Tag Archives: Fish Size Limits
New scientific paper throws conventional thinking about minimum sizes for fish out the window
At last, after decades of so-called reviews of minimum sizes which have basically just fiddled at the edges, an Australian fisheries management authority has finally fundamentally questioned and analysed the use of minimum sizes as an effective tool for sustainable fish species management. Our friends in WA have issued Fisheries Management Paper No. 279; Policy on the Application of Fish Size Limits in Western Australia. In eight concise pages it addresses one of the oldest types of management tools used in fisheries, the setting of minimum size limits for all popular species targeted by recreational and commercial fishers. It concludes that often setting these limits is a waste of time. The Policy has then been used as the basis of the subsequent Fisheries Management Paper No. 280 which outlines proposals for reviewing the appropriateness of all current size limits that apply to finfish species in WA. Read the story here 16:03
