'What's a demersal scalefish?' you may ask. To put it simply, demersal scalefish are those fish that live on or near to the ocean floor out in deeper water. They include some of our favourite fish to catch and to eat including dhufish, baldchin groper and pink snapper. Recently, the Minister for Fisheries has announced a lot of rule changes to how people are allowed to catch these fish. There are a number of reasons for this, but first, it's important to understand about the way fish like these live in their watery home, how they grow and how they reproduce.
Grow-slow scalefish
Fish like dhufish, are slow-growing and can live up to 40 years. So if someone catches a big, old fish it will take a long time for another fish to grow to take its place. In addition, it is the bigger fish that produce the most eggs ensuring that there are more dhufish in the future. Another problem is that some years dhufish lay lots of eggs, while other years they only lay a few. This makes it difficult for the dhufish to keep their numbers up—especially when fishers are so keen to catch them. On the other hand, other demersal scalefish like pink snapper, gather in huge numbers when it is time to spawn, which makes it a lot easier to catch them.
Fish in strife
On top of all of this, there are more and more people buying boats and going out to fish. Now they have also got hi-tech computers that can tell them where the fish are and fantastic fishing tackle that makes catching these fish much easier. The Department of Fisheries has already made new rules that allow fishers to catch smaller numbers of these fish when they go fishing. But a recent study by Department of Fisheries scientists shows that unless we cut the amount of these fish we catch in a year by at least a half—then their numbers will reduce very quickly. If this happens, it won't be worth fishing for them anymore and we won't be able to enjoy a lovely feed of WA fresh-caught snapper and chips.
Fish school rules
To try and stop this from happening, the new fishing rules will mean that people can't fish for these species for a chunk of the year. This will mean less fish will get caught and will give them a rest. At the time of going to press new licences are being considered for different kinds of fishing. The money from these new licences will be spent on more research and education on these fantastic fish and more Fisheries and Marine Officers to make sure the rules are being followed by fishers.
