By Chris Thomson | posted on May 3, 2018
PREMIER Mark McGowan says a trial of mandatory life jackets will occur at Salmon Holes after two Afghani nationals from Mount Barker were swept from rocks at the Albany fishing hotspot on Saturday.
The 45 and 50 year old survived, but both were rushed to Albany Hospital for treatment after they were swept off rocks just after midday and made their way to a reef before onlookers helped them to the beach.
In the wake of the latest emergency incident at Salmon Holes, Mr McGowan on Monday said trialling mandatory lifejackets for rock fishers there was a priority for his government.
“Look, what we’ve seen in the course of the last 15 or 16 years is 34 people die from coming off the rocks while fishing,” he said.
“That’s more than double the number of people killed by sharks.
“So obviously we need to take further action.”
On Easter Monday, days after a coroner’s report into the deaths of Perth fishermen Chunjun Li and Jialong Zhang at Salmon Holes in Easter 2015 recommended that lifejackets be mandated for rock fishers, Bayonet Head man Samuel Roth was swept to his death off rocks near West Cape Howe.
Mr McGowan acknowledged some safety measures had already been implemented, with tie-down points and life-saving rings placed at dangerous spots.
“But we still see people injured or killed rock fishing,” he said.
“So what we’re looking at is gazetting certain areas where you must wear a life jacket if you’re rock fishing.
“Salmon Holes in Albany would be an obvious candidate for that.”
Mr McGowan said the chances of someone surviving a fall into the ocean while wearing a life jacket were “very high”.
“That’s one of the things that we’re looking at, whether existing laws allow us to gazette areas like that as requiring wearing a life jacket,” he said.
“If the existing laws don’t allow us to do that, well then we’ll have to look at what new laws need to be drafted or new regulations need to be drafted.
“It would only be in certain defined locations, not on every rock across every beach in Western Australia.”
Mr McGowan said a mandatory lifejacket law would be enforced by Parks and Wildlife, and Fisheries, officers.
“I’ve spoken to [Fisheries] Minister [Dave Kelly] about this after the fatality in Albany,” he said.
“Because, what the Coroner said, as I understand it, was that if you go rock fishing then you need to wear a life jacket.
“Now, obviously where the coastline’s 16,000km, [it’s] very difficult to police that and also, what actually is a rock versus a beach, if you know what I mean.”
For anyone who did not know what he meant, the Premier painted a picture.
“You can sometimes be standing on a beach and there’s rocks there – are you rock fishing?” he posed.
“So, what I thought was a good compromise way of dealing with that is you gazette certain areas where there have been fatalities before and you say if you’re going to rock fish there you must wear a life jacket.
“And Salmon Holes would be an ideal trial location.”
