Small fishing boats usually fill every space at Green Head Caravan Park on WA’s Midwest coast at this time of year, as fishers flock to the town to cast a line.
Now, a single tinnie and a couple of caravans are all that can be seen on the site.
Caravan park owner Louis Florisson said visitor numbers were the lowest they had been since his family began running the business 10 years ago, and they may have to consider closing.
Green Head caravan park has been largely empty during its peak period. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Brianna Melville)
Mr Florisson said he started getting calls from visitors cancelling their bookings within hours of the state government’s announcement of a new raft of fishing restrictions earlier this month.
The measures included a ban on recreational boat-based fishing until spring 2027.
The announcement came two weeks before the fishery between Kalbarri and Augusta was expected to reopen to recreational fishers on December 16.
Mr Florisson said as a result, the small coastal town of Green Head, 250 kilometres north of Perth, lost its biggest drawcard.
Louis Florisson says visitor numbers are the lowest his family has seen in 10 years. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Brianna Melville)
“That was the main reason people would come here, you can go not that far off the coast and get some really nice sized dhufish and baldie and snapper,” he said.
“A lot of people had booked to come up on the 16th. It only gave people about a week to change their plans.”
However, hopes senior travellers, kite surfers and international tourists will be able to make up the losses.
“If we had a bit of warning, we’d have been able to target those audiences, but the whole community has relied on fishing,” he said.
Cabins and caravan parks remain empty in Green Head after a drop in tourist numbers. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Brianna Melville)
Staff dropped, businesses sold
Twenty minutes down the road from Green Head, a tackle shop business has experienced a 20 per cent blow to its expected sales.
Seasport Tackle Jurien Bay owner Shane Younger said he expected the losses to worsen over the rest of December and January, which was usually his peak period.
To keep his shop afloat, he has dropped two junior summer staff, decommissioned three bait freezers and sold his adjoining laundromat business.
“I’ve really missed already some of my main customers I get year in and year out,” he said.
“I think they’ll say, ‘Look, we can’t catch a dhufish, let’s go to Bali or drive up to Exmouth or Shark Bay.'”
A tackle store owner in Jurien Bay says sales have dropped since the ban on boat-based demersal fishing. (ABC News: Chris Lewis)
Mr Younger had already ordered more than $100,000 worth of stock for the summer, which he doubts he will be able to sell until the ban lifts in 21 months.
He said many other tackle shops, bait and ice suppliers on the west coast were also suffering large falls in expected sales.
“It’s huge for some of the other shops that aren’t as diverse [in products],” he said.
“All these WA family-owned businesses, they all need [customers] to help out, shop with us, don’t send your money over east.”
A state government spokesperson said it was working to roll out a Fisheries Support Package as soon as possible, which would include $1.9 million for alternative recreational fishing experiences and $3.3 million in tackle shop vouchers to encourage fishers to target other species and support local businesses.
“Our iconic demersal fish species like dhufish and snapper are on the verge of extinction in some parts of WA,” they said in a statement.
“These are reforms designed to save demersal fish and there are still alternative locations and species to fish in the West Coast zone.
“Charter fishing for demersals under the tag system will continue in the Midwest.”
