DPI Fishing Survey

[Marlin_Mike]

This came in the mail today with the rego renewal for my boat. Hope you can read it if youre interested. Or if you already seen it, any thoughts on it?





Mike

[GES]

I got one with my rego renewal too mate.

I did the last recreational fishery survey for them a couple of years ago.

The information provided by the public in that survey (on common recreational fishing grounds etc) was handed over to the EPA. Now about 90% of the grounds I identifeid as my favourite fishing grounds is under consideration for green zones in the MBMP zoning plan.

When I got the rego renewal and its included request for information for DPI&F,
I contacted Fisheries by email and told them about my experience and the outcome of my diligence in furnishing them with honest information last time.

I advised them that I knew of two others who had done the last survey with the same result that I got.

I also told them I would never give information or compete any of their surveys again.

I received a very polite reply from the DPI & F guy doing this research and he admitted that EPA and GBRMPA had access to all this information to use "for their own particular purposes".

I wished him good luck in getting truthfull information or, indeed, anyone to even volunteer to take up the task of completing their survey at all in the future, after the bureaucratic treachery that had been carried out last time.

It's your call man, but, from experience and that of two others I know of, I would advise you not to do it.

GES

[plaztix]

I'd be leaving that one alone Mike.

As GES said, what good did it do us last time????

I wont be trusting DPI + F with any more info.

[tigermullet]

Me too. Request received and immediately binned.

They need a good snappering

[TimiBoy]

Mine will tell them I do all my fishing in the biggest, flattest expanses of sand/mud bottom I can find. Maybe they'll ban those and let us fish the good stuff?

[Scott nthQld]

Mine will tell them I do all my fishing in the biggest, flattest expanses of sand/mud bottom I can find. Maybe they'll ban those and let us fish the good stuff?

More than likely the Greenies would turn around and blame us for the flat expanses of mud/sand....I can hear them now "look at what fishermen did to what was once pristine coral reefs! (to the public) Now its time for you to demand more protection for the few reefs we have left!"

I was approached a few weeks ago at the boat ramp by the DPI, they only wanted fish frames of a few species for research or something, they assured me I didn't have to tell them where I caught the fish, they must've had a lot of negative feed back about the Green zone debacle.

[1lastcast]

I was approached at my boatramp by a dpi researcher last week to check my esky for fish i had caught i had no fish because i was trolling for marlin but i did get talking to him and he told me that he was not an inspector only a reasearcher and i asked him what other people had caught that day and his responce made my BLOOD BOIL!

he proceeded to tell me that 3 boats he had checked had undersize fish in them and that he just told them they should have been released , one boat had 4 juvanile cobia between 35 and 40cm on them i said to him what did you do about it and he replied i cant do anything because i`m only a researcher, what a bloody load of crap why wasnt an inspector sitting there next to this researcher and catching these lowlife scumbags that are lower than a toadfish taking our kids fish of the future whats going to be left for them with this going on if the dpi can afford to send a researcher out to spend a day at the boat ramp collecting data surely they can put an inspector out there too.

I think the dpi/fisheries needs an overhaul and instead of catching the poor barstard who has let his stocked impoundment licence run a week over or the poor barstard that fillets his fish at sea because there is no cleaning facility at his boat ramp they should be checking and fining people who go out to deliberately disrespect the rules and continually get away with it .

Stuff their research its time to crack down !!!

Im getting all upset now i think i had better take a deep breath and count to ten

i know it seems a little extreme but do you agree or am i just blowing things out of proportion ?

Later MONOSTRETCHO

[TimiBoy]

Mono, I agree with you. Until 2 weeks ago I had never seen Fisheries on the water, so now I have seen them once. 1 year since I got the boat.

I can't help but think that once the zones are changed, policing will be even less effective than the regulations we have now, because the resources they have will be stretched even further. They haven't started hiring new officers, have they?

I wonder whether the strategy of checking boats offshore is workable, and whether they should be spending more time inspecting catches at the ramps? Seems that's where the fishos are funneled into one spot. But I'm probably missing something. Usually do!

[Scott nthQld]

I agree Timi, alomst every boat on the water will be using a ramp (uless they have a mooring) no matter where they are fishing. The amount of lowlives with undersized fish that get caught are sure to raise enough revenue for the DPI then being able to employ more officers and making their presence really felt, and really making an impact, then hopefully will people take note and start to follow the rules.

Also its just a joke how essentially the DPI does all the research and yet the EPA gets the funding. No extra funding will be made available for the DPI, but the EPA will get a motsa once the grren zones come into effect in the SE, the same thing happened up here when the GBRMPA was established.

[mickc]

Well i guess it wont be long before you'll all be whingeing about all the interruptions while yer trying to catch a fish.Water police to check safety gear & blow in the bag , boating & fishing patrol to check safety gear & fish sizes and bag limits , EPA to chase yer out of the green zones count the number of hooks in the yellow zones .Happy fishing and boating folks
mick

oh yer i forgot . When yer get back to the ramp the friendly researcher might like to have a yarn and measure your fish . He's the bloke that fishes and boats like you and wishes to christ that he could do something about all you fellas that don't know what you'iv caught and what size it should be.

[Scott nthQld]

Mick, the EPA don't patrol the Green zones, they leave it up to the DPI, hence why its going to put a greater strain on their already limited resources, and yet it will be EPA that will benefit from any Govt funding as well as any fines etc that inevitably will happen.

[mangomick]

Fish Survey.
Damned if we do damned if we dont.
Report bugger all catch and EPA scream fish stocks depleted and we need to restrict catches further. If we report good catches, EPA scream if we dont restrict catches fish stocks will be depleted.
Last survey I took was carried out by sunfish which hopefully gives our own groups factual figures that DPI and EPA dont have

[STUIE63]

Mick, the EPA don't patrol the Green zones, they leave it up to the DPI, hence why its going to put a greater strain on their already limited resources, and yet it will be EPA that will benefit from any Govt funding as well as any fines etc that inevitably will happen.

Scot their alterego GBRMPA does have patrol officers checking zones though probably will get the MBMA officers as well down there when they bring in the zones
Stuie

[Jono_SS]

epa have boats too

[TimiBoy]

I didn't get a survey with my rego renewal. Maybe they knew how I would respond?