they need to be to reduce the taking of such fish species , if people dont buy i they wont catch i as much ??

Herring $28/kg down at Freo
Pilchard(Mullies) for $20/kg, thought it would be cheaper to buy IQF ones at a tackle store to cook.

HAHA was thinking the same thing. We bought a heap back that we did'nt use at Gnaraloo, might be good on toast

When I lived in SA I was pretty friendly with some fish processors so I'll give you a little run down of how the price of fish added up at the retailer, and will use KG's as the example:
The processor bought the whole KG's off the fisherman for $13 per kilo. A good filleter could get a 50% return on filleting whiting so their cost price for fillets is $26 a kilo. Add in their overheads and add a bit of profit and they probably pass it onto the fish retailers around the place for say low $30's. They then add on their overheads and a bit of profit and it's pretty easy to see why it retails for around $42 a kilo.
I don't know what the beach price for dhuies and the like are, or their fillet per weight percentage, but it is pretty easy to see how prices get right up there without anyone making a heap of cash.

By the way, the whiting fisherman probably average 20kg of King Geroge per day in Autumn/Winter, and maybe 10kg or so in Summer, so they aren't making a heap either when you take into account the cost of the boat and running expenses, fuel, license fees, paying a decky, gear, ice, days missed due to weather etc. I sure don't know many rich commercial fishermen.

it all comes back to the basics of supply and demand

1 reduce commercial fishermans quotas drastically

2 increase commercial fishermans price for fillets equally drastically to compensate

3 people pay alot more for fish - so what it is a delicassy after all, if you want to eat fish you have to either pay for it at a high rate or since theres now more fish in the ocean go catch yourself a feed of fish.

it seems logical to me, problem solvered

$28 per kilo for Herring.

Surely you jest

The missus was complaining I always go fishing.... So when at the shops next time we bought 2 fillets of Threadfin salmon. (only sml fillets too)...

Cost $24.00........ Now she lets me go fishing when ever I want....

That is alot of money for two sml fillet of fish.... convert that to sausages and chops on the bbq.... could feed the street.....

When I first started fishing as a pro we were getting $10kg for dhufish and $5kg for pink snapper back in 1974 and when I pulled out in 2005 dhufish were $10-$15 kg and pinkies $5-$7.5kg so one has to ask who makes the money. Cost have risen many times over but the price hasn't kept pace. Without improved technology being used to catch them it would have been a complete waste of time and money going fishing.

On a big dhuey the return when filletted is somewhere near 35% and pinkie 28-30%, with smaller fish this is even lower.

but still we can't buy fish direct from the supplier.
We can buy veggies and fruit from farm stalls,
but not fish from a boat!
I understand the need for slaughter houses in the meat trade, but with fish it is not needed.

So again why can't I go to a professional fisherman, who has a licence to fish and buy a fish from him and get a tax slip etc.... all legal sales!
??????

You can deal direct with a pro fisherman and get a receipt IF he owns the boat. Most times the skipper is working the boat for someone else and is bound to sell all the catch to the owner's nominated buyer. They will not take the risk of selling direct and the owner finding out and giving them the boot.

taxes taxes taxes is why.

It comes from investors buying the boats and licences and leasing them or putting skippers on them effectively forcing them to sell to nominated buyers. Same goes in the crayfish industry with large companies owning many boats and the skippers are forced to sell to one company and fish where they are told instead of staying put in one area for the whole season. This is the reason why most start from Freo, Mindiari, Two Rocks then once the whites start to run head up to Jurien or Cervantes and work their way back down out in the 60-90 fathom range.

I can't speak for WA but in SA fishermen were legally required to sell their catch to a licensed fish processor. They could, however purchase a "restricted processor license" which allowed them to sell to the public. Most couldn't be bothered but it did allow those who did to sell straight from the boat, or even process their own catch and sell direct to the fish outlets.
SA is different though as most of the commercial scalefish fishery is made up of owner/operators using trailer boats doing day trips so the bigger companies don't have the license/quota stronghold like Carnarvonite is talking about.
No reason why the restricted processor license wouldn't work here though, at least give the option to the fisherman who wants to set up and make a little more profit himself. I see it as a win win, the public get a cheaper product while the fisherman makes more profit by cutting out a set of hands or 2.

at my work,  dhu is $89.95 , coral trout $76.95, red emp $64.95 etc. i get 44% on dhu n we pay around $20 - $22 per kg for the whole fish.fish prices ARE ridiculous and unfortunately i dont think it will get any better.

girl going down to the fishermans wharf in Freo (now turned into commercial ugliness) with my parents, listening to all the different languages spoken, the crowds of people coming down to buy fresh fish, mainly European it was a fantastic time, that still is in my memory bank, why not do it again, it was a great feeling, feeling of the community all there laughing, joking, haggling over the price.  Think from memory thats why its still called fishermans market.

Agree Tony, why shouldn't the fisherman sell their catches straight to the public, it is donen in Europe  and works very well along side nice fresh direct growers markets.  My Dad always said cut out the middle man and prices will go down.  The other one was, "you women are the best unions in the world, if you stop buying say meat/fish for a week or longer, watch the prices come down."

I for one am sick of these massive big companies taken over a certain market and then we the public have to pay through the nose for OUR resources.