The Minister for Fisheries today announced the proposed fish trap trial in the Gascoyne will not go ahead. In making his decision, the Minister made special note of specific concerns contained within Recfishwest’s submission.
Since the proposal was tabled by the Department of Fisheries in late January, Recfishwest visited Carnarvon twice, attended a public meeting with over 400 locals and received over 250 submissions on the issue, demonstrating a high level of community interest and concern.
Based on the feedback we received, Recfishwest provided a consolidated submission to the Department of Fisheries on behalf of the recreational fishing community. We wish to thank all those who took the time to contribute their views on this issue.
In our submission to the Department of Fisheries, Recfishwest highlighted many community concerns that had not been addressed along with a lack of detail contained in the proposal. The proposal contained significant social, biological and economic uncertainty resulting in a high level of community concern.
Of particular concern to Recfishwest and the local community was:
– Potential for localised depletion of key recreational species caused through changes in commercial fishing operations as a consequence of the introduction of traps to the region.
– The potential for trap fishing to occur in areas of high importance to recreational fishers
– Lack of evidence or science provided to support or validate the following the levels of shark predation in this fishery
– The lack of a formal harvest strategy for the Gascoyne demersal scalefish resource
To read our full submission to the Department of fisheries, see Recfishwest Position on Fish Traps in the GDSF.