What it is
Located in Perth’s coastal waters south of Fremantle, Cockburn Sound is the most intensively used marine embayment in Western Australia.
It is highly valued by the fishing community for its safe sheltered waters and seagrass meadows which act as important nursery areas.
Why it matters
Cockburn Sound hosts the largest spawning aggregations of pink snapper in the West Coast Bioregion. The seagrass meadows of Cockburn Sound are also important nursery grounds for several important recreational species such as squid, crabs and snapper.
The environment of Cockburn Sound is under enormous cumulative pressure. The industrilisation of Cockburn Sound in the 1960’s led to the loss of 80 per cent of the seagrass meadows and should be regarded as a major planning disaster. This industrilisation continues with a range of new developments planned for the sound that is likely to further restrict access and reduce fish habitats. These develoment proposals include:
- International container port and breakwater – Westport in Kwinana – WA Government.
- Naval Base infrastructure – AUKUS submarine facilities at Garden Island – Dept. Defence
- Doubling capacity of Perth Desalination Project – Kwinana – Water Corporation
- Large Vessel Lifting Dry Dock – Australian Maritime Complex – Dept. Defence
- Bulk Jetty Upgrades – Kwinana – Fremantle Ports
- H2 facilities – Kwinana – Woodside
- H2 facilities – Kwinana – BP
- Ammonia facilities – CSBP
- Dredging – Creation of a second shipping channel to support the developments above
What Recfishwest is doing
Recfishwest has a long history of fighting to protect Cockburn Sound. We were a driving force behind the creation of the Cockburn Sound Management Council and have been a foundation member on the council since its inception. We were pivotal in getting the spawning closure for pink snapper more than 20 years ago and secured the reopening of the Cockburn Sound recreational blue swimmer crab fishery.
Recfishwest is the driving force behind the Snapper Guardians program which has seen hundreds of thousands of pink snapper stocked into Cockburn Sound and we helped secure Government funding to scale up the Seeds for Snapper seagrass reseading program.
Recognising its huge importance and value to our community, Recfishwest has been advocating on behalf of Cockburn Sound for decades. From Cockburn Cement’s dredging program, the proposed livestock holding facility, James Point, fish kills and a series of port proposals over the years, Recfishwest has always been there defending the Sound to protect the fishing we cherish and the environment that supports our fishing.
Recfishwest was a member of Westport’s reference group, environmental work stream and marine mitigation working group. Recfishwest provided input into the $13.5 million WAMSI Westport Marine Science Program and has participated in countless workshops and meetings and made many submissions related to Westport.
Recfishwest has also lent our support to the Save Cockburn Sound campaign aimed at raising awareness of the value of Cockburn sound and the proposed developments that threaten these values.
What you can do
- Contact your local Member of Parliament and ask them to support better protection of Cockburn sound Click here to see how you can do this
- Share this page
- Join the Save Cockburn Sound campaign
- Share our position on social media
- Participate in Public Environmental Review processes run by the Environmental Protection Agency when proposed developments are applying for development approvals.
- Join the cast of thousands as a Recfishwest member