Wayne McCarthy from Compleat Angler said he traditionally took more than 50 per cent of his year’s takings during the busy tourist months.

“Over 30 per cent of our business is in December alone and that is now in the banned season,” Mr McCarthy said.

He said tackle and boat shops would have to consider cutting overheads including staff and the domino effect would be “phenomenal.”

“The blow to us retailers, as well as petrol, boat deliverers and all knock on services is huge,” he said.

The recreational fishing body Fish For the Future Alliance has claimed that the bans could rip about $400 million from the $2 billion State industry.

The Department of Fisheries restrictions begin at the start of October and will run until Christmas Day.

By the third year the restrictions will run until the end of January.

Dhufish, pink snapper, baldchin groper, breaksea cod and red snapper are the vulnerable five that will be protected.

“Those five are predominantly all caught locally, so there’s not much point going out,” Mr McCarthy said.

He said people that did go out would all be looking for King George Whiting, which would only lead to another species being banned in the future.

Summer brings an influx of tourists that know fishing is good in the Bunbury area that has a number of campsites and boat ramps.

Mr McCarthy said most Bunbury fisherman used their own boats when fishing.

Fisheries said its research showed that some species could collapse in just a few years unless their catches were drastically reduced by at least 50 per cent within two years.

A member of the Fish for the Future Alliance, Mr McCarthy said the impact of recreational fishers on stocks was unknown.

He said Fisheries had taken a big stick approach by not listening to the group’s proposal about personal fishing logs and allowing commercial captures to continue unrestrained.

“It’s a knee jerk reaction to the problem rather than looking to see how to resolve it,” he said.