1 month ago
11
January 22, 2026 — 3:27pm
Two men have been fined for dumping shark heads and fish guts outside the WA Fisheries Minister’s electoral office last month in what was a stinky protest against the state’s new fishing ban.
East Bunbury man Brendan Bardowski, 37, admitted to trespassing on Jackie Jarvis’ Margaret River office on December 29 with a trailer load of fish guts, and littering.
During sentencing at Bunbury Magistrates Court on Thursday, the court was told that before dumping the shark and fish waste, the group also hung up a pair of fishing pants with the words ‘To Jackie, from all fishers’ written on them.
The self-employed plasterer’s lawyer said he was not the primary offender, but was nonetheless “disgruntled by recent fishing laws”.
Bardowski was fined $1500 and ordered to pay court costs.
His co-offender Drew Brewster, 34, from Carey Park also admitted his part in the protest, although claimed he only really went along for the car ride and regretted his decision.
He was fined $2000 after police also found cannabis in his home.
The third alleged protester, fisherman Mason Jones, 36, requested an adjournment for his case and is yet to enter a plea. His request to have his bail amended to allow him to speak with Jarvis about the ban was denied.
“To me that’s a way of silencing me again because I need to reach out to these people, the person I’m down not to talk to, to try and get things going for us in the South West,” he said.
“I’m no threat to that person, I claimed full accountability of what happened.”
Jones claimed police were wasting resources on his case in what he thought was an attempt to control him.
“I had five police cars and 15 police officers show up at my property that day, it’s about silencing, it’s not about justice,” he said.
“It’s not going to stop me, I’m going to keep going … the government needs to realise they’ve kicked a hornets’ nest this time, you’ve shut down forestry, you’ve shut down farming, fishing is for everyone, we’re surrounded by water, you’ve kicked the wrong nest and you need to start giving back to the people.”
In response to the stunt, Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said the fishing ban was a tough but necessary decision.
“I understand people are upset. But this was not an easy decision. We made the decision because it’s the right thing to do, because we need to have a sustainable fishery,” he said.
“We want to have those demersal species there in the future so that my grandkids and great-grandchildren can have those fish to put a line in and to have commercial industries still sustainable in the future.”
Fishing advocacy groups claim they have been blindsided by the state government’s decision to enforce a sweeping demersal fishing ban, effective from January 1, 2026, without proper consultation.
Many fishers say they’ve lost their livelihoods overnight with a legal challenge mounted in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
