WA Bait Supply in Perth, Western Australia | Sport & recreation

WA Bait Supply

Locality: Perth, Western Australia

Phone: +61 8 9314 1755

Address: 7 Adams Street 6163 Perth, WA, Australia

Website: http://www.wabaitsupply.com.au

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19.01.2022 School holidays are almost upon us! Get down to WA Bait Supply for all your bait needs and hook onto a winner

19.01.2022 As I write this, the entire fishing industry in Western Australia holds it’s breath to see what happens with the stand off between the minister for Fisheries of...fice and the Western Australian Rock lobster industry. Western Australia hosts the most successful single species fishery in Australia, our Western Rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus ). It’s a fishery that by world standards has evolved as a textbook example of what Australia does best in fishing. A low volume high value export fishery. Characterised by smart, adaptive management that reflects the ups and downs of the stock and a quota system that has successfully worked to unlock the value of the fishery and our lobsters. The fishermen, the exporters and our own fisheries department have all built an industry that is sustainable, makes profits, pays taxes and employs people in regional Australia. It leaves no scars across our landscape, no saline degradation and it contributes back to our state and our country in a way that many industries would envy. This is a fishery that is successful by world standards and one we should be proud of . When a fishery is successful, it attracts investors who are prepared to pay considerable price earnings multiples to be part of the action. It is what you will see in any free market where an investor makes an investment decision based on anticipated risk and anticipated return. One of the things that has always made Australia attractive to investors and that includes all our industries and markets from shares to agriculture is the concept of sovereign risk. Sovereign risk can be defined as the risk of a government doing something stupid, corrupt or crazy that shift the regulatory goalposts of how that industry operates. Low sovereign risk is absolutely one of the reasons why a bank in Australia will finance a farming operation or a fishing operation here because they know governments are unlikely to make ad hoc, radical changes to the rules. Try going to your bank manager and asking them if you can borrow money to buy a farm in Zimbabwe, or fishing quota in South Africa and see how quickly you get shown the door. To create a successful fishery you must first define who may catch the fish and when. All around the world this is addressed by creating limited entry fisheries which is what we have done in Australia. This creates licenses, pots, quota or units or rights to catch the fish. Like the name suggests. It means there is a limit on who can participate. It is a bit like a marriage and the proponents who buy in are usually are in it for the long haul, for better or for worse, which is exactly what it has been like in Western Rock Lobster. Ten years ago the fishery was in real trouble and all involved made sacrifices to get the stock back into the condition that it is today Enter our current Western Australian fisheries minister and his advisors. Who have decided that now that the stock is in better shape. That they want some of those lobsters and have put up a proposal to take 17% of the available catch for themselves. It has sparked incredulity worldwide. So they want to take a commercial stake in the very same thing they have been tasked with by our community to regulate. The rationale as articulated so far by the minister who is now in the esteemed company of his counterparts in countries like Ivory Coast, Russia and South Africa. Is wrapped up in populist mumbo jumbo. Like growing tourism and jobs and how lobsters are too expensive How his government is going to organise an international lobster festival and everybody is climbing over each other to be part of it. And then the one that there’s insufficient return to the state from an industry that most of us thought was a textbook example of how to build a sustainable industry that really did pay it’s own way. What I find interesting in all this is the gap between our perceived reality as businesspeople, and that of our minister. Do we really exist in these perceptual parallel universes? Has the minister ever created a job himself? Have his advisors ever worked anywhere else than in the public service or political realm?, Does he understand the role of government in creating the framework of confidence to operate business in Australia today? And how exactly, is his idea going to benefit the Western Australian community? Most of Perth already dined on lobster this Christmas because the strength of the lobster stock has created a bonanza for our recreational fishers as well and lobsters are fast becoming our new christmas currency . Or lastly, that his department, which barely has the capabilities left to make a pot of tea, would have the skills, motivation or inclination to create and run an International Lobster festival? It’s just plain whacko. Part of the problem with fisheries management in Western Australia is we get very little cross pollination from the rest of the world and then our thinking becomes incestuous. We grow our own fisheries managers and ministerial advisors through our tertiary education systems or trade union systems and they in turn are increasingly politicized by those who see the management of our surrounding oceans as opportunity to alleviate our collective guilt about every other perceived environmental failure we have ever made. They can’t seem to accept that our oceans are capable of creating sustainable industries that are world class . They want us all in Australia to be these old guys with beards sitting on the wharf mending nets and smoking a pipe, so as not to challenge their order of perception. Not a single one of them, has ever operated a business. Those old guys you see on the wharf round here can't sit down, their backs are stuffed from years of lifting craypots on the sea as they built up their family businesses and the industry. It is a legitimate strategy worldwide when you have sophisticated management of a fishery to bank the stock. That is you leave them alive in their natural environment and harvest them as your markets require. To achieve this you have to have the mechanisms to control who can participate and when. The concept that a government would then come in and take ownership of that banked stock strips away any incentive that fishermen have to manage for the future and sends the message that you are better to flog your stock because if you get it into good shape they will just take it and sell it on to somebody else. The return to our Western Australian community will always be better from a stock that is fished to maximum economic yield than one that is fished to maximum sustainable yield. Economically and environmentally, the proposal to create 1700 tonnes of additional lobster quota to be sold and then caught is spectacularly dumb. It jeopardises everything that everybody involved in the rock lobster fishery has worked so hard to achieve and offers no lasting benefits to our state. I suspect our minister is starting to feel the heat because just before Christmas the he sends out a press release to reassure the West Australian fishing industry that rock lobster is Unique and that he has no intention of nationalising units in any other West Australian fishery. He even gave his word for what that might be worth. Rock lobster is not unique. It is a world class fishery that has been built by some visionary people who have worked harder than this minister can ever imagine and have hundreds of millions of dollars of their own skin in the game. It’s what we all aspire our fisheries to be. That his office would be so crass as to send out a thinly disguised invitation to the rest of our industry to throw rock lobster under the bus, reflects appalling lack of judgement. The West Australian and indeed, the national fishing industry will stand united here. We will not be throwing rock lobster under the bus. This is unprecedented and as sure as the sun rises, every other successful fishery in Western Australia that chooses to restore and bank its stocks will be next. We will fight this as an industry with every resource we have available to us, because it is poorly thought out public policy that risks destroying immense value in Australian fisheries by people who are economically and philosophically out of their depth. It is a fundamental breach of all the covenants of trust and surety that businesses need from government and which the Australian government historically provides. We will not accept it.

18.01.2022 KARRATHA we’re back on Dreamers Hill!! We will be here until 7pm so come stock up for your fishing trip!!

17.01.2022 Do you want these tasty creatures on your table for Christmas? With only seven weeks to go, you’ve got just enough time to catch your own! We’ve got the bait! Tuna Heads, Orange Roughy heads, Hoki heads, Blue Mack, Barracuda heads, and more! Get down to WA Bait Supply for all your cray bait needs!! Happy Fishing

14.01.2022 It’s back! LUNDS Californian/Loligo Squid. Get in quick, while stocks last

09.01.2022 Open & ready for business on Dreamers Hill, Karratha! Come grab some quality bait.

07.01.2022 Cray season has kicked off with reports of some great local catching!! We have a selection of yummy fish & fish heads that the Crayfish won't be able to resist! Come on down to WA Bait Supply to get your Cray bait! Happy catching

05.01.2022 We wouldn't be where we are without the great Fishermen in our community!

04.01.2022 NOT good news folks!! This could see dramatic consequence to not only our multi generational family fishing business, but also to YOUR bait supply. All Mulies sold for bait in Perth are caught in Albany- brand regardless-, so if you've fished in Perth, with a Mulie on your hook- this will affect you. Please help in voicing your concerns through media/politicians/public forums, and do what you can to help our businesses stay afloat. Every bit of local support will help us.

03.01.2022 We are back on Dreamers Hill today until 10 for our LAST day!! Come grab some quality bait before we leave town.

01.01.2022 KARRATHA we are coming back! Just in time for the Dampier Classic Fishing Comp! For all price/quantity inquiries, please DM us here at WA Bait. Thanks guys!!

01.01.2022 The Perth Fishing Safaris guys smashing the Pink Snapper near Perth using our Blue Mack and Scalies as bait!!