WA Government’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) strategy has funded research to fill knowledge gaps about shore-based fishing effort along Perth’s coast. Department of Fisheries Supervising Scientist Dr Dan Gaughan said aerial surveys of beach fishing, with observers patrolling the coast between Lancelin and Bunbury, which is one component of a larger study, have now been completed.
According to Dr Gaughan most of the shore-based fishing communities are targeted by boat-based fishers off the Perth coast but there is a lack of good data on the shore-based catch of recreational fishers. He added that important information has been gathered to better determine whether management arrangements to reduce the fishing pressure on off-shore demersal species may have shifted some recreational fishing effort to shore and near-shore areas.
Dr Gaughan also informed that the $300,000 project was continuing, using a more conventional land-based survey strategy. But the recent information collection was the result of the aerial flights, as well as remote camera surveys, to assess the most cost-effective options for ongoing surveys of near-shore fishing. He explained that around 80 percent of the State’s recreational fishing effort occurs in the West Coast Bioregion and it is well understood the majority of that effort is focused around Perth.
Dr Gaughan said other ongoing research projects by the Department of Fisheries were examining the stock status for important shore based target species like herring, tailor and whiting. A final report on the project is expected to be published in a few months.
