Western Australia Fisheries in Decline

Last year I was contacted by fishermen operating out of Broome, Western Australia who wanted some independent scientific advice regarding the validity of a need for effort reduction claimed by their Department of Fisheries (DoFWA). Upon looking into the matter I found that seven boats fishing a total of 220 traps with 160 days annual access were said to be overfishing a shelf area in excess of 200,000 Km2 in the heart of some of the highest primary productivity waters around Australia.