A life guard on their first patrol was part of a Surf Life Saving WA crew left traumatised by the drowning death of an abalone fisherman they pulled from the water and desperately tried to resuscitate.
Frederico Nevolo, 52, died on November 9, three days after he was found face down in the ocean near North Beach during the first day of WA's recreational abalone fishing season.
The 52-year-old was the fourth person to die fishing for the delicacy off the state's coast since 2012, with weather conditions on the day so treacherous life guards performed as many rescues in an hour as they had performed in the entire three seasons before.
The tragedy has sparked new measures to be introduced by the Department of Fisheries and Surf Lifesaving WA to cancel abalone fishing days or close beaches when weather conditions are deemed too dangerous.
Abalone season is one of the most strictly managed fisheries in the world, with fishers only allowed to collect the seafood delicacy between 7am and 8am on the first Sunday of each month from November to March.
Surf Life Saving WA duty officer Andrew Matraszek, who was working on November 6, told Radio 6PR on Friday Mr Nevolo's death had traumatised the life guards involved, with some offered counselling.
"That day there was a resuscitation performed and quite a dramatic rescue prior to the resuscitation," he said.
"One of the people that was a key person involved in that incident, it was their first patrol that day, most of the people involved were quite traumatised."
In an effort to reduce the number of deaths during abalone season, the Department of Fisheries has the power to cancel the fishery six days prior to the event, if weather conditions look treacherous.
Surf Life Saving WA and local councils, however, have been supported by the authority to close a beach on the day of abalone fishing if necessary.
Fisheries strategic fisheries policy director Nathan Harrison said if a last-minute decision had to be made to close a beach or stretch of coast, the agency would assist by alerting abalone fishers.
"What we're doing to actually promote if that does occur, then we're sending out emails and SMS messages to all the licence holders that we have on our database," he said.
"At the moment we have about 17,000 recreational abalone licence holder, of which about 80 per cent we hold email and phone numbers for."
He said the new measures were aimed at preventing fishers going out on their quest for abalone in any weather conditions.
"It's one of those challenges, as this fishery, people treat it as such a delicacy, even if conditions are marginal they will put themselves in jeopardy and also put in risk the people that have to come in and rescue them," Mr Harrison said.
"There is a history with this fishery of people getting into trouble, some of those people that do fish and collect abalone are not strong swimmers, so we're working hard with Surf Life Saving to put up enhanced public safety messages and review the conditions prior to fishing if a closure is required."
The Department of Fisheries has changed the date for the season's third day, January 1, to January 8, in an effort to ease life guards' patrol requirements on an already busy New Year's Day.
On the first abalone fishing day on November 3 life guards conducted 54 rescues within an hour.
The second day of the season occurred on Sunday.
Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter conducting a coastal patrol for the abalone season. pic.twitter.com/rUsXNxRm2r— Surf Life Saving WA (@SLSWA) December 4, 2016
