DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES ANNUAL REPORT TO THE ...

AgENCy PERFORMANCE � CASE STUDy 2
Management strategies succeed in boosting
Cockburn Sound crab numbers
Crab fishers benefited during the 2010/11 summer
from continuing improvement in blue swimmer
crab stocks in Cockburn Sound, off the Perth
metropolitan coast.
Stocks of blue swimmer crabs are recovering
well after a three-year total freeze on crab fishing
was lifted in the 2009/10 summer and replaced
by a limited three-and-a-half-month fishing season.
The fishery’s continuing recovery enabled Fisheries
Minister Norman Moore to extend the 2010/11
recreational season to four-and-a-half months,
allowing crabbers to enjoy the pastime over Easter.
The duration of the commercial crab fishing
season in Cockburn Sound remained the same as
in the previous year (December 15 – March 31),
but the minimum size of blue swimmer crabs that
commercial fishers were allowed to catch was
reduced to 135 mm carapace width from 140 mm.
The Department will continue to monitor crab
stocks in Cockburn Sound as a priority for the
foreseeable future.
Recreational fishing rules – available on a
special flyer – ‘Crabbing for blue swimmer crabs in
the West Coast Region’ – include a minimum size
limit of 127 mm carapace width, a bag limit of 10
crabs per fisher per day, and a boat limit of 20
crabs.
The recreational Cockburn Sound crab fishery was extended to
four-and-a-half months during 2010/11, as stocks recovered
well after a three-year total freeze on crab fishing, which was
lifted in 2009/10.
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