19/05/2026
Latest Oped from Darryl Hockey- as we said a couple of weeks ago “it’s the company you keep”
Jackie Jarvis MLCRoger CookSouthwestern Fresh FishFishing Around Western AustraliaKirrilee Warr MLAWestern Australian Fishing Industry CouncilBasil ZempilasShane Love MLATerritory Seafood CrewStayN Afloat Ocean & Fishing
WHAT A MESS
Darryl Hockey GAICD
May 19, 2026
The fishing reform process across WA continues to deliver a textbook example of mismanagement, with the community anger now deeply embedded and indelible reputational stains upon the Minister, Jackie Jarvis.
It started to go wrong last year when the whiteboard first came out to set the plans. For years there’d been concerning science showing dangerous declines in WA dhufish stocks in the West Coast Bioregion, the waters between Kalbarri and Augusta. This area has four zones, the major one being the metro zone which covers 100kms north and 100kms south of Perth.
Here the dhufish spawning biomass had been reduced to a dangerous 7% and something needed to be done – particularly as the previous Minister Donald Punch had DOUBLED the recreational boat limits and officially driven the risks from SERIOUS to SEVERE.
However to be clear - commercials have been excluded from the metro zone for the past 20 years and three out of every four dhufish caught in the state were from recreationals. The metro zone issues had nothing to do with commercials.
Despite this, Jarvis decided to use the opportunity to deliver some ‘political’ outcomes, which is code for ‘blame it all on the commercials’ and close them down to secure a celebratory voting upswell from 750,000 recreational fishers. As well, the greens, teals and urban elites would surely flood the government with their support.
But six months later, every single day Jarvis’s social media pages are flooded with toxic attacks from both the general public and rec fishers.
So how did she get it so wrong?
Well firstly she assumed that the political calculus was on a linear scale – what you take off on the RHS you gain on the LHS. But it hasn’t worked that way, only 5% of rec fishers chase demersals in that bioregion. 95% of them don’t.
Plus 100% of rec fishers can’t possibly catch everything they need and are reliant upon commercial catches for home consumption, restaurant meals, fish & chips and bait.
The fishers and community also fully know they need a proper balance between commercial and rec, not a wipeout. Already 70% of seafood consumed in WA is imported frozen from the northern hemisphere, much of it rubbish quality and caught unsustainably from environmentally damaging trawlers, crewed by slave labour. With the latest reforms, now we have to import more.
Importantly too, Sandgropers like to see a fair go - they can all clearly see just how badly the commercials have been treated – an ambush decision at Christmas, with minimal consultation, no logic and no fair compensation or ‘just transition’ support.
Importantly though, it wasn’t just the specifics of the reform package, it was also the behaviour of the Minister which has really stood out and incited the reactions.
Minister Jarvis has openly behaved with callous indifference to the plight of the fishers, bluntly dismissing their reactions, turning the blame back onto them - thinking by demonising the commercials with gaslighting then the community would come onside.
But it certainly hasn’t worked. And it’s so unnecessary as it could’ve been done quite differently if there was good faith engagement and an industry-wide process to secure a balanced outcome to keep both sides of the industry open.
To be clear – there are some issues with some species, we all want sustainability and there is a solution which can deliver this – which could have both commercials and recs back on the water tomorrow – but the Minister simply isn’t interested – instead she wants to completely crush the commercial fishing industry - and further steps towards this goal are being taken every day.
MAC the Knife
For instance the process has now dived into even more disrepute as the Minister set up a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) to make recommendations over the reform implementation. It’s chaired by Recfishwest (RFW) and has representatives of the charter sector, the tackle shops, the PEW-funded environmental activists - and the UWA science group, which is even more radical than PEW.
The committee does not have any commercial representation, despite the MAC providing advice over the future management of the South Coast, Pilbara and Kimberley bioregions - which are overwhelmingly commercial.
Yes, it’s unbelievable – but there’s more.
Then we look at the ‘governance appropriateness’ of the MAC, we wonder what the Auditor General might think. The tackle shop sector already has control over RFW, particularly as RFW silently receives hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations each year from rod and reel manufacturers.
When the last demersal reforms were underway in 2021-22, the RFW ‘expert committee’ was controlled by the tackle shops – and they objected to every single proposal to sensibly cut back on fishing pressure. They wanted to sell tackle, not sustainability. In fact they then funded a major media campaign as well as legal cases against the government. So too the charter operators who now have a seat on the MAC.
Meanwhile the commercials responsibly took an across-the-board 50% cut and proposed 33 other smart constructive initiatives including quotas and spawning closures (which were all inexplicably rejected).
It’s therefore intriguing to see the commercials now being punished - while those purporting to represent rec fishing interests are being rewarded.
And being rewarded in more ways than one – firstly MACs traditionally attract government sitting fees for participants – and now we see tackle shops being the beneficiaries of $3,300,000 worth of $50 vouchers being handed out to rec fishers. And those paid MAC members that recommend this on one hand and benefit on the other, then get free TV exposure in their shops for the media announcement with the Minister.
Does this pass the sniff test?
Then we see expensive TV advertisements funded by the taxpayer through RFW – and the main actor - whether on the beach or in the restaurant - is the Editor of WA’s major fishing magazine who in turn gets free promotion. And furthermore, one of his regular key magazine contributors (who attacks commercial fishing on social media using a nom-de-plume) is also on the MAC.
[Note, I have personal respect for the Editor - but sorry Scotty, the conflict optics here look awful.]
The bottom line is that the whole situation is a godforsaken mess. It’s been managed terribly from a technical perspective – as well as politically.
It’s no wonder that after six months the community revolt hasn’t subsided and the reputation of Minister Jarvis has been trashed. And it all could’ve been done differently, to secure a fair and reasonable outcome to deliver balanced sustainable fishing in WA.
But there’s no way this can be delivered under current settings.
For instance the MAC has recommended a bag limit of four demersals a day across the state – without any science to support this - and sans any consideration or calculation for the supposed savings from more than 5000 sq kms of marine park sanctuaries in these areas.
They’ve made decisions without any idea of the biomass or fishing pressures, they’re simply grabbing gut-feel numbers out of the sky.
And the MAC has failed to recommend the most important tool of all – the need for mandatory real-time reporting. This would deliver real-time data on current fishing pressures to enable smart management decisions to be taken. The rec data of today has been generated by voluntary phone surveys taken four years ago, it’s ridiculous.
You’d think that the MAC would’ve insisted upon this to be able to do their job – but then again, the App is free and tackle shops can’t profit from it.
And the MAC has stated they now want to encourage fishers to change their practices to target pelagics (btw check out your nearest tackle shop for the $$ cost of these lures), but they’ve failed to consider the serious pressures already on Spanish mackerel which are being dangerously flogged not only by rec boats, but also land-based fishers at places like Steep Point and Quobba.
So now to ‘save the demersals’ the MAC has recommended a surefire (but profitable) recipe to put mackerels at further risk – and guess what, surprise surprise, Minister Jarvis has now agreed.
They’ve also failed to place some long overdue protection for hapuka on the south coast, which are being unreasonably targeted by recs and commercials alike, especially during aggregations in August-September. Everybody knows that the alarm bells are ringing for hapuka, it’s common knowledge - but the MAC “chooses” to ignore the issue.
All I can say is that an industry-wide two-month closure each year would be wildly supported across the south coast (but perhaps not by the tackle shops).
Meanwhile the MAC has recommended an increase in the minimum size for pink snapper, even though they know full well the numbers are abundant. In doing so they have ensured that upsizing will be encouraged, where the fisher will keep throwing back smaller fish that have suffered barotrauma, to face certain death from organ damage (if the sharks don’t get them first). In turn this will set the next assessments up for a considerable handicap due to post-release mortality having gone through the roof, (a critical input to the "modelling".)
And yes on that note, there’s two things that I continually hear from rec fishers as being top-of-mind, these are the ‘plague’ numbers of snapper and shark bite-offs. The MAC, controlled by RFW and tackle shops – have not come up with anything to help their constituents.
Recreational fishers are once again being short-changed by those who purport to represent them.
The End
Meanwhile it’s sad to report that the functionality of DPIRD has collapsed – as they can’t even deliver upon their primary core purpose of sustainable fisheries management.
Yes it’s not easy to run a government agency when the final decisions are ultimately made by Ministers - but that’s not an excuse.
For instance, is ambulance ramping the fault of the Minister or the Health Dept – the answer of course is both.
So questions now hang over the limp and insipid leadership of DPIRD which has brought things to where they are today. Commercial fishing is currently in the active process of being dismantled and shut down forever.
This represents a major dysfunction within the department.
Meanwhile DPIRD has posters all over their office walls reminding themselves of their stated motto of “Protect, Grow and Innovate – that’s what we’re all about!”
Have any of these three values been achieved for commercial fishing?
Obviously not - so it’s clearly a report card of: fail, fail and fail.
The truth is that the DPIRD situation has gone from its former heights and descended into being a complete joke - but not a funny one.
