Recreational fishers need to play their part in river care

With the sunny weather, more fishers will be heading to the Swan River to wet a line and with the hope of catching a feed of Swan River Bream or Mulloway.

Hon Alison Xamon MLC, Greens Member for East Metropolitan Region today called for all recreational fishers to play their part in looking after the health of the river by not leaving behind old fishing tackle, line and bait bags.   

“Discarded fishing line was recently implicated in the deaths of two Swan River dolphins.  The lines had entangled the dolphins resulting in deep wounds, which became infected.  Clearly recreational fishers would like to continue their access to the Swan River and foreshore.  They need to take responsibility for their part in caring for the river,” Alison said.

“Like many people who live in East Metro the river is an important part of mine and my family’s recreational life.  And as a regular user of the river foreshore too often I have seen tangled fishing line among the foreshore reeds, amongst the other rubbish.”

“Maybe the time has come for biodegradable fishing line to be made mandatory for recreational fishers in Western Australia,” she said.

“Though of course that is looking for a technology fix where it really shouldn’t be needed if all fishers took all possible care to remove their rubbish once they have finished fishing.”

“I am also concerned that people seem to storing, launching and landing boats away from boat ramps.  This causes erosion of banks and trees are falling into the river, especially where boat speed and wake is not managed.”

The recently released Swan River Trust investigation into boat wash in the upper reaches has called for the 8 knot speed limit to be further reduced to 5 knots.  The Greens endorse this approach, along with increased education and strict compliance monitoring for speeding boats in the upper reaches of the Swan and Canning.