Originally Posted by Spot82
Works for me
Foggy
Works for me
Foggy
Anthony (Spot82)
Fisheries want to decrease the total tonnage of snapper caught in SEQ by all three sectors by 40% and their total target tonnage is 400t.
This catch quota will according to Fisheries biologists bring the snapper biomass back to a sustainable level after 10 years.
Increasing the minimum size to 40cm will only achieve a 14% reduction in the recreational take.
Fisheries scientists state that to achieve the 40% reduction will require a 4 month recreational closure OR implementing a TAC of 260 tonnes on the recreational sector backed up with logbooks to monitor the catch tonnage.
NONE OF THE OTHER PROPOSALS WILL SATISFY THE OBJECTIVES OF FISHERIES
I dispute the input data used by Fisheries in their stock assessment having been snapper fishing for over 50 years. The only way to get accurate catch data by the recreational sector is to introduce mandatory logbooks as discussed in detail on other posts on Ausfish.
It is not possible for the approx. 30000 regular recreational snapper fishos to all sit for 30+hours of talks with marine biologists from SEQ, NSW AND NZ like the three recreational reps on the RRFF working group had to.
Cheers
Barry
Quite possibly what needs to be done is to " assess " the bio-mass as it currently stands and then put in place monitoring systems to ascertain if the stock is sustainable....................... decreasing or increasing.
Forget about Virgin Bio-Mass.................. that can and will never be quantified.
I would again like to thank the recreational reps on the working group for their tremendous efforts in putting the case forward for commonsense on behalf of us rec fishos.
Cheers Phill
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Barry,
If they want to increase fish stocks then they should be taking a proactive approach not a reactive one, by that I mean allowing more breeding fish to remain in the ecosystem for a longer period coupled with increase in suitable habitat. This is ultimately the best way to increase fish stocks in the long term.
Limiting the take of large fish also ensures that a good number of quality breeding fish are maintained in the ecosystem and further ensures long term sustainability. In addition this would indirectly reduce the weight of snapper taken quite significantly. The large fish are not a good table fish in my books anyway and we have successfully released large snapper that have been caught in 70 metres of water without an issue, they are a tough fish.
Putting a number figure on the take of a certain species will never ensure the long term survival of that species. It will if anything achieve the opposite!
In addition they should stop the netting of snapper in Hervey Bay and severely punish those who undertake such practices since it is illegal!
As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat!
Anthony
Anthony,
There may be more than one way to skin a cat BUT Fisheries want to dictate which way based on recommendations from its marine biologists.
The netting of snapper in Hervey Bay was brought to the attention of fisheries by one of the rec reps on the RRFF working group. It was agreed that the catch of snapper be by line fishing only and that any snapper "accidently" caught in a commercial netting operation be limited to the bag limit of recreational anglers.
This is mentioned on page 13 of the RIS.
Cheers
Barry
Barry,
It comes across as so many great ideas being put out by all concerned anglers with a complete absense of comment or interest from those who entertain the changes, jim groves gave some lip service, tim mulherin thinks the independent review is in favour of the changes when it isnt. none of the scientists are willing to discuss things and what we have is rec anglers putting more effort into this issue than those paid to do so.
I would like to see fisheries debate some of the ideas put forward here.
The fisheries marine biologists and researchers did discuss and debate everything with us at the RRFF working group meetings but as I have stated it is impossible for them to discuss and debate with every rec angler.
Come along to one of the port meetings and have your say.
I can say that the original recommendations of a catch card (logbook) with no reference to a fee and no reference to pearl Perch and Trag was acceptable to Fisheries staff present at the Working group. BUT when the recommendations went to a higher level in Fisheries the shit hit the fan because Fisheries had no funding allocated to implement the logbooks.
I think the reason for this is that Fisheries is now amalgamated into a larger State Government Department and is down the bottom of the list for funding allocations from State Treasury.
This amalgamation of the original smaller State Government departments ( e.g. Forestry, Lands, Harbours and Marine, Titles Office, Irrigation and Water Supply and Fisheries) since 1991 into very large Departments has really rendered the operational effectiveness of the State public service to a pathetic level.
Cheers
Barry
I'll come back to what I've said before.
1. Make it illegal to SELL snapper, Pearlies or Tergalin in Australia (it works for trout in NZ & elsewhere
2. Keep the recreational and charter limits where they are (we never sell fish anyway!)
Outcome will be:
a) more deep sea ooglie fish fillets for the retail punters (they couldn't tell the difference in taste or appearance of fillets anyway).
b) We keep the recreational catch well under the overall 'sustainable take' level.
Snapper stocks thrive and the greenies have to eat more greens or learn to become hunter/gatherers themselves.
QED
Plato
My bitch with the science, which seems to be shared by everyone opposing these closures, is that Fisheries have done no objective measuring of snapper stocks.
In NSW fish traps have been used for years to harvest snapper. Why can't Fisheries deploy traps off Moreton, Stradbroke, Gold & Sunshine Coasts to actually catch fish in the areas where they are supposedly under pressure. A real time sample of live fish in their habitat using equipment that has been around for decades. Put a temporary exclusion zone around the trap whilst it is in us. Using a number of locations will provide some legitimate information which may actually be useful.
The traps may need to be tarted up with cameras to record activity, adjustable time entrances of various sizes to separate fish & decent framing to keep out the sharks but the experts at Fisheries should be able to do the fine tuning. Winch them up slowly to avoid barotrauma & count/tag them beside the research boat. Which research boat you say?? The big alloy boat "Tom Marshall" that lives over at Scarborough next to the boat ramp might be OK. It has a gallows & a large hyd winch. Or "Gwendoline May" which is an 18M steel former trawler.
ROLL TIDE, ROLL.................
Regards,
Peter
Snapper consultation extended due to flooding
http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...d.php?t=171601
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