Bulletin 1, 2001

Welcome,

The Corresponding members category of Recfishwest is expected to play a very important role in shaping and developing recreational fisheries management in Western Australia.

To all of you who have agreed to take part, I welcome you and look forward to your decisive input into a number of strategies we will develop over the coming months.

The aim of our Corresponding Members is to use their vast experience and expertise in recreational fishing to help shape ideas for the future.

These members, who come from all walks of life will take part in a series of surveys from time to time on important issues such as a Recreational Fishing License, wet-lining by the Western Rock Lobster Fleet, Integrated Management, Resource sharing and Ecological Sustainable Fisheries Development.

Recfishwest is investigating the development of a revamped Web site that will provide secure password protected areas for the Corresponding Members to fill in on-line surveys and take part in discussion groups. There'll also be areas for on-line conferencing through secure IRC, and general bulletin board discussion groups where fishers can give feed back on any current or future running issues.

With so much at stake for recreational anglers in Western Australia during the next few years, (Integrated Management, Resource Sharing etc.) it is vital that you as Corresponding Members have direct input into the way that future is shaped.

You will receive a News-sheet every so often, keeping you up-to-date on events, and may find yourself seconded (with your agreement of course) to one of our working committees such as Policy or Communications.

This is your chance to help mould your fishing future, and I look forward to working with you.

Regards
Les Rochester
Chairman Recfishwest


As most recreational fishers would be aware, there is a current proposal to create a Marine Park at Jurien Bay. Recfishwest has made a comprehensive submission on this very important issue.

This submission is a 9-page document which, for space reasons cannot be reproduced in full here. However, some of the major points are as follows:

Jurien Bay is the first marine park proposed under the amended CALM Act that establishes the Marine Parks and Reserves Authority. This plan therefore represents an opportunity for CALM to establish transparent processes and procedures to instil confidence in the community that all stakeholders will be treated fairly and equitably in the development and implementation of this and other marine parks. Regrettably, we believe that CALM has largely failed to meet this challenge in the development of the Jurien Bay Marine Park Indicative Plan.

Recfishwest has consistently asked three simple but crucial questions in respect of this particular proposal, as well as of marine parks generally, particularly those that include exclusion zones as part of the multiple use strategy.

These questions are

1. What is trying to be achieved with the establishment of the marine park?

2. How big does the area have to be to meet these objectives?

3. How will CALM determine if it has met these objectives?

Recfishwest recognises that there are good reasons to have some areas protected from any disturbance as far as possible for research and monitoring purposes and the community may feel comfortable with some additional protection as part of the physical application of the precautionary principle. It may be sensible to select representative areas for intensive research, monitoring and management as a preliminary step in the preparation for the proper management of all marine areas. This could include the Jurien Bay area, with described general-purpose, sanctuary, recreation and other special zones.

Recfishwest does however, have concerns with the Jurien Indicative Plan and have expressed deep concern that the deliberations of the Advisory Committee process have led, thus far, to outcomes that do not meet the requirements of all stakeholders and that the interests of commercial rock lobster fishers have been allowed to dominate recreational, environmental and scientific interests in the proposed park. Recfishwest views these outcomes as fundamentally discriminatory in their obvious bias toward the professional Western Rock Lobster fishing interests at the expense of both recreational fishing and broader environmental stakeholders. Recfishwest is aware of, and concurs with, widespread sentiment that the outcomes were designed not to offend the Rock Lobster industry to ensure that the planning process proceeded without significant industry opposition. In doing so the outcomes are clearly undesirable to all other groups, especially recreational fishing, which has lost much and gained nothing from its ongoing participation in the planning process.

The bias to western rock lobster fishing interests appears to stem from the reliance on local community consultation. Recfishwest certainly does not accept that inputs from the local community, whether commercial or recreational users, can be extrapolated to generally represent wider community attitudes.

Concerning the choice of Jurien Bay/Cervantes for a marine park, Recfishwest recognises that the central west coast is a logical place. We also recognise that the community will not be prepared to fund the amount of research and management that is needed for a marine park in many locations. This probably means there can be no more such parks between Perth and Geraldton at least until alternative funding sources are provided. From a scientific point of view it might have been better to locate this park around Beagle Islands. It is recognised that the size of the community at Jurien gives the park a higher social focus in that location.

Recfishwest has significant concerns over the zoning plan in the Jurien Marine Park for the following reasons:-

• It will not provide sites for scientific study of the impacts of the plan.


• The areas in which no fishing at all will be allowed (sanctuary) are too small. There will be almost no place in a sanctuary zone that is one kilometre from an area where fishing is allowed.


• The zoning is inequitable to different sectors of the fishing community. The recreational dinghy fishing map shows five intensively used areas. Three of these will be entirely or partially precluded from use by no-take zones for finfish. On the other hand, virtually no area used for intensive lobster potting, according to the map of commercial lobster potting, is affected by a no-take zone for rock lobsters.


• An unusual and disturbing aspect of the zoning is the absence of exclusive recreation zones. Such zones are a feature of virtually all other marine parks.
  Recreational fishing zones were proposed and existed on several drafts of the plan but were removed and never reinstated, without reference to recreational fishing interests groups.
  Recfishwest has submitted many requirements and unless substantial changes are made in due course to address our concerns, Recfishwest will have no choice but to actively oppose implementation of the plan.
  (Note: This is an abridged version of Recfishwest's submission)

# The foregoing information on Jurien Marine Park is reproduced here to give members and indication of the issues in which Recfishwest is involved

Among the many other issues which have been, or are in the process of being dealt with by Recfishwest are:

Ø Fish bag, trip possession, and boat limits.
Ø Fishing licences policy.
Ø Fish habitat protection area criteria and policies.
Ø Specific fish species issues for Spanish mackerel, snapper and blue groper.
Ø Fish and fish habitat protection program issues.
Ø Shark Bay snapper.
Ø Fisheries management funding options.
Ø Shark Bay prawn trawl by-catch.
Ø Sustainable fisheries developments.
Ø Concerns re FWA management of research proposals.
Ø Policy submissions to the Integrated Fisheries Management inquiry/Wetfish Review.
Ø Coastal road developments.
Ø Abalone access policy.
Ø Fish translocation policy.
Ø Cockburn Sound crab resource sharing.
Ø Gascoyne and West Coast regional reviews.
Ø Fisheries management funding options.
Ø Submission to Cockburn Cement proposal to dredge major portions of Success and Parmelia Banks.
Ø Submission to proposal to create a tourist development at Coral Bay
Ø Policy on coastal developments.

There is a need for constant vigilance on issues with a propensity to affect recreational fishing. If you have a concern relating to recreational fishing and would like to share it with us, please let Recfishwest know.



This page last updated on 29 December 2003.