sick sawfish slaughter!!

[ozbee]

mate i have deckied on trawlers for over thirty years and bluntly can say yes when the prawns are boiled you can get 95 % prawns in a hit but once flogged and the boils disperse you can even get hit s up to 100% fish all about 3 inches long and 90 % drowned. outside the burdekin i have and many people have seen fish kills along the beach over 14 klm long im not talking about a few fish washed up im talking about a 20 litre bucket per foot. get real mate it happens . as for your comment about by catch many trawlers to survive remember there not getting paid anymore in prices that were 20 years ago have started the practice of shoal skimming with the purpose of bring up quanties of small nanny as well as emperor and sell them under bycatch laws . mate im not for it at all im very much against it but my father was a pro so i do know what goes on . fish kills are a lot higher up here as much of the trawling is done after the end of the wet season which also encompasses most of the fish spawning &juveniles which feed off the jelly prawns . so a few dead maybe 30 or so is a uproar mate you will pull out upwards of 50 a night drowned when the barra season opens . look government are very much in push things in favor of pros at the moment eg re opening hinchbrook to netting which i hope doesn't happen so a few dead sharks is a whiff to what really goes on .but this brings me back to the question did you buy prawns for easter ( simple fact be it a burger or a prawn something has to die )

[GBC]

Yep, we used to run in close on reef off the Vanderlins up the Gulf as the last shot of the morning during tiger season.
Then spend all morning gilling and gutting red throat - I hate red throat.
That was late eighties and nineties.

c.j.

[Pridey]

This guy, that bloke.

Some of you lot are going to have you're heads explode if you ever see the magnitude that this stuff is happening at on a daily basis.

You've seen one photo.

This practice has been systematically occurring all over northern Oz for longer than I've been alive.

It's legal and its a commercial reality. Keepitreal's mention of three stacks is a dead giveaway - cause that's how the nets are set.

I don't like it - but blaming the fisho is not going to fix anything - changing the law will.

Too right mate, too right.

[ozbee]

just to clear up a few points for you at the beginning of the eighties as the green movement and political dumboes of this state decided to close the last 3 fish traps operating in queensland ( we were one of them) . for those who dont now a fish trap is a length of 2 inch wire netting supported from top to bottom running from the high water mark to the lower water mark from there on either side a length is strung called wings these go out and form a small semi circle at each end. back to the main section than runs into the first receiving box which had about 3 ft of water in it at low tide. the top of the receiving box always was higher than the high tide mark so when turtles went in there they would not drown and given enough time they will find there own way out . the second receiving box was very much like a giant crab pot with funnels but made out of 4 inch square cement mesh. why was these so effective is that small and xtra large fish can not get caught as the small pass through and the giant wont fit in the second receiver. if these were still allowed up and down the qld coast gill netting would become obsolete . many people liked to fish near our traps as a bit like oyster beds there structure so fish like it.

the official statement from gov and greens was they were a eye sore .they new gill netting was going to kill large quanty of by catch but didn't care.

trawling is simply sieving the ocean gill netting is the placement of nets in areas knowing that the run out tide will cause fish to travel through be it of whatever type

[Matt_Campbell]

as for your comment about by catch many trawlers to survive remember there not getting paid anymore in prices that were 20 years ago have started the practice of shoal skimming with the purpose of bring up quanties of small nanny as well as emperor and sell them under bycatch laws .

I think you'll find that it is illegal for trawl operators to keep these fish.
Matt C

[SeaHunt]

They are the facts ozbee and thanks for pointing them out.

Most bycatch ends up dead, there is no point sticking our heads in the sand and pretending things like this don't happen and in a lot of industries.

I grew up largly on the land and the fact that native animals are protected doesn't stop most farmers shooting Emus because they knock down fences, roos because they eat the grass and snakes just because they always have.
You just don't see pictures of it splattered all over the front of the papers.

[bugman]

Gents,
Bit off topic but I'd like to back up Matt's comments.
Anyone now working under a commercial T licence in Qld (trawl) is unable to have finfish on board - let alone sell them. That is the law and there's no way around that.
I'm pretty sure you'll find the amount of dollars for a shot of finfish won't add up to the massive investment in a Trawl licence and appropriate fishing boat.
Brett

[GBC]

Sounds like more dead bycatch going over the side bugman. What a waste. I'll give you the inside running on being really really rich - find a commercial use for goatfish.

[bugman]

GBC,
Actually a few years back I found a very good use for goat fish. Myself and another member from here got hold of some frozen DPI trawl survey catches - about 150kg actually - hell of a lot of goatfish in there. Bring on the industrial mincer and a couple of 20kg bags of laying pellets and we had nearly 200 kg of snapper burley for the winter. I've got to say it was our best snapper season ever
Brett