03/03/10 Marine Parks and recreational fishing in WA -These pages have been put together to address some of the concerns of rec fishos about the impacts of MPAs, and in particular sanctuary zones, on their lifestyle and fishing future in Western Australia.
22/02/10 - Gas hub concerns - Abc online - A state government report has found that a gas development near Broome could have a major impact on the region's fisheries. The development at James Price Point will process gas from the Browse Basin. The report, which has not been released publicly, suggests fish numbers will decline and that will affect the local economy. Also Kimberley gas hub threatens fish: report.
17/02/10 - Feedback sought on lobster resource sharing plan - abc online - A new scoping paper examining the sharing of resources between different lobster fishing sectors has been released for public comment. Department of Fisheries' spokesman Chris Reid says currently 95 per cent of the rock lobster fishery is allocated to the commercial sector and 5 per cent to recreational fishers. He says the paper will have implications for all fisheries. "There's a limited amount of catch that can be taken and so obviously you need mechanisms to allow the different sectors to access the catch that can be taken and the paper examines different approaches that can be used Fishers are being asked to make submissions to the paper by April 23.
30/01/10 Video of camden sound to view - From WA DEC. This is a flyover of the Camden Sound region in the Kimberley WA. The WA Governement has announced that there will be a marine park declared in this region, to protect the Humpback whales that breed and calve there...
Extract: Available evidence indicates that temperate no-take marine reserves have higher densities, biomass, and species richness of marine biota within their boundaries compared to areas outside reserves. Fish density and biomass in particular are higher in no-take than in adjacent areas, which is consistent with previous analyses (Mosqueira et al. 2000; Côtéet al. 2001; Halpern 2003; Micheli et al. 2004; Claudet et al. 2008). We also found that algal densities are higher inside reserves, which may indicate a trophic effect. In temperate systems, the common grazers such as sea urchins often reach high densities in the presence of fishing because their predators are removed from the system, and thus this result suggests a return to a more intact ecosystem state inside reserves (Behrens & Lafferty 2004).