If fishing for tilapia has no impact then why bother with no fish zones and fish number limits?
Agreed that there are many anglers in Somerset, but not that many of them target tilapia. Every now and again one will take plastic, but really worms are the ideal bait. Never caught a bass on worm...
Phil
yeah i agree better than at least sitting on your hands saying it wont have an effect and then not doin anything at all. at least have a go. Problem is state government has no money and has interests or issues eleswhere that they deem more important. i dont really want to imagine what state our freshwater native species are going to be in intwenty years. its kind of depressing. those tilapia are aggressive, look after their young, displace and eat nativ species. they have everything going for them to really stuff up our waterways.Originally Posted by bondy99
Tilapia are a feral fish which adapt well to our conditions. They breed, they displace native species and they move through all sorts of means to adjoining water ways. I suppose they are a bit like the trout in southern states, except down there the Government are breeding them and purposely releasing them. We asked Qld. DPI & F to help us with an old quarry in Ipswich (Haig Street Quarry). They poisoned it with Rotenone and got about 5 tonne of Tilapia out of it. We then stocked it with native species. Who wants to bet me what we'd find there now? As for the successful eradication of European Carp in Victorian waters, you've got to be kidding.
Dale
I fish because the little voices in my head tell me to
Seriously hardy for sure, the detritus became the key I suppose.....finally oz has a species that can feed the nation when the next financial? crisis happens upon us, they largely took away rabbits and other game but cannot outlaw fully a stick with string and a bent nail
Can anybody point me to a good tilapia spot in Somerset so I can help clear them out and have some fun at the same time?
Phil
For Tilapia at Somerset just try anywhere that's wet!
Seriously, around the flooded timber upstream from Kirkleagh would be ok, worms, shrimp or pealed prawns, small hook and under a float with a long dropper.
Ok, I will try tomorrow...
Phil
Did they ever fix the laws in regard to these fish? When the issue first came up, you were not allowed to have any Tilapia in your possession, dead or alive. You were also not allowed to release the fish. This left you in a bit of a dilemma when boat fishing, you couldn't keep them in the boat, couldn't let them go, I don't think you were even allowed to throw them up the bank.
Not sure how the rules are worded now though.
Dave.
Still the same...
I heard from a bloke who knew his stuff that the Tasmanian Fisheries spent $100 million trying to eradicate carp from one lake down there. They thought they'd succeeded, but later found some more. The cost of this eradication over all of Queensland would be huge. It'd make the national budget choke.
Dale
I fish because the little voices in my head tell me to
Hi Mike
Fished Somerset all day with $20.00 worth of worms. Not one tilapia.
Phil
tilapia are probably the most economically viable form of food fish in the world.
just the other day i was speaking to a pro who told me he gets ten bucks a kg for snapper and he got that 10 years ago. it hasnt gone up in ten years, but bait, fuel, ice, transport ( fuel) all have gone up. this means he barely draws a wage lets alone make a profit to buy new gear. i talk to silver perch farmers and many of them are going under or working for next to nothing. if they get 11 bucks a kilo and can make a buck or so a kilo then we have to pay a lot more at retail.
i reckon what should be done, is take a river that the tilapia are established in and allow the culture of the fish in that zone on a big lanbased set up, that does not have any waste water reach the waterway. netted, screened etc. thats in the qld laws to make sure its safe already for potential risky species and if tilapia are already in the local waters then there is no great problem if done properly.
combine it with aquaponic plant culture. use the sametilapia genetics as whats in the rivers.
then any fish that gets grown on the farm has its head cut off or sold as fillets.
i hear they taste great and the economics are there cause they yeild a lot per hectare.
they also dont need a high protein fish diet. save the oceans for trash fish meals.
i wouldt say to do this if tilapia werent already there..but hey, now they can actually meet the socila responsibility of feeding people for cheap with good food.
maybe save medical/hospital costs because people are nourished..
if you take a look at the farms around the world, the stocking rate is massive, the fish tolerate conditions that your native fish cannot hope to. just watch the barra farms and silver perch farms struggling to the point they shut down and people go hungry.
wouldnt you buy tilapia fillets if they were 5- 8 bucks a kilo cheaper?
we should be encouraging the culture of this species, then, if there are commercial fishermen in the area allowed, they can remove the head, send it to offal bin for a food source and sell the fish flesh through the farm. only licensing can occur on areas with tilapia. they will be doing this in thirty years youll see. the problem is we have a great opportunity in qld in the meantime.
oh and fitzy, the reason why they survived with no food is because they can eat algae but will get the odd insect too. ive seen culture sytems based entirely on algae blooms from farm runoff into rivers. that is why you can grow them so cheaply. they have evolved to do well in high nutrient/algae water.
eradicating carps is a dream, they should know that it would be a waste of money.
100 million is a lot of money to spend on the unlikely chance of eradicating and then them never coming back.
you only need 1 male and 1 female and a spring time and you are back to where you started. human pressures on rivers has done a lot more harm than we realise.
does anyone consider the amount of pesticides that are sprayed on our plant crops that make its way into the waters? well this can be crucial because most native species have a stage where they need zooplanktons. without that, they fail. i could go as far to suggest that the carps and tilapia are filling a neiche. only i do agree that they do make things slightly worse for natives than what we humans do alone.
"Recently, fisheries got rid of some infestations in private dams around Gin Gin and there were several instances that the coppers had to go along so the job could get done."
These translocations were done by local farmers who were fully aware of what they were doing.
The ones in eureka creek actually crossed the dividing range watershed. It is hard to imagine how this happened naturally.
We can only hope that an effective mode of controll can be discovered soon.
CHeers
Ray
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