. The copper told him just how much damage did he think would be cause by him using a tyre lever to force the boat open. Result boot opened with key thugs booked. Now that's what I would call effective policing and fisheries operations.