Originally Posted by
Spot82
Here is my take on it.....
400,000kg of Snapper say an average size of 2.5kg, which is what I think is an average size fish in my experience = 160 000 snapper taken each year.
Most of these fish are caught in the 6 months/ 182 days from April to September. Most recreational fisherman can only fish on weekends, total of 24 weekends in this six months. 6666 Snapper per weekend, regardless of what the weather is like, unfishable days would then compensate for those that fish during the week or fish caught outside of the main season.
1333 Anglers per weekend bagging out on snapper between 1770 and the Gold Coast. Anyone chasing snapper north of 1770 has rocks in their head when they could go chase GOOD eating reef fish just as easily!
So the main ramps would be 1770, Bundaberg/Bagara, Burrum Heads, Urangan, Tin Can Bay, Rainbow Beach, Noosa, Maroochy, Mooloolaba, Caloundra, Bribie Island, Scarborough, Redcliffe, Port of Brisbane, Manly, Wellington Point, Redland Bay, Biggera Waters, Labrador, Southport, Main Beach, Tallebudgera Creek, Currumbin Creek (23), lets say 25 for arguments sake, so that's 53 anglers at each ramp bagging out on snapper every weekend for 6 months of the year.
This excludes any person fishing on charters, and pro fishing. There is no way in hell that those numbers would ever happen. And if they did no one would be whinging about the snapper stocks!!!
Commercial operations would far exceed the take by recreational anglers. I was lucky to catch a couple of squire in Hervey Bay this year as commercial netters went and netted tonnes and tonnes of snapper from Wathumba leaving very little for the rec anglers, this has been the case for the last few years now!! I am guessing I have caught more snapper than most in the past year (40-50 total and released 30ish and majority of fish caught off the Gold Coast of all places!), so take of snapper was 4 bag outs maximum over a 12 month period. Most rec fishos would be stoked to say they bagged out on snapper 4 times in a year, most would be lucky to catch one snapper on 4 trips in a year!
Add to this that most rec fisho's are lucky to get their boat out once a month and you start to see that these figures are nothing but BS! If the charter boats had 53 anglers at each ramp bagging out on snapper each weekend for 6 months they would have some very happy clients. Fact of the matter is the government just wants another way to help pay for their ever growing debt and/or keep their greeny mates happy!!
If you want to catch snapper and know how and where, they are thick! Hardly over fished in my opinion! On the same basis as this Snapper joke, Red Emperor must also be way over fished, because most people hardly catch any! Or is the problem they don't know how, when, where and the techniques to catch them???
How many snapper have you caught in the last year Andy? and you Big Deez??
Anthony