In Western Australia, western rock lobster fishing is a very popular pass time enjoyed by many recreational and professional fishermen. The equipment requirements regarding the surface floats for the pots used to fish lobster are too lax and have made parts of Western Australian waters hazardous to navigate at day time and near impossible at night. While we respect the right of all to use our coastline according to their requirements, we also demand that regulations be put into place to protect the ability of all to navigate our waters safely at day or night.

Current regulations require of lobster fisherman to use 1 or 2 surface floats at least 150mm in diameter and of unspecified colour. Some fishermen seem to be of the belief that painting their floats dark blue or black is a good idea. Fishermen are also required, through the use of weights, to limit the amount of rope floating on the surface, but only if their rope exceeds 20m.

On a day time trip, and in ideal conditions, an alert skipper can usually spot the brightly coloured floats and navigate around them. In less ideal conditions or at night time, there is absolutely no hope for a skipper to spot these pots and they pose a serious hazard.

The consequence of tangling a propeller in cray pot ropes can be as low as having to dive overboard and untangle, through to hundred of thousands of dollars in repair cost or even loss of the vessel and endangering life. The author of this petition has personally been tangled in a cray pot line in rough conditions near breaking swell.

Simple and relatively cheap solutions we propose are:

 * Require all floats to be brightly coloured (fluorescent orange or yellow, not white)
 * Require all floats to carry a flag above the water line similar to those used by scuba divers. This will assist with visibility through chop.
 * Require all floats left in place over night to be fitted with reflective tape
 * Require all floats left in place over night to be fitted with a radar reflector
 * Require all floats left in place over night to be fitted with a small strobe light

The cost of this suggested equipment is relatively low in relation to the cost of ownership of a cray pot and the vessel required to launch this cray pot.