New Fishing Rules, Off the hook???
WA Fisheries Department has admitted it will be powerless to enforce its new bans and fees to protect dwindling stocks.
Its 100 officers will have to oversee more than 600,000 recreational fishers and 50 commercial operations on over 12,500km of coastline under a licensing decree issued this week, according to principal management officer Nathan Harrison.
From mid-October, anyone fishing from a boat will need a $30 permit and those chasing demersal, or bottom-dwelling scalefish, will need to purchase additional licences.
A demersal licence costs $20 a day or $150 a year. Keen fishers could be hit with up to $400 in extra bills each year. Demersal fishing has also been banned from October 15 to December 15 from Kalbarri to Augusta.
The Fisheries Department says it will depend on fishers ``doing the right thing'' with only 5 per cent of people expected to be checked for licences.
``It's not enough,'' Mr Harrison said.
``There is no question when it comes to recreational fishing, not just with the licensing arrangements, but bag limits and things like that, we have to use education as the primary strategy because we can't have a Fisheries officer checking everyone on every jetty or boat ramp.''
If most people abide by new laws, the department is expected to generate an extra $4million in revenue.
This money, Mr Harrison says, will go straight back into fisheries management and be used, in part, to hire another 10 to 15 patrol officers.
Mr Harrison said fines for not having the correct licence will range from $100 to $400.
The new fees have angered fishing representative group Recfishwest.
Its a little late to head home early
Andy Mac
Posts: 4778
Date Joined: 03/02/06
5 Percent
Thats deplorable.
Cheers
Andy Mac (Fishwrecked Reeltime Editor & Forum Moderator)
Youngest member of the Fishwrecked Old Farts Club
hlokk
Posts: 4294
Date Joined: 04/04/08
Is that 5% of the 600,000?
Is that 5% of the 600,000? Not all, perhaps not even most would be boat fishermen and the number of people who fish often would be even less.
If theres say 50,000 boat fishermen that go out more than a couple of times a year, then that 5% could mean more than half of boat fishermen are checked (30,0000/50,000).
With 600,000 fishers, they probably count it as people who have been fishing in the last year or two (even if its just once for a few minutes while on holiday). Certainly a small percentage of those are catching a large percentage of the fish.
Though, if you run the numbers, getting good coverage doesnt seem that hard. If you had a fisheries officer at each major ramp most days of the year (equivalent hours to a normal full time job), so say mandurah, pt peron, hillaries, ocean reef, mindarie, two rocks. Say you pay them $50k a year to check licenses (on all), and bag limits and catch sizes (on selected), then the total cost you're looking at is 10,000 users paying a boat license of $30, or under 1700 demersal fishermen at $180, or just 50 cents per fisher (if indeed 600,000 really do fish).
If officers could issue tickets (same as a parking inspector say) then theres an extra revenue stream (by the people actually in the wrong, not the people doing all the right things)
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
I agree with you Matt that manning the boat ramps is
the likely option. I guess the difficulty they will have then is proving who was fishing and who caught the fish. My understanding is that you don't have to have a licence if you are on a boat and you are not fishing.
Moderator. Proud member of the Fishwrecked "Old Farts". Make sure your subscribed to Fishwrecked Reeltime http://fishwrecked-reeltime.com/
davebarry (not verified)
Posts: 16
Date Joined: 01/01/70
The skipper of the boat
The skipper of the boat is responsible for all the fish he brings back.
The limits if only 1 licence was held on the boat, would be for 1 person.
Once again, the guys doing the right thing cop the brunt of the guys not playing the game.
The guys overfishing and exceeding bag limits will not buy the licence anyway - once again the commercial guys wont be paying more? will they?
The $4 million is used as an excuse to generate revenue, and if wholly put to employ fisheries officers to ensure the bags limits are kept and people get licenced, could put 80 more officers on the ramps and jetties?
just dhu it
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 14/05/09
new fees
Lets just make it easy revenue across the board , i dont mind paying for a stock fishing licence per year say $ 30 for myself or better a family ticket , Then have a increase in all boat registration fees , $ 15 for boats under 5 mt and kayaks and $ 30 .00 for all other boats in the state, because its not only the fishos between Kalbarri and augusta that should have to support the research and extra inspectors, it should right across the state every boat owner because eventually when fishos cant catch fish or want to save money in our region they will venture into other regions and then some time in the future those areas will need the extra resources and the zones would have to be changed,. Even at $ 60.00 per year for myself it only equates to $ 5.00 per month
Craig J
Posts: 103
Date Joined: 10/01/07
Fisheries officers have no chance
If I have one licence on my boat 2 people and 6 rods, catch one persons bag limit between the 2 of us get back to the boat ramp.
What can they do ?
Hay you ! were you fishing on this boat ?
Why no officer we only have one Licence.
Then why are BOTH OF YOU smiling ? only one of you should be smiling.
Its a joke
wicksey
Posts: 314
Date Joined: 24/01/08
are you only allowed to have
are you only allowed to have 2 rods per person "fishing" or just no more than 2 lines in the water. because if you took out 6 they can assume both of you were fishing (and still have an excess of rods.)
hlokk
Posts: 4294
Date Joined: 04/04/08
Its two lines at a time, not
Its two lines at a time, not the number of rods on board.
Though, in the fisheries bag limits booklet it says:
"Rods, lines and hooks – Recreational anglers may have a
maximum of three hooks or three gangs of hooks per line.
Shore-based anglers may use a maximum of two fishing
lines. Rods and lines must be attended."
Note it says only shore based anglers can use a maximum of two lines, not boat based anglers. If you look up the relevant section of the FRMR, section 64E part (2) says boat based anglers are excluded from the 2 lines per person rule. There are still regulations on hooks per line though.
Craig J
Posts: 103
Date Joined: 10/01/07
From what I have read
They make no refferance to the number of rods you are allowed. Most times my boat looks like a porcupine on steroids. They havn't regulated that out yet.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18085
Date Joined: 11/03/08
i know what you mean
4 on the boat that usually 4 each , one for each purpose and one spare,.they aren't making it easy for people to understand
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
Soon will though.I
I imagine it will be one heavy tackle rod/handline per fisher allowed on a boat.
As fishermen discuss ways to beat it on fishing forums they will close each loop hole.
barneyboy
Posts: 1392
Date Joined: 08/01/09
What I would like to know is
how do they think that all of this revenue they generate is going to help fish stocks. Give the next snapper a redback and tell him to have a holiday.. eff me. I would like to see in print where this money is going to be spent. They have forcast an amount they will recieve so show us how you are going to increase fish stocks. They could do it on their current budget by:
Selecting 1 species a year and protecting that species for a year and select a different species year about.
Changing some existing bag limits/ size limits
Closed seasons on breeding fish when they actually breed.
By the way, Do I get a size limit sticker for my 30 bucks!!! No excuses now fisheries. You wont be too broke to print them now!!!
I dont know if this is falling on deaf ears but its about fish stocks and not money!!
FEEEISH ONNN!!!
synthos
Posts: 522
Date Joined: 23/06/07
confused
this is strange at an average of 400$ per boat or person with familys thats only 10000 people paying up ? to make 4mil ahhhh ? it seems to me that the prudent advice is not to pay at all as that way the department can only afford to check 5% of fishers and will be unable to invrease the checks as a fine is 100-400 that covers a days fishing license anyways :).
So no pay fee no more ramp officers better for us. Just cause I have rods on my boat does not mean I have been fishing heck I have gone wiht a rod just in case I see somthing on the sonar but never got the line wet..
If only they made it fair say $100 per year for a boat all fisheries inc or even $150pa I think most people would pay up.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18085
Date Joined: 11/03/08
the per boat system might
the per boat system might work on paper but what about the people that own a small tinny that only fish the sound or similar areas and only chase the bread and butter fish and not the demersals which a lot of the tinny fishos do, at the moment it stands at $30 so that would be a big increase for them.For my family it would work out better but a one off fee of even $40 p/p would be better than what the set up is now
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together