Luggage Point Poo Shute

[fishphile]

A mate took me out to Luggage Point last night and we virtually fished right off the treated sewerage outlet. Mostly big catties and rays and 1 30cm Bream which I promptly released. My question is, Would you have any issues with eating fish caught in this area? The heavy stench of chlorine was enough to give me a headache. Each to his own in my opinion but to those who wouldn't at about 2am - 3am the prawn trawlers worked the area heavily within about 50 metres of the outlet. Just curious as to your opinions.

Cheers Dave.

[insideout]

personally, i wouldnt, but ,who knows ? we may be drinking it soon.......

[aussie_true_blue]

I would be wary of any fish that smokes big cigars.

Bob

[Callop]

I used to know a guy who worked for BCC sewerage dept. I asked him about it and here is a summary.

Basically there is 3 levels of treatment.
primary is where they remove the solids.
secondary most of the bad stuff is gone.
tertiary is supposedly safe to drink.

It is all supposed to be tertiary treated before going into the river but the problem comes after heavy rain. A lot of stormwater but not all goes into the sewerage system and therefore has to be treated. If the treatment plant cannot cope with the volume then it will only be treated as best as they can. This may mean that some is only treated to secondary level.
He did assure me that it is all treated to primary level.

I haven't been to the shute since.

[robyoung2]

Not too sure how popular it is to fish the poo shute anymore, but when I was a teenager (30 years back), people frequently fished for bream there. Good catches into the 50s and so were common for a few hours on a good night.

I never ate a fish from there, but most did. People worked on the assumption if it didn't kill the fish, then it was safe for humans. (I don't subscribe to this). They also claimed it was treated by the biological processes of the fish itself (wishful thinking I reckon).

At the time, people could sell some of their catch legally to fish shops, the co-op etc, but in time they banned fish caught from around luggae point. I don't know how they discerned this.

The upshot is I would never do it, but some very close freinds ate them regualry, and are alive and well to this day lol.

cheers
rob

Ps. I don't know what goes on at luggage point poo farm anymore, but around the same time I mentioned my experience, a mate worked there. It was supposed to be well treated (certainly not drinkable at that time) before it exited to the sea. The reality was it was just as frequently let go "raw" as it was "treated. during peak times (I suppose before work?), it just couldn't cope with the rush (you only had to be present when they opened the gates to smell it wasn't as clean as they claimed; just as you mentioned). It was made public ina big way this was going on, and I supposed addressed? One of the reasons I detest the idea of drinking sewrage is because prior to the truth being revealed about how the raw sewrage was let to sea, it was touted by politicains how wonderfully "clean" it was. It was discovered to be all crap (haha).

[theoldlegend]

Too many Churchill bream from around there.


TOL

[Poodroo]

Well techically fish eat where they poo anyway. We only eat their meat and not their intestines. Logic tells me that it would be safe to eat fish that hover around the poo chute but I still have troubles bringing myself to actually catching and eating fish from there. Each to their own I guess.

Poodroo

[sharkbaithoohaha]

Don't drink water either -cause fish F@#K in it!!The locatin of the poo chute is such that there is good tidal flow there twice a day.I don't know if it would be any different at the rock wall at the mouth???In saying that, I've never fished there.
Cheers.

[snapperbug]

I have eaten bream from there once before, I thought they had a bit of a yuck taste but It may have been in my head. I went on to catch many more there but I didn't eat them again. Not exactly a scientific evidence one way or the other, just my experience.

[PinHead]

I wouldn't worry about it too much..let us hypothesize..you catch a 40cm bream at Mud Island...you bewdy...take some pics and take it home and into the pan...are you aware that that same fish may have just spent the previous 4 weeks languishing at the outfall pipe at Luggage Point.

[Hamish73]

I wouldn't worry about it too much..let us hypothesize..you catch a 40cm bream at Mud Island...you bewdy...take some pics and take it home and into the pan...are you aware that that same fish may have just spent the previous 4 weeks languishing at the outfall pipe at Luggage Point.

right on! The bream I caught on the rock wall (only a few hundred metres away) tasted ok.
Just like the %$@# that say they wont drink recycled water... but thats another story

[Scalem]

My problem with eating fish from these sorts or areas extends from seeing a documentary about arsenic, lead and heavy metals that are retained in the fish's body, not anything to do with their intestinal contents. The study found that fish that were being kept by fishermen caught at different locations including Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane rivers had varying levels of toxins in their body. In some cases the levels were higher than Health Standards considered "normal" and in extreem cases, considered these levels unsafe for repeated human consumption. As I understand it, once we ingest some of these, our bodies never shed them, accumulated and kept forever.

The quality of the water at LP might be OK, but if I had a choice of which fish I was intending to keep for the dinner table, there's a million other places I can catch them, so why there?

Scalem

[moondancer]

Used to work near Aquarium Passage..the home of many 'churchill bream'.....I know what goes into that water, and when given a choice between eating fish from water that is fresh, recycled or that stuff...well......turning vegtarian is a good option!!

[Obi _ Wan]

This thread brings back memories of years gone, Churchill bream, bream that taste of kerosene etc, i for one would not eat a fish that come from that area.

Years ago when i lived in Sydney i used to fish in competitions run by the amateur anglers association and so was involved in a comp. just about every second weekend.
This era brings back memories of a chap who used to fish with the Bluefish Club, they used to fish the North Head area, yes you got it the sewerage outfall. This guy tried to get me to go fishing with him at that location, he said the pigs (rock black fish or drummer) grow really big there, when you hook them you can feel them running back up the pipe! I can tell you that really put me off.

Another storey was that one of the members of the club i was in (not bluefish) won a prize for the biggest French fish, seems he was trolling wide of North Head when his lure hooked a condom, apparently the trebles hooked in very neatly around the end of it and the harder he pulled the more water was contained in the condom and the harder the French fish pulled. Poor bugger thought he had a decent fish on.

Another storey was that divers went down and found that there was a very thick bed of a gelatinous substance sitting on the seabed, the fish were swimming through this muck! Now if that dosen't put you off eating fish from these locations nothing will.

I should add that this was in the days when they quite often pumped raw sewage out to sea.

Cheers,
Obi_Wan

[tunaman]

That wouldnt be bondi murks by any chance. Great fishing, but bad smell.



signed tunaman