Jurien Bay Recreational Fishing Club spokesperson Terry Cullen said Fisheries Minister Jon Ford’s plans for recreational fishing will mean that many fish species that need protection will continue to be exploited.

Mr Cullen said the result will be a serious depletion in stocks.

Mr Cullen was a member of the Recreational Advisory Committee appointed to advise the Minister on all recommendations on recreational fishing issues.

He said the JBRFC agrees with most of the recommendations set out in the recently released document by the Minister, but not all of them.

Public submissions have now closed and the group has submitted the changes they consider necessary to the document.

Mr Cullen said JBRFC members disagree with recommendation number four which limits the number of fish on boats when used in conjunction with a seasonal restriction.

“Because of the cost of boats and fuel, if holiday-makers are restricted to fishing for just two weeks over the Christmas holiday period, then this would be disastrous for the town’s economy,” he said.

“January is the worst month for fishing because of seasonal winds and people cannot always get their boats out, leaving them with limited suitable days to fish.”

He said, it has also been stated in the document that there are 80,000 registered boats in Western Australia, but the JBRFC believe that 50 per cent of these would be dinghies, 15 per cent pleasure boats and 10 per cent sail boats, leaving 25 per cent of boats that would actually be able to chase the larger fish species.

JBRFC believes the 80,000 figure has been used more as a tool to over estimate the number of boats actually able to fish the larger species.

Mr Cullen said it is also recommended that a Recreational Fishing Trust Fund be established called RecfishWest, to be funded by the State Government.

One of the recommendations under this peak body was a proposal of participation in a commercial by-back scheme.

“JBRFC do not agree with this. If a commercial fisherman leaves the industry, we as recreational fishers, should not be forced into funding the buy-back of the license,” Mr Cullen said.

He said the group also believes there has not been enough research done into the spawning cycles of the fish, especially dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod and red snapper in the West Coast bioregion.