What is a demersal fish?

A demersal fish is one that lives on or near the seafloor rather than up in the water column. In WA the term covers the slow-growing reef species — WA dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod, red emperor and the emperors — that anglers target by dropping baits or jigs to the bottom over reef and rubble.

When does the WA demersal closure end?

Boat-based recreational fishing for demersal scalefish in the West Coast Bioregion (Kalbarri to Augusta) is closed until spring 2027. The fishery's reopening rules are still being finalised, so confirm current dates with DPIRD before any offshore trip.

Can I still fish for demersal from the shore during the closure?

Yes. The boat-based closure does not apply to land-based fishers, who can keep fishing for demersal scalefish year-round in the West Coast region, outside existing spawning closures. A land-based bag limit of 2 demersal fish applies. Land-based spearfishers, though, cannot take WA dhufish.

What is the demersal bag limit outside the West Coast region?

Outside the West Coast Bioregion, the demersal scalefish mixed daily bag limit is 4 fish combined per angler. Within that, WA dhufish is capped at 1, and red emperor, pink snapper and baldchin groper at 2 each. Baldchin is its own DPIRD row, separate from the tuskfish group. These limits took effect on 1 June 2026.

Why is demersal fishing restricted in WA?

Demersal reef fish grow slowly, breed late and live a long time, so a depleted stock takes decades to recover rather than seasons. The West Coast suite was assessed as overfished, and the closure is designed to let the breeding biomass rebuild.

What size does a WA dhufish have to be to keep?

As of the 1 June 2026 reforms, WA dhufish no longer carry a minimum legal size — it is listed as N/A. Baldchin groper is also N/A. Red emperor and pink snapper (outside the West Coast region) remain 450mm. The bag limits do the work for dhufish now, so check DPIRD for the figures that apply in your bioregion, as West Coast pink snapper has its own rules.

Demersal Fish of WA and the West Coast Closure

If you fish out of a boat anywhere between Kalbarri and Augusta, “demersal” is the word that decides whether your trip is legal. It’s also a word a lot of anglers use without being entirely sure what it covers — which is awkward, given the fines attached. This is a plain-English explainer: what demersal actually means, which WA fish count, what the West Coast closure does, and the bag and size rules that apply. The numbers here are pulled from DPIRD, but rules move, so the DPIRD recreational fishing rules remain the version of record before any trip.

What “Demersal” Actually Means

Demersal fish live on or just above the seafloor, as opposed to pelagic fish — tuna, mackerel, salmon — that roam the open water column. In practice, “demersal” in WA is shorthand for the reef-associated bottom species you catch by getting a bait or jig down onto reef, rubble and broken ground and holding it there.

The headliners are the slow-growing reef fish WA is famous for: WA dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod, and the various emperors. Up north the list extends to red emperor, spangled emperor, rankin cod and the tropical snappers. They share a biology: long-lived, slow to mature, and built to occupy the same patch of reef for decades. That’s exactly what makes them good eating, and exactly what makes them easy to overfish.

The West Coast Closure — What It Does

Here’s the bit that catches people out. Boat-based recreational fishing for demersal scalefish is closed in the West Coast Bioregion — the stretch from Kalbarri down to Augusta that covers virtually every Perth offshore trip. If you hook a demersal fish from a boat in that zone, it goes back in the water as soon as possible. No targeting, no keeping.

The closure is in force and runs until the fishery reopens, currently flagged for spring 2027. The reopening rules — bag limits, possible spawning closures, sanctuary zones — are still being worked through by a ministerial advisory committee, so the exact reopening arrangements aren’t settled. Treat “spring 2027” as the earliest, not a promise. For how this slots in alongside every other dated WA ban, the WA fishing closures calendar lays the year out spot by spot.

Two carve-outs are worth knowing:

Feet on rock or sand are fine. Land-based anglers can still chase demersal scalefish year-round in the West Coast region, subject to the usual spawning closures, under a 2-fish demersal bag. The one exclusion: land-based spearfishers can’t take WA dhufish.
The line on the map is Kalbarri to Augusta. Step north of Kalbarri or down onto the South Coast and demersal fishing carries on under its own bag and size rules — the boat-based ban is a West Coast Bioregion thing only.

This is why the distinction matters at the ramp. “I was land-based” and “I was up north” are real, legal positions. “I was just chasing pinkies off the dhuie ground in my boat” is not.

The Rules Outside the West Coast Region

Where demersal fishing is open, the rules changed on 1 June 2026 under DPIRD’s statewide reforms. The structure is a mixed bag with individual caps inside it:

Demersal scalefish mixed daily bag: 4 fish combined per angler. That’s the total across all demersal species, not 4-per-species.
WA dhufish: 1 within that bag.
Red emperor, pink snapper and baldchin groper: 2 each within that bag. Baldchin is its own line in the DPIRD tables — don’t lump it in with the tuskfish row, which is a different group.

So a north-coast angler might come home with two red emperor and two spangled emperor and be at their limit of four — the mix is up to you, the total is not.

For the full, current figures and the bioregion boundaries, the statewide finfish size and bag limits sheet is the document to keep on your phone.

Key Size Limits

Minimum sizes exist so fish get at least one chance to breed before they’re kept — though the 1 June 2026 reforms removed the hard minimum on a couple of the headline demersals, leaning on the tighter bag limits instead. The ones worth memorising:

WA dhufish — no minimum legal size (N/A). The reforms dropped the old size limit; the bag cap of 1 is what governs dhufish now.
Red emperor — 450mm.
Pink snapper — 450mm outside the West Coast region. West Coast pink snapper, including the Cockburn Sound stock, carry their own size and closure rules, so don’t assume the 450mm figure travels.
Baldchin groper — no minimum legal size (N/A). Don’t confuse it with blackspot tuskfish, which is a separate row with its own 400mm size.
Spangled emperor — 400mm.

Where a size limit does apply, measure every fish. A 30mm miss is still an undersize fish, and “close enough” is not a defence DPIRD recognises.

Why It Matters

It’s tempting to read a closure as bureaucratic over-reach, particularly when the fish are clearly still down there. But demersal reef species are about the worst possible candidate for “she’ll be right” fishing. A WA dhufish can live past 40 years. Big breeding pink snapper are decades old. When you remove the old, large fish from a slow-growing stock, you don’t get them back in a season or two — you get them back in a generation, if you get them back at all.

The West Coast suite was assessed as overfished, which is the unglamorous reason the boat-based closure exists. The trade-off is real: a few seasons of restraint now against a fishery that’s still worth launching the boat for in twenty years. Plenty of WA anglers have watched a stock get belted once already. This is the system trying not to do it twice.

The Bottom Line

Demersal means bottom-dwelling reef fish — dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod, the emperors — and in the West Coast Bioregion, boat-based fishing for them is closed until at least spring 2027. Land-based stays open with a 2-fish limit; outside the region the mixed bag is 4. Before any trip out of Two Rocks Marina, Ocean Reef Marina or further afield at Exmouth, check what applies where you’re launching — the rules genuinely differ by bioregion and by whether your feet are on sand or fibreglass.

Confirm current demersal closures, bag limits and size rules on the DPIRD recreational fishing site before you head out, then check wind, swell, tide and solunar for your launch on BiteCompass.