A letter sent to commercial anglers whose businesses will be hit by a major fishing ban encouraged them to contact a seafood industry-specific mental health organisation that shut down in Western Australia months ago.

The letter, from the Fisheries and Aquaculture executive director Nathan Harrison to licence holders, communicated Wednesday’s total commercial fishing ban of demersal fish species along 900 kilometres of coastline from Kalbarri to Augusta known as the West Coast Zone.

In the correspondence, Harrison said the department recognised “these arrangements may place significant pressure on the operations and livelihoods of fishers, and we acknowledge the uncertainty and stress this can cause.”

Harrison’s message was followed by the number for Lifeline, Beyond Blue and a series of numbers for Stay Afloat – a Commonwealth-funded mental health organisation specifically for people in the seafood industry.

Stay Afloat shut up shop in WA during September after its Commonwealth funding ended that month.

Listed below Stay Afloat was a series of numbers that were actually numbers for WA government-run mental health crisis hotlines.

Nationals fisheries spokeswoman Kirrilee Warr blasted the state government for directing people to a closed mental health service and said it was indicative of its carelessness with the decision.

“Yesterday, the Premier described the shutdown of commercial demersal fisheries in WA as merely ‘inconvenient’ yet at the same time, the Department of Primary Industries was writing to affected fishers directing them to mental-health crisis services such as Lifeline, Beyond Blue, and Stay Afloat,” she said.

“What makes this even worse is that the Government didn’t bother to check whether the information it was providing was accurate.

“This is an insulting failure of communication with WA’s fishing families.

“At a moment of genuine distress, the Government issued outdated and incorrect mental-health information and still hasn’t provided any meaningful detail about compensation or consultation.”

In Parliament, Premier Roger Cook said it was regrettable Stay Afloat was included in the letter, but said the other numbers included did send fishers to the right organisations.

“It’s true that Stay Afloat has suspended services at the moment in relation to its funding, which relates to a Commonwealth Government decision and so that’s obviously regrettable, but it’s good that they have also referred to other services that can support people when they deal with important decisions,” he said.

“I stress we understand that this is a tough decision. It’s a tough decision, a hard decision, but it’s a decision that we have taken on behalf of future generations of fishers to ensure that we have a more sustainable approach.”

When pressed by Warr on whether he would apologise for the blunder, he said: “Member, I’ve already apologised for this tough decision.”

Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis said all numbers referred to in the letter to fishing licence holders connect with legitimate mental health support services and her department had invited all impacted commercial and charter operators to attend briefings on Friday to provide further details on the changes and discuss the next steps.

The demersal ban announced on Wednesday will see commercial fishing of species like snapper and dhufish permanently banned to save the species from the brink of extinction, with scientific modelling suggesting the species were at dangerously low levels.

Commercial fishers in other regions will also be subject to lower catch limits, while trawling off the Pilbara coast has also been totally banned.

Recreational fishers in the West Coast Zone will be banned from fishing off boats until September 2027.

The commercial fishing sector was shocked by the decision, saying it would decimate the industry and see hundreds of businesses in the supply chain impacted or shut down altogether.

A Mid West commercial fisherman told this masthead the whole process had been an “abomination.”

“The roll-on effects from down the chain through certain processes, the retail specialty guys, are all going to be wiped out,” said the fisherman, who asked to remain anonymous.

He questioned the fish stock data that informed the government’s decision and said it didn’t match his reality on the water.

“The bottom line is we know there is more fish than they’re telling us. Their modelling is fine, it’s the data that goes into the modelling that is absolute rubbish.

“They don’t do enough sampling. They have completely stuffed it up and with it the livelihoods of hundreds of people.”

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