Abalone hour: Greedy fishers fined for trying to bag excess abalone in second session of strict season

Dozens of greedy fishers were fined during the second session of the abalone fishing season on Saturday.

The tightly managed season occurs across four one-hour sessions between 7am and 8am along a stretch of the WA coast to protect stocks of the prized mollusc.

But that didn’t stop some of the hundreds of wannabe fishers from trying to flout the strictly enforced rules.

Fisheries officers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development on patrol across the Western Zone, which spans from Busselton Jetty to the Greenough River mouth and includes Rottnest, Carnac, Garden and Penguin islands, issued 38 infringements to punters exceeding the bag limit of 15 per licensed fisher.

Some of those infringements were also for people fishing with no recreational abalone fishing licence, which costs just $50.

Penalties for bag limit offences range between $50 and $1000.

Authorities issued a further 21 warnings for excess bag limit and undersized abalone.

The minimum size for Roe’s abalone is 60mm across the widest part of the shell. Punters are also prohibited from shucking within 200m of the beach.

Surf Lifesaving WA volunteers were also out in force Saturday morning, with more than 180 lifesavers and 35 rescue craft patrolling the coast between Mandurah and Yanchep to keep people safe as they did their best to secure some of the highly sought after catch.

There were just four rescues and 13 instances of first aid, compared to 11 and 21, respectively, in the first session last month.

Lifesavers also had fewer interactions to improve the personal safety of fishers, with 655 compared to 776 last month.

The remaining abalone hours are scheduled for February 7 and 21. All dates are dependent on weather conditions.