does water police have authority to inspect fish?

[NEWBY]

Hi Guys
Just wanted to know if anyone can clarify this.

Got pulled over by the water police on saturday at the pin and after they checked the customary safety gear, they wanted to see my catch..

as i had been out overnight, i had around 30 fish in the esky of different varieties, 1 of them asked me to pull out ALL of my fish so that he could measure them...
which he did and found all to be of legal size (surprise! surprise!)

was going to give him a gob full but knew that would only mean some sort of fine for me!

do they have the authority to do this?

ALL law enforcement officers are "honorary fisheries and wildlife inspectors"
I have a mate who was a cop.
Seriously though, does it matter? If you dont have anything illegal in ya esky, ya got nothing to worry about. i have found ALL water poice to be pretty good.

[Jeremy]

I haven't heard anything against wearing vests

Who have you talked to? There are some sound arguements against wearing life jackets. Pros and cons for different boats and different situations. You need to do some more research.

Jeremy

[Dignity]

Any of the inflatables that meet the standard should be acceptable.

What the view is on servicing.... Hmm i'd be interested.

if it is an offence to have out of date flares aboard.... even with in date ones onboard too.

I suspect that an out of date PFD may be in the same boat (so to speak).

Now to be compliant. do you have to have the PFD serviced by a certified person or can you do it your self?
How then do you become certified?

and so on.

I can see why the mumblings about inflatables.

cheers

OB, not only check the date but check the gas cylinder after every use and make sure there are no surface rust spots appearing as that will make them "unservicable". I think there is a bit of tolerance depending on who inspects you but there will always be the sour puss that wants to fine you.

[oldboot]

Hmm the cost of ownership on these inflatables is looking higher.

I think I'll be getting me an up market rigid vest... all you have to do with that is keep it clean & out of the sun.

cheers

[lutjanus]

I only read the first page so it probably has already been covered, They can't do anything to give you a fine however they can have a look in your esky and measure fish for the purpose of gathering suspicion of a crime. They would then refer that suspicion(and may detain you) to the DPI who have the training and are covered under the appropriate legislation, water police are not covered under fisheries Legislation.

[heath7162]

Lutjanus, what legislation do you base your opinion on?

Have you had a look at this?

FISHERIES ACT 1994 - SECT 140

140 Appointment
(1) The chief executive may appoint any of the following persons as inspectors--

(a) employees of the department;

(b) officers of the public service;

(c) police officers;

(d) other persons prescribed under a regulation.

(2) The chief executive may appoint a person (other than a police officer) as an inspector only if--

(a) in the chief executive's opinion, the person has the necessary expertise or experience to be an inspector; or

(b) the person has satisfactorily finished training approved by the chief executive.

[lutjanus]

How many police officers do you know who have been appointed by the chief executive to be covered under this legislation? There is a big MAY in your post. What sane person(who is a cop) would actually give a fine and just get it thrown out of court because the laywer of the defendant would tear you a new one? they would be made a fool of. Aint going to happen!
I can just see a centrelink employee running around in his tinnie now trying to give out fines too lol.

[oldboot]

This is looking like some issues discussed in another thread.

the concept of being appointed...... and so on

The concept of being appointed or directed or instructed... by the commissioner or minister or chief exectutive for whatever....... its a legal phrase the truth of the process is far more mundane & routine.

In this day an age there is a training course for just about everything.
So you have someone, possibly a police officer, maybe a ranger or wahtever.

so you send them on a training course, they pass an exam, a week or so later they get a letter or a certificate or maybe just an email..."appointing them" as whatever.

It has been that way for centurues.......particularly in a colonial context.

In a small place, just about any government officer may be appointed in a variety of roles. In a country town a police officer may be appointed to examine driving tests, in many small places the magistrates court transacts all sorts of government business..... and so on.

So haveing police trained and appointed in roles that you may not expect will be far more common that a lot of people would imagine.

cheers

[brisbane]

I can't see a police officer trying to apply a law for something they are not employed specifically for. They are smarter than that and would call the appropriate people if they suspected something.

[gawby]

All of this sh1t that everone is going on about has been covered before as stated and this is getting very boring.
At the end of the day if you have everything in order and either the police or the fisheries come and inspect you, so what.
GET OVER IT.
Graeme

[Lovey80]

On the police thing I am in the same boat as old boot.

On the PDF thing........ I did an open water sea survival course when I was in the Army in 2006. The course was aimed at those that regularly fly in choppers over open water and was run at the navy base in Nowra NSW. It was one of the best 2 days training i had in the army. It was actually run by 2 civillians and would highly recommend the Sea Survuval part of the course to anyone going offshore (guessing the escape from enclosed choppers underwater part is kind of irrelevant) Not sure if they do civillian courses but will find out and start another thread. They used the inflatable PDF's in the training and had only positive comments on them. I will be refitting my boat with them very soon.

Just my thoughts

Cheers

Chris