Margaret River fisherman Verne Wilde’s reaction to news of a wide-ranging commercial demersal fishing ban in the West Coast fishing zone was right up there, as far as understatements go.

“Wednesday was pretty hard.”

The owner of Southwest Wilde Catch, who works exclusively in the West Coast zone – a region stretching from Kalbarri south to Black Point near Augusta – now has less than a month to wind down a career that’s been 25 years in the making.

Wilde’s office is a two-person boat that doesn’t head out over winter when the swell is up.

Together with a deckhand, he catches all his fish by hand and dry-fillets it back on land.

Compared to more modern methods, fishing like this is a slower, more labour-intensive process, but the pay-off is deftly handled seafood of outstanding eating quality.

For the past six years, Wilde has sold fish at the weekly Margaret River Farmers Market directly to the public.

His fan club includes professional cooks, including Evan Hayter of hatted Margaret River fine-diner de’sendent.

Hayter often takes whatever whole fish Wilde catches – dhufish, or hapuka – and dry-ages it in-house before deciding how to showcase it via the restaurant’s fluid tasting menus.

“Those fish are my point of difference,” Hayter says.

“What’s the point of restaurants if not to celebrate regional ingredients?”

Seafood and hospitality industry workers fear Wednesday’s decisions were made with an everyone-in-the-same-fishing-boat mentality.

The ban – which also prevents recreational fishers catching demersal species from a boat until 2027 – was brought in to protect plummeting fish stocks of demersal species like pink snapper and dhufish.

“We’ve been working for years to maintain these fish stocks, but we are simply not winning the battle,” WA Premier Roger Cook said this week.

Wednesday’s announcement also ended commercial shark fishing in the West Coast and Southern regions, which will be felt at neighbourhood fish and chippers where most of the shark goes to, as well as trawling in the Pilbara region.

According to government reports, the Pilbara trawler fishery harvested 2485 tonnes of seafood between 2022 and 2023. But fishmongers say this fishery is vital to putting blue spot emperor, threadfin bream, tropical snapper and other small fish on WA tables.

“That’s about 30 to 40 tonnes of fish each week on average that isn’t going to market,” says Phil Clark of seafood distributor and small bar Fins Seafood.

“A lot of that is your bread-and-butter fish that people get at their local fish shop and take home for dinner.

“[After the ban] we’re not going to see that many of those fish and that’s going to be what affects West Australian people being able to eat West Australian fish on a weekly or monthly basis.”

Fins – and other seafood suppliers – will now have to source more fish from the eastern states and overseas.

For a state that’s proud of its seafood, this is a bitter pilchard to swallow, as will be incoming price hikes.

New seafood country of origin laws that come into play nationally in July are also predicted to have an effect on pricing.

During an at-times heated meeting on Friday morning between commercial fishermen and the Fisheries department at its Hillarys office, attendees questioned the figures used to drive the decision-making as well as the lack of industry consultation.

News that the compensation process was “likely to open to offers from April 2026” did little to quell concerns.

After September 2027, the only people who will be able to fish in the West Coast fishing will be those with one of the 130,000 recreational boat fishing licenses issued each year.

Anthony Haslewood of Revolution Fisheries, based in the South West, felt the situation “seems kind of elitist”.

Although Haslewood has a license to fish in regions other than the West Coast fishing zone, he recently purchased a processing facility in Augusta where he sells product from similarly minded fishermen.

In the space of a few days, his investment suddenly looks shaky.

While the government has announced support packages for those affected – $3.3 million for tackle shop rebates; $1.9 million for alternative recreational fishing experiences – many in the industry say that these amounts are inadequate.

The $20 million assigned to buy back licenses from affected fishermen adds up to about 25 cents to the dollar of what some operators paid for their licenses, even before factoring in boats, nets, properties and other assets.

“This loss doesn’t just affect fishermen,” says chef Blaze Young, executive chef of Edward & Ida’s, Nieuw Ruin and Foxtrot Unicorn.

“It echoes through restaurants, seafood suppliers and the wider local economy.

“I’m already worried about the impact on pricing and supply. Fish that have long been staples on WA menus may either disappear or become luxuries.

“Something that’s part of WA’s culinary identity is at risk.”

“Even if the payout is really good, I’d rather be fishing,” says Wilde as he turns his attention to ending the year on an up-note.

“I’d rather be out at sea surrounded by whales, dolphins and the odd white shark.

“A lot of people would be in awe seeing what we get to see. It’s all pretty special.”

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