Impact of regulation changes

LANCELIN

Peter Fullarton

From 1 April, the first of the two new demersal seasons opens, and we will be fishing under new rules. The changes are:

• Increase in the dhufish bag limit to two fish per person;

• A boat limit of four demersal scalefish per vessel;

• The removal of the WA dhufish boat limit, so a boat can land up to four WA dhufish;

• A maximum of one bait or lure per line when fishing from a boat for demersal scalefish; and

• Removal of size limits for WA dhufish, baldchin groper and breaksea cod. I have outlined in earlier editions about potential for an increase in the dhufish take,

DHUFISH A study found juvenile dhufish inhabit depths of 2-45m. There has also been a study indicating that 20% of hooked fish deaths occur in less than 15m of water, and 85% over 45m. The study indicated hook damage led to 13.4% of the mortalities.

I see logic in a size reduction, as fish from deeper water have higher death rates, especially over 30m. Current research specific to dhufish is dubious; recorded mortalities may be related to cage design used in the study rather than the depth they were caught. Research on dhufish mortalities is depth. Now they will now be caught and killed from depths where they would have had a reasonable chance of survival. in as little as 1m of water, where they should have a chance to live on. In the main though, most people will be using large hooks out deep outdated and really needs to be revisited so decisions can be made using better data.

This bad boy didn’t come home for breakfast, but come 1 April, it could! Instead, it swam back to where it came from in 25m of water, with no release weight required. It has a very good chance to live on for many years to reach breeding age.

BREAKSEA

Less than 30cm is a small fish to start with, and almost all of these little fish are found well under 20m. Rarely have I seen a small one caught out deep. So yes, they do have a high mortality from depth, but sub-30cm fish don’t get caught at

BALDCHIN GROPER

This rule change makes the most sense, because most if not all fish will die, and you do get a good fillet off a 40cm fish. I always hated having to throw back a 39cm baldchin, knowing that these good-size fish would die. It’s questionable to totally remove the size limit, as I have caught numbers of very small ones inside the bay so the smallest of fish won’t often get hooked. Demersal species produce millions of eggs, and only a small percentage make it through the vulnerable larval stages and settle down to life on the reef, where they have much higher rate of survival through to adult life. It makes no sense to be targeting the smallest of these fish, which against all the