Western Australia sets 2026-27 commercial whitebait season with weekend closures

Commercial whitebait fishing in Western Australia will be allowed in two blocks this season — from 1 November to 21 December 2026 and from 5 January to 31 March 2027 — after the Minister for Fisheries replaced the prohibition clause of the state’s whitebait order. The Prohibition on Commercial Fishing for Whitebait Amendment Order 2026, signed by Jackie Jarvis, MLC, and dated 26 October 2026, was published in the Western Australian Government Gazette No. 138 of Friday, 30 October 2026 (Fisheries, FI401, LLS ID 36426). The order takes effect on the day it is published, so the new season rules were in force from the date of gazettal, two days before the first window opens.

The instrument is made under section 43 of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994, the provision under which the Minister may prohibit the taking of fish for a commercial purpose in specified waters. It amends rather than replaces the Prohibition on Commercial Fishing for Whitebait Order 2019, which remains the operative instrument: the amending order deletes clause 3 of the 2019 order and inserts new prohibition and exception provisions in its place. The notice appears at page 2497 of the gazette under the Fisheries heading, as notice FI401, and its operative text is confined to those substituted clauses.

Under the substituted clause 3, a person must not take whitebait for a commercial purpose in the waters specified in the Schedule to the 2019 order. The amending order does not restate those waters; it leaves the Schedule untouched and changes only the prohibition and the periods during which the prohibition does not apply.

First window: 1 November to 21 December 2026

The first opening runs for seven weeks, up to and including 21 December 2026. As gazetted, this period is stated without day-level carve-outs, so the notice imposes no weekend or public-holiday restriction on the first window.

• Start of the first period: 1 November 2026.
• End of the first period: 21 December 2026.
• Day-level exclusions attached to this period: none stated in the order.

The gap that follows keeps the fishery closed over the Christmas and New Year period, resuming in the first week of January.

Second window: 5 January to 31 March 2027

The second opening begins on 5 January 2027 and runs to 31 March 2027, but it carries restrictions that the first period does not. Clause 3 does not apply for that period except in relation to the following days, which are excluded:

• any public holiday;
• any Saturday or Sunday immediately preceding a public holiday;
• any Saturday or Sunday in January 2027.

The practical effect is a shorter effective season than the calendar span suggests. The carve-outs do two things at once: they shut down individual public holidays and the weekend immediately before each of them, and they remove every Saturday and Sunday in January 2027 outright, whatever the holiday timetable.

Inclusive dates and how the order reads

A note appended to the clause states that all specified dates are inclusive of the day, so 21 December 2026 and 31 March 2027 are themselves fishing days under the order, and the exclusion dates are excluded in full.

• Citation: Prohibition on Commercial Fishing for Whitebait Amendment Order 2026.
• Made by the Minister under section 43 of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994.
• Amends: Prohibition on Commercial Fishing for Whitebait Order 2019, by replacing clause 3.
• Signed: Jackie Jarvis, MLC, Minister for Fisheries, 26 October 2026.
• Commencement: the day of publication in the Gazette.

The structure of the substituted text also shows how the two windows differ in regulatory weight: the first is a straight six-to-seven-week opening, while the second is an opening with a list of excluded days written into it.

What it means for the commercial fleet

For operators, the order is the operative calendar for the commercial whitebait season: it fixes a start date only two days after gazettal, closes the fishery across Christmas and New Year, and then reopens it in January under a weekend and public-holiday regime that has to be read against the public holiday timetable rather than against the calendar alone. Anyone planning crew, fuel, transport and receival bookings for the January to March block should work from the excluded-days list rather than from the nominal 5 January to 31 March span. Because the amendment leaves the Schedule to the 2019 order intact, the waters covered are still those defined there, and the amending order itself adds no new area or extra restriction on where whitebait may be taken for commercial purposes.

Source: Western Australian Government Gazette, No. 138, 30 October 2026, Fisheries, p. 2497 (official reference: FI401, LLS ID 36426).