CRFF closures are upon us. !!!

[Lucky_Phill]

Coral reef finfish

Three, nine-day periods have been implemented as closed seasons to the taking of all coral reef fish in October, November and December each year around the new moon phases.


The closures apply to all Queensland east coast waters between latitude 10°41´S and 24°50´S.


The closures are designed to protect spawning aggregations of most coral reef fish species.



The closures for 2008 will be:

• 22 October 2008 to 30 October 2008 (inclusive)
• 21 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 (inclusive)
• 21 December 2008 to 29 December 2008 (inclusive).

These times are from Midnight to midnight for the pedantic .


24*50' is just south of Bargara Beach near Bundaberg, so places north of that are affected.

Be careful as this period ( December ) runs into the school holidays.

Be aware of what species are included in the CRFF ( Coral Reef Fin Fish ), if you are unsure, here is the link :-

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...2_ENA_HTML.htm

Let's also be aware that Spanish Mackerel are now required to have their Pectrol fin clipped.

Cheers Phill
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[jtpython]

Cheers mate
I keep up with these constantly and am well informed which puts our annual boxing day bash off
I would love to know how the work these closures out?
What better way can you get then the weather
JT

[grahams]

JT
I'm trying hard to put your boxing day bash back on the agenda.
I posted a thread on Fishing news.
If I can round up enough support, maybe Tim Mulherin will come to the party.

I always look at things from an environmental, social and economic perspective.
Normally I am pretty green, but this time I think the social, economic losses outweigh the environmental benefits. We could cope with a few trout and lippas being caught on Boxing Day.

Good to see you back on Deck!!

[Scott nthQld]

JT, they work them out according to spawning patterns (apparently). The reefies spawn during the new moon phase and gather in their hundreds and possibly thousands. Obviously the greenies saw this as a good reason to petition for the closures, they are there so we don't interfere with the spawning and put the fish off their game so to speak. i sadi in another thread that the closures are mainly targetted at the pros with nets as it would make it much easier for them to "wipe out" these fish if they're all in the one place at the one time. The pros kicked a stink and to make things "fair" rec fishing was also closed during this time.

Its just unfortunate that the new moon happened to fall over Christmas this year. Personally I don't think there is a pooint to them as when the fish are spawning, they don't eat, so there's no point to banning recfishing, we won't catch much anyway. But the issue they are pushing is that anysort of fishing may disrupt the spawning and prevent the fish from doing so, from that perspective I can sort of agree with them.

Compare it to the closed Barra season, people aren't even allowed to target barra out side of a stocked impoundment for the same reason, so the barra aren't disrupted from creating our stocks for the future. Makes sense from that point of view.

[Pazz01]

Scott,

I beg to differ, i think that the closures are having a good impact on the reef fish, especially coral trout. I'm not a greenie, and I get pi**ed off when the weather is perfect and the reef is closed, but at present we are catching as many trout as we did 10 - 15 years ago. I think the populations are going well.

But i know for a fact that when the trout spawn they are feeding. The go great guns leading up to the spawn and then they stop after they spawn. I know blokes that would go out any other time of the year and get 3 trout and then go out when they were spawning and get 25. It has to have some postive impact on the fish stocks.

But unfortunately you know when teh good weather will be. Have to make other plans.