DPIRD Feedback

Regardless of your opinion of RFW, fishers need to jump on the below link and provide feedback of the present situation with fishing.

Doesn't matter which zone you are in because they are all under attack presently.

This feedback is needed to draw attention of the Minister no matter your opinion of any of the players.
Western Australia’s demersal scalefish resources | Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development  

 

Below is what I have put in

 

I have worked over many decades in both commercial, charter and recreational fishing.

I live in the Midwest region and fish West Coast, Gascoyne and Pilbara (except metro). I have participated in the previous Demersal consultation.
The latest "science" that has been leaked in drabs by DPIRD, is not even remotely what I have observed on the water especially as regards pink snapper.
They are prolific in both the Midwest and Abrolhos regions, larger than they were 5 yrs ago.
As part of my work on the demersal consultation I have canvassed widely on the forums and social media platforms commonly used and have yet to find a SINGLE recreational fisher who has provided DPIRD with negative feedback on fishing stocks other than questioning the dhu bag limit change.
One thing I HAVE become acutely aware of, is that there is no value in research that finds "yeah we are heading in the right direction".
This opinion is widespread, and whether it's wrong or right, indicates a very strong sceptical view of this present situation.
Even the previous "science" used 4yrs back said in the small print that stocks are improving but not as quick as we would like.
How is it possible that after stopping fishing for 6 months it has gotten worse?
How can the apparently universal observations of participents diverge so widely from "the science", without concluding that there is a problem with the information?
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 Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...

 

 

The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.

Everyone's just winging it.

 


sunshine's picture

Posts: 2668

Date Joined: 03/03/09

Beautifully put and absolutely on point

Fri, 2025-10-03 22:02

 Fishing is WAY better factually and snapper stocks are utterly ridiculous......they are hard to avoid and most caught this year are now well over the 50cm size whereas a couple of years ago 48cm was common.  They return well even from deeper water without the need for a release weight.  The agenda being pushed does NOT reflect the condition of the fishery and one MUST question the underlying science as being grossly flawed 

Browndog's picture

Posts: 597

Date Joined: 10/04/12

Feedback

Sat, 2025-10-04 12:10

 Ive given my feedback. Probably not as eloquent as Rob, and I doubt it will make any difference, but certainly better than doing nothing.

 

 

 

 

I'm struggling to accept "the science" behind the current discussion on demersal stocks around the whole WA coastline. We have a vast coastal area, with relatively limited population, and many areas that are simply inaccessible for recreational fishers, yet we are told that the demersal stocks are at "high" or "severe" risk in some of the most remote and least populated regions of WA. This seems at odds with fisheries on the East coast of Australia in much more populated areas, with much more accessible regions, and much higher bag limits for recreational fishers. While I support measures to keep fishing in WA sustainable for present and future generations "the science" seems to be directly at odds with my fishing experience, and that of every recreational fisher that I have contact with, and even with "the science" from other states in Australia.
I think it would benefit all concerned if "the science" was released in whole, rather than cherry picked information released on social media to create alarm.
It's a matter of public record that the recreational fishing community in the Perth metro region were strongly opposed to the current regulations when introduced in regards to increases in bag limits of dhufish and the opening of closed seasons in school holidays (is it OK to fish unsustainably if the kids are on holiday?) that appear politically motivated rather than backed by any science or sustainability outcome.

 

 

Posts: 5878

Date Joined: 18/01/12

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Sat, 2025-10-04 13:55

 well written, sadly while your very likely correct about how its written, at the very worst the raw numbers of feedback provided may give impetus for the minister to look closer.

____________________________________________________________________________

 Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...

 

 

The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.

Everyone's just winging it.

 

sea-kem's picture

Posts: 15163

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 Well written BD  Pretty well

Sat, 2025-10-04 14:38

 Well written BD  Pretty well sums up my thoughts. 

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Love the West!

Alan James's picture

Posts: 2273

Date Joined: 30/06/09

...

Sun, 2025-10-05 16:42

Perhaps a different approach would be for someone to take the minister and / or a fisheries representative for a day on the water and demonstrate how easy / difficult it is to catch a few pink snapper.
Based on the recent firearms debacle I'm not convinced they are going to take any notice of written communications or consultation. Unless you can demonstrate otherwise they will just dig in and say their science is correct.

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Posts: 5878

Date Joined: 18/01/12

 Maybe, but youd have

Mon, 2025-10-06 08:13

 Maybe, but youd have everything hingeing on the fish biting that particular day-could be an own goal haha

Hear what you are saying about not taking any notice, unfortunately these are the only tools we have.

Career beauracrats in government departments don't need to be concerned about their track records or accountability.

At least politicians to some minor degree do

____________________________________________________________________________

 Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...

 

 

The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.

Everyone's just winging it.

 

Alan James's picture

Posts: 2273

Date Joined: 30/06/09

...

Mon, 2025-10-06 13:50

I did consider the own goal scenario but in reality, what have you got to lose.
Alternatively make your own vids and send them to the minister / fisheries.
Recfishwest should be actively pushing back but we all know that's not going to happen.

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Posts: 5878

Date Joined: 18/01/12

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Tue, 2025-10-07 06:45

 Unfortunately if the majority of fishers can't spend 5 minutes filling in feedback on their devices, then they won't bother making a vid of a days fishing and sending it to the minister etc.

Similarly if DPIRD/Minister ignore feedback via the channels, they certainly won't take notice of emails with large attachments.

And apathy prevails again

 

Sadly on the Firearms one, 80,000 LFO's and only 20,000 would sign petition including quite a few I imagine who were friends/family of the signers

____________________________________________________________________________

 Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...

 

 

The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.

Everyone's just winging it.

 

Mark_M's picture

Posts: 208

Date Joined: 10/04/15

FSHA on FB

Wed, 2025-10-22 10:10

One young fella having a go Rob, might benefit from your wide knowledge & experience?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1950922355453771

Read Rian's first Admin post 

FSHA WA - What’s next?

 

rob90's picture

Posts: 1541

Date Joined: 06/02/13

 Ive shared my 2cents. But

Wed, 2025-10-08 20:20

 Ive shared my 2cents. But unfortunately they only need to convince the non fishing plebs of society today and we're as good as cooked. My last trip out on the yak few years back I thought I'd show a young fella my bag of good dhu and pink to which his dad jumped in and abused me for taking such beautiful fish from their home and murdering them taking away from the future. Its the world we live in now. The robots among us will download what ever shit they hear from our supreme leaders and regurgitate where ever they can.

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 Hi my name is rob............. and I'm a........... fishaholic

Brock O's picture

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Date Joined: 11/01/08

 This is a snippet from

Thu, 2025-10-09 08:29

 

This is a snippet from resource assessment WCDSR 2025 abstract..

Total removals of demersal scalefish by commercial fisheries in the WCB in 2024 (291 t) were well above the 240 t recovery benchmark in place for that year. The total removals of key demersal scalefish species collectively caught by boat-based recreational and charter fishers in the WCB in 2023-24 (217 t), derived from the 2023-24 survey of private boat-based fishing and reported charter catches in the same year, were also well above the 135 t recovery benchmark for this sector. These data show that the substantial management changes implemented in 2023 have not been effective at reducing fishing mortality to the level required to support recovery.

What managment changes did they put in place ?, they increased the Dhuefish take numbers. This may have reduced the release mortality rate but nothing else.

Additionally, I thought the charters went to a tag system...so how did they still exceed there take benchamark ?

Commercial also taking more than allocated benchamrk..great management right there!!

 

The below is very difficult to understand..

west-coast-demersal-resource-fisheries-science-update-2025.pdf

The removal charts flucuate massively, while they paint a bleak picture with the spawning biomass there still on the recovery.

 

There are so many varibles you could question with the sampling and surveys for which they could turn the numbers to there agenda.

 

Posts: 234

Date Joined: 10/05/10

 I wonder how accurate the

Thu, 2025-10-09 15:48

 I wonder how accurate the survey numbers for recs is.25 odd years ago we had a fisheries research guy give a talk on blue groper at the spearfishing club I was in and he said that to work out the rec catch for blues they timesed the numbers by 10 I wonder what numbers they are using these days to gauge the overall catch taken by rec fishers.

Posts: 234

Date Joined: 10/05/10

 I wonder how accurate the

Thu, 2025-10-09 15:48

 I wonder how accurate the survey numbers for recs is.25 odd years ago we had a fisheries research guy give a talk on blue groper at the spearfishing club I was in and he said that to work out the rec catch for blues they timesed the numbers by 10 I wonder what numbers they are using these days to gauge the overall catch taken by rec fishers.

Posts: 1033

Date Joined: 26/03/17

 This is just a rumour, but I

Sat, 2025-10-11 11:53

 This is just a rumour, but I heard whispers along the lines of proposing a 7 year ban on dhufish. Like I said, just hearsay, but got mw thinking, I'm assuming if they ban dhufish, the only way to do this would be to ban demersal fishing outright? Otherwise how would they stop them being caught, and the released to die? If something like this was put in place, I really feel for those who make a living out of tackle shops etc. impact would be devastating.