Demersal scalefish effort closure
In the West Coast bioregion, recreational fishing for demersal scalefish by boat is closed for 5.5 months of the year. This is in place to reduce the recreational fishery to its recovery benchmark.
Catching demersal scalefish from a boat is now prohibited from the following dates:
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Dates prohibited catching demersal scalefish from a boat: |
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1 February to 31 March (inclusive) |
1 August to 15 September |
15 October to 15 December (inclusive) |
These measures do not apply to land based recreational line fishers, who can fish all year round.
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Recreational fishing calendarpdf (628 KB)
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Recreational fishing guidepdf (8.43 MB)
The recreational fishing guide is also available from DPIRD offices.
Supporting measures
- A boat limit of 4 demersal scalefish per vessel.
- A mixed-species daily bag limit of 2 demersal scalefish, including WA dhufish (except coral trout, coronation trout and western blue groper which have a daily bag limit of one).
- Removal of size limits for West Australian dhufish, baldchin groper and breaksea cod.
- A maximum of one bait or lure per line can be used when fishing for demersal scalefish in the West Coast region.
- Implementation of Abrolhos Islands fishing rules:
- reduced bag limit of 1 demersal scalefish
- reduced finfish possession limit of 5 kg of fillets from any species, plus 5 kg of fillets from large pelagic finfish (must have skin attached for identification purposes), or one day’s bag limit of whole fish.
- Shifting the timing of the Abrolhos Islands baldchin groper spawning closure to be 1 October to 31 December (inclusive).
- Extending the timing of the Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds Pink Snapper spawning closure to be 1 August to 31 January (inclusive).