Two fishermen in Western Australia who failed to comply with regulations designed to minimise whale entanglements found themselves ordered by a Perth court to pay hefty fines, and forfeited fishing gear.
Fisheries compliance officers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) identified the floating lines in October 2019, but the case has only now finished its passage through the justice system as a Perth Magistrate’s court heard officers seized nine lobster pots off the coast of Scarborough, where a part of the pot line for each pot was trailing across the surface of the water.
Evidence showed that two commercial fishermen had been aware of the trailing rope and did not comply with the rule that requires the top third of the length of the pot lines to be held vertically in the water column.
Two commercial fishermen pleaded guilty and each received fines and court costs of $7453.90 for failing to comply with the management rules. The magistrate also made an order of forfeiture for the nine seized pots.
DPIRD’s Director Regional Compliance Metro, Todd A’Vard said the rules were very important in reducing the hazard of entanglement of whales migrating along the Western Australian coast.
Measures focussed on reducing rope and floats and eliminating floating rope in waters deeper than 20 metres came into force seven years ago.
According to DPIRD, research has shown these measures, which also ensure that less rope is used and most of it is held vertically in the water column, have significantly reduced the number of entanglements by an average of 64% and annual entanglements have fallen to single figures.
