Sutherland Shire Council will consider making life jackets compulsory for people engaging in rock fishing.
The state government has given coastal councils the choice of opting in or out of the idea following a 12 months’ trial in the Randwick Council area.
In the trial, rock fishers found not wearing life jackets were fined $100.
“Sutherland Shire Council welcomes any new legislation that aims to reduce coastal drowning’s and in particular provides opportunities to make rock fishing safer,” a spokeswoman said.
“Council will consider the new safety legislation once it has had an opportunity to review the legislative requirements and funding package proposal.”
Minister for Emergency Services Troy Grant and Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair announced the opt in or opt out choice as the next phase of the Rock Fishing Safety Act.
They said the results of the Randwick Council trial were independently evaluated.
Evaluation had included observational data from enforcement officers, fatality and rescue data, a multilingual face-to-face rock fishing survey, and more than 700 public submissions and online survey responses.
The ministers said the next phase of the Act would include an immediate review of lifejacket standards.
“We know there is demand for the law in other coastal areas,” Mr Grant said.
“Any additional declarations will only be made at the request of local councils, as they have detailed knowledge of their communities and share enforcement responsibility.
“The decision to adopt the law will be one for each council.
“This is consistent with other water safety measures, including signage and lifeguard services.”
Mr Blair said many rock fishers were already wearing life jackets but some jackets did not meet the Australian Standards.
“Fishers have told us they want rock fishing jackets that meet international standards to be approved for use in NSW,” he said.
The ministers said councils that chose to opt in to the law would be provided with support, including up to $30,000 each from the Water Safety Fund.
Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said the announcement was an important step in changing behaviour towards wearing lifejackets and increasing safety around rock fishing.
“As first responders, lifesavers see the devastating impact on families and communities when rock fishing accidents occur,” he said.
“In so many of these incidents, a tragedy could well have been averted if the rock fisher had been wearing a simple flotation device.”
Mr Pearce said in the last few weeks there had been two rock fishing tragedies in NSW waters, including the death of a fisherman off Windang Island in the Illawarra and an incident at Middle Head in Sydney, where the body of a 65-year-old fisherman was recovered.
“The two incidents brings the total number of rock fishing fatalities in NSW in 2017-18 to seven, and with two months of the season remaining, there is a real concern that number could rise,” he said.
“In 2016-17 there were a total of eight rock fishing deaths in NSW.
“Since August 2015 there have been 25 coastal drownings attributed directly to rock fishing, largely as a result of people either slipping off exposed platforms or being washed into the sea.
“Of these, 10 occurred during autumn or winter with many recreational fishers taking advantage of the conditions at this time of the year.
“In almost all of these incidents the fishers were not wearing a flotation device, and the victims were overwhelmingly male.”
