Overview
- Bunbury detectives charged a 36-year-old Bunbury man, a 34-year-old Carey Park man and a 37-year-old East Bunbury man with trespass and depositing litter, with two also facing cannabis possession counts; two firearms were seized over expired licences, and all are due in Bunbury Magistrates Court on January 22.
- The protest involved about 200 kilograms of shark heads dumped outside Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis’s Margaret River office, alongside fishing overalls bearing the message “To Jackie, from all fishers.”
- The state’s commercial demersal fishing ban is scheduled to start on January 1 across roughly 900 kilometres from Kalbarri to Augusta, with recreational restrictions already in force since December 16.
- The Cook government says stock assessments show excessive pressure on demersal species, and it has committed a $29.2 million Fisheries Support Package to help affected operators and communities.
- Fishing businesses and advocates continue to challenge the reforms, including legal actions by Sea Harvest and Seafresh and warnings from MPs about lost livelihoods for about 300 commercial licence holders.