Under a 
policy developed through work with Indigenous groups and other stakeholders in other sectors, we acknowledge the importance of customary fishing to the continuing Aboriginal cultures in Western Australia, and to ensuring a comprehensive and sustainable integrated fisheries management framework.
This policy has been instituted in recent amendments to the Fish Resources Management Act 1994, which now provides the ‘head powers’ required to define and protect customary fishing rights, and the capacity to regulate customary fishing to ensure sustainability of fish stocks.
Work on new arrangements for customary fishing will be progressed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.
A list of frequently asked questions provides further information about customary fishing.