Fisherman locks boat to Geraldton fisheries office in demersal ban protest

1 month ago 4

A Geraldton shark fisher locked his boat to the gate of a WA government department complex overnight in the latest protest against Labor’s controversial demersal fishing ban.

John Higham of Higham’s Fresh Fish said he locked his boat to the gate of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development facility out of frustration that bureaucrats were not listening to fishers affected by the ban.

John Higham locked his boat to the DPIRD facility in Geraldton on Tuesday morning.

“It’s just been kicked in the guts really, like, how am I gonna pay my mortgage now?” he told this masthead.

Higham uses a net to catch sharks off the Geraldton coast and said he had been successful in avoiding picking up fish like dhufish and snapper, but the demersal ban announced in December had, by extension, removed his ability to fish for shark.

He said he had tried to explain the situation to Fisheries bureaucrats, but it had fallen on deaf ears, and now his business was in peril.

“Basically, on all these pieces of paper ... there’s no phone number, all you can do is email. I don’t know how to email, even when I do get my wife to email, we never hear back. So that’s very frustrating,” he said.

Higham said he had been offered a $2000 act of grace payment ahead of full compensation for his fishing licences.

He said he was told his licence compensation would be about $6000, an amount he claimed significantly undervalued his business which could make up to $2500 on a good day of fishing.

Higham said Tuesday morning’s protest was about sending the government a message.

“The message was, ‘if I can’t go to work, why should they be allowed to go to work?’,” he said.

Staff used an angle grinder to cut the chain used to lock Higham’s boat to the gate and Higham picked it up on Tuesday morning.

The demersal fishing ban off the western coast zone, which took effect on January 1, has prompted significant backlash from WA’s commercial fishing community.

On December 29, three men were charged after dumping shark heads on the doorstep of Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis’ electorate office.

On Tuesday, Premier Roger Cook defended his government’s ban and the consultation undertaken ahead of December’s announcement.

“We undertook a significant process of consultation with the fishing community ahead of the announcements that we made towards the end of last year, and that included our fishing forum,” he said.

“We had all the stakeholders in the one room in the Parliament House to actually talk about what is the future.

“What is not an option is to continue to have the reduction of our demersal fish stock that we have been seeing, witnessing over the last 20 years.

“Someone had to act, and we’ve all had to contribute to ensure that we can sustain this fish stock into the future.

“The only winners out of this are the dhufish. The only winners out of this are the environment. We all have to play a role to make sure that we can preserve this fish stock for future generations.”

On Monday, Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas confirmed it was likely his party would support a Nationals disallowance motion to reverse the demersal commercial fishing ban when his party met again ahead of the return of parliament.

“I can be very clear, we stand in support of our fishers, and we do believe that what has taken place is broadly not fair,” he said.

DPIRD and Jarvis were approached for comment.