A new Ngari Capes Marine park which spans five kilometres East of Augusta covering the entire Capes region finishing between Capel and Buselton has been established.
The management zones were put in place in 2018 and following a 12 month grace period, the enforcement of these new fishing regulations has now come into play.
Coinciding with the annual salmon season, many fishers are being caught off guard by not knowing what type of fish could be caught in each of the parks 15 sanctuary zones, 12 special purpose zones and 2 recreation zones.
Recfishwest made its first submission on the Ngari Capes Marine Park in 2004 and many passionate fishers in the South West made excellent contributions during the less than perfect community consultation process.
Without the input from Recfishwest and these fishers, the park we see today would have had many more fishing restrictions.
Fishers can view the Ngari Capes zoning and permitted uses, online at recfishwest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Ngari-Capes-map-and-permitted-use-1.pdf
The free Recfishwest smartphone app now has a new mapping feature identifying marine park zones that have some form of fishing restriction.
The maps are downloadable to your phone, so once you leave phone range you can still view the maps at the touch of a button. You can download them on the Apple or Android store
Recfishwest operations manager Leyland Campbell said while the process used to create the Ngari Capes Marine Park was far from perfect, Recfishwest was pleased to hear the government earlier this year announced a new and transparent community consultation process for the creation of any new marine parks.'
''Recfishwest have been calling for greater consultation during the marine planning processes for a number of years and hopefully this new process will ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated in the future," he said.
''Recfishwest believes recreational fishing is largely compatible with the conservation objectives of marine parks and is an activity that must be recognised as a key value when formulating management plans.'
''Like most fishers, Recfishwest support marine parks when they are created for the right reasons, put in the right places and implemented using simple, practical management that is risk-based, transparent and subject to regular review.''
''Regardless of the process used to create the Ngari Caples Marine Park, the new regulations are now being enforced and it is the responsibility of all fishers to know what type of fishing you can and can't do in each zone.'
