Minister’s strategy for protecting WA’s vulnerable fish ‘too watered-down to work’

The Wilderness Society (WA) Inc
Media Release
25 June 2008

The Wilderness Society WA (TWS WA) is disappointed with Fisheries Minister Jon Ford’s final decision on the strategy to save some of Western Australia’s most sought-after and iconic oceanic fish species.

In March the Minister identified the ‘Vulnerable 5’ - dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod and red snapper - as being at risk and in need of urgent action to prevent their disappearance.

TWS WA Marine Coordinator Dr Jill StJohn said, “In the three months since then, the guts have been pulled out of the Minister’s draft strategy for managing recreational fishing of the Vulnerable 5.

 “By shortening the initial proposed fishing ban to just 10 weeks in early summer, the final strategy misses the main spawning season of dhufish, particularly north of Perth, and thus affords very little protection for this species.

“Large dhufish are crucial to the survival of this species because larger females produce disproportionately more eggs than smaller females over a longer spawning period.

“Also, the strategy’s new bag limits do not factor in mortality caused by the “bends”, to which dhufish are particularly susceptible.  

“WA dhufish, like many fish species, are best protected by no-take marine parks. As WA dhufish are relatively sedentary, protection from fishing will allow fish to grow older, larger and produce more offspring and this will benefit the rest of the west coast populations.

”As the original package of 11 recommendations was considered unlikely to meet it targets of a 50% reduction in catch, a further relaxing of two of the recommendations means that WA’s iconic dhufish in particular remain highly vulnerable.

“The Minister and businesses associated with recreational fishing have badly missed the main point. Watered down management plans that cannot protect our iconic species are short-sighted. No-one benefits from extinction.”


Dr Jill StJohn
Marine Co-ordinator