From Friday 1 March, recreational fishers will have access to southern garfish in the Perth metro area. The prohibition on taking southern garfish will be lifted after a 7 year closure, which was put in place after research identified a high risk to the sustainability of the Cockburn Sound stock. Reducing fishing pressure over this time has helped boost southern garfish stocks and will now provide additional opportunities to fish.
Southern garfish is a delicious bread and butter species for recreational fishers, and they’re part of the statewide mixed species finfish bag limit, set at 30 per person per day.
This result shows the importance of recreational and commercial fishers working together to ensure sustainability of our shared fish stocks. Fishers can help monitor the ongoing health of the southern garfish stock by donating fish frames through the
Send us your skeletons program. Boat and shore-based recreational catch and effort information will be collected via the recreational statewide survey and the 2024/25 shore-based
Metropolitan Monitoring Program.
More information about the reopening of this fishery is available in the
media release.