One of the disasters we inherited from the outgoing Labor government was the dire condition of Mid West fisheries.
Families and businesses invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in boats, licenses and pot fees, not to mention bait, fuel and equipment. For many families this is a multi-generational investment.
During 2008 I was pleased to have a win for the fishing industry during Budget Estimates. Fishermen currently pay an average of $100,000 in fees to the state government when they hand their licence and pots down through the family. The duty is based on the market price of pots and can be $1000 per unit on an average license of 130 pots.
I discovered during my examination of the Duties Bill 2007 that fishing families will be exempt from this duty from 2010. The exemption will also apply to transfers to unrelated persons. By waiting just a little longer until the legislation takes effect, fishing families and businesses could save a fortune. Why didnt the Labor government tell them this?
Even so, it may come too late for some. The week parliament resumed after the 2008 election, a marine broker in Fremantle told ABC radio that he has been overloaded with calls from WA fishermen who want to sell their boats. What has gone wrong?
For a start, the previous government left a ten year gap between creel surveys in the West Coast Bio-region. Fisheries Management Paper Number 225 states that: a gap of almost 10 years between surveys does not permit changes in recreational fishing to be monitored or assess the impact of recreational fishing on targeted fish stocks. It goes on to say that the gap was due to resourcing constraints.
Over the last ten years the Fisheries Department noted a rapidly expanding number of recreational fishing boats, which are increasingly more powerful, and have greater ocean-going capacity. During that period the Fisheries Department also issued an increasing number of fishing licenses, knowing that tackle is more sophisticated and modern boats have sonar equipment to locate prime catches.
In other words, over the last decade the alarm bells should have been ringing loudly. The Fisheries Department may have heard the bells of doom tolling, but the Carpenter government was turning a deaf ear.
While professional and recreational fishers are adjusting to the reductions in the fishing catch, there is also a crisis in the rock lobster industry. In October 2008 the monthly larval count showed numbers were virtually nil - and this follows five years of declining counts.
Fisheries scientists are questioning whether environmental factors - such as changing ocean currents - might be responsible for the sudden drop in baby lobster. Fisheries Department research over 40 years has shown that the breeding stock to the north affects the lobster counts in the south.
According to the CSIRO, annual settlement can vary more than five-fold, and fluctuations in commercial catches are mainly due to variations three and four years before the current season. According to the CSIRO, A major concern is that climate change might cause a systematic shift in the larval settlement-Leeuwin Current relationship, which could invalidate the present management approach.
The CSIRO also says: The combination of ocean warming, and changes in the strength of the Leeuwin Current, might increase the growth rate of larvae, changing their time of settlement.
I was therefore pleased to see that Nick Caputi, a Fisheries Department scientist, told ABC Country Hour that they are working cooperatively with the CSIRO.
In the meantime I have been meeting with local fishermen, and will continue to take their concerns to the Minister for Fisheries.
Families and businesses invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in boats, licenses and pot fees, not to mention bait, fuel and equipment. For many families this is a multi-generational investment.
During 2008 I was pleased to have a win for the fishing industry during Budget Estimates. Fishermen currently pay an average of $100,000 in fees to the state government when they hand their licence and pots down through the family. The duty is based on the market price of pots and can be $1000 per unit on an average license of 130 pots.
I discovered during my examination of the Duties Bill 2007 that fishing families will be exempt from this duty from 2010. The exemption will also apply to transfers to unrelated persons. By waiting just a little longer until the legislation takes effect, fishing families and businesses could save a fortune. Why didnt the Labor government tell them this?
Even so, it may come too late for some. The week parliament resumed after the 2008 election, a marine broker in Fremantle told ABC radio that he has been overloaded with calls from WA fishermen who want to sell their boats. What has gone wrong?
For a start, the previous government left a ten year gap between creel surveys in the West Coast Bio-region. Fisheries Management Paper Number 225 states that: a gap of almost 10 years between surveys does not permit changes in recreational fishing to be monitored or assess the impact of recreational fishing on targeted fish stocks. It goes on to say that the gap was due to resourcing constraints.
Over the last ten years the Fisheries Department noted a rapidly expanding number of recreational fishing boats, which are increasingly more powerful, and have greater ocean-going capacity. During that period the Fisheries Department also issued an increasing number of fishing licenses, knowing that tackle is more sophisticated and modern boats have sonar equipment to locate prime catches.
In other words, over the last decade the alarm bells should have been ringing loudly. The Fisheries Department may have heard the bells of doom tolling, but the Carpenter government was turning a deaf ear.
While professional and recreational fishers are adjusting to the reductions in the fishing catch, there is also a crisis in the rock lobster industry. In October 2008 the monthly larval count showed numbers were virtually nil - and this follows five years of declining counts.
Fisheries scientists are questioning whether environmental factors - such as changing ocean currents - might be responsible for the sudden drop in baby lobster. Fisheries Department research over 40 years has shown that the breeding stock to the north affects the lobster counts in the south.
According to the CSIRO, annual settlement can vary more than five-fold, and fluctuations in commercial catches are mainly due to variations three and four years before the current season. According to the CSIRO, A major concern is that climate change might cause a systematic shift in the larval settlement-Leeuwin Current relationship, which could invalidate the present management approach.
The CSIRO also says: The combination of ocean warming, and changes in the strength of the Leeuwin Current, might increase the growth rate of larvae, changing their time of settlement.
I was therefore pleased to see that Nick Caputi, a Fisheries Department scientist, told ABC Country Hour that they are working cooperatively with the CSIRO.
In the meantime I have been meeting with local fishermen, and will continue to take their concerns to the Minister for Fisheries.
Lobster and Dermersal Scalefish
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Copyright Brian Ellis MLC © 2009 - 2011
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Ph: +61 (08) 9923 9211; Fax: +61 (08) 9923 9222; Email: brian.ellis@mp.wa.gov.au
Ph: +61 (08) 9923 9211; Fax: +61 (08) 9923 9222; Email: brian.ellis@mp.wa.gov.au