E-Petition to ban netting in Trinity Bay Cairns

[Scott Mitchell]

CAREFISH

29.11,2011

Petition

The paper petition is on its way to Parliament as I type. If you have any sheets signed, then please get them to Steve Wettenhall’s office tomorrow. This is a once in a generation chance to get the nets out of the front of Cairns.

PLEASE all of you who are QLD residents (only) go online NOW and sign - if you have not already done so. Then flick this link to your networks requesting the same.

The on-line petition is at: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/wor...on?PetNum=1803

It just takes a few moments to register your vote. Today - Wednesday 30th Nov 2011 is its last day.

There are about 3,000 hard copy signatures on their way down to Brisbane tonight and only 488 on-line signatures as I write this – Surely we can break the 1,000 mark !?

Through this process we have learnt there is a huge sector of the population who are in support of the ban even though they are not recreational fishers !

This is the final call. Do it NOW!! No more chances.

Paul Aubin
CAREFISH

[goat boy]

Just signed it. Currently at 562

[Si]

Done on-line - easy peasy.

[Scott Mitchell]

Dear All,

Paul Aubin will no doubt be forwarding a report on the number of hard copy signatures. Here’s some observations on how the e-petition went.
Online Vote tally increased from 488 to 674, an increase of 186 votes (38%) in last 30 hrs before closing at midnight 30 November.

488 at 18.00 hr 29 Nov 2011
580 at 10.17 hr 30th Nov 2011
597 at 11.32 hr
605 at 11.50 hr
610 at 12.00 hr
630 at 14.05 hr
642 at 16.22 hr
657 at 19.30
671 at 22.25, 22.40
674 at 24.00, 30 Nov 2011

- an indication that many more votes could have been gained if the petition had run for longer than the 3 weeks it was allocated.
A visit to the Parliamentary web site link to ‘Closed Petitions’ shows that for the last 100 petitions, only 12 petitions received more votes and 87 received less.

This extremely high position is proof that this issue is far more than just a conflict between a few recreational fishers and gill netters.

It is proof that there is real angst amongst the broader community with concerns over gill netting bycatch including marine mammals and turtle and about gill netting’s contribution to the widely observed severe decline of several, once common, large inshore fish species.

Kind regards,
David Cook

PS: Thanks to every one who voted - Scotto

[Scott Mitchell]

CAREFISH

2.12.11

The paper petition air bagged to parliament numbered 2304 on 28.11.11. It had to be in Steve Wettenhall’s hands before 1.12.11 which was the last sitting day of parliament for the year and perhaps the last before an election. That’s why we only got 3 weeks and almost no lead in time. The e petition finished at 674 on 30.11.11 making a total of 2977.

However, more signed sheets were still being handed in to Steve Wettenhall’s office after the airbag left and we’re still finding them here, there and everywhere as copies were made and taken to other businesses and workplaces etc. We tried to overnight what we had to Steve before he tabled them but I’m not sure if he got them on time.

The total went well over 3000. This is more than 1000 a week. Each week was more than the previous, so it was gathering steam, not running out, as could be seen clearly by the way the e petition behaved towards the end.

My gut feeling is that we could have achieved 10,000 if handled better and if left to run for 3 or 4 months. There are over 20.000 registered boat trailers around the region if that is any indication. This ran on a zero budget and with almost no media participation.

One would have thought the tackle shops would have collected the most signatures, This turned out to be not the case and out of the 6 or 7 around Cairns 3 had a go and the rest didn’t. They accounted for about 500 signatures between them. None of the new boat dealers participated. No fishing clubs engaged or responded to requests for assistance apart from one, but contributed very few signatures. This is curious, but a look at membership numbers might explain it.

Two individuals collected about 1000 between them. They said this was without much effort with a strike rate of over 90% of people approached signing. They reported that almost all of those did so with high conviction and interest and most had a grievance with nets.

They were also surprised at how many mums wanted to participate on behalf of their families. Some newsagents and IGA’s participated with one displaying it prominently and returned around 200 signatures.Port Douglas contributed more than 300 with one individual and his family collecting most of these.

And that’s about it. I’ll talk to Steve Wettenhall when he gets back and we’ll hear from Minister Craig Wallace when he makes a decision. On behalf of CAREFISH, I would like to thank those that assisted in this process and particularly to Steve Wettenhall and his office, who has had to endure more than a few meetings involving stakeholders.

A lot more goes on behind the scenes than most would imagine, so thanks, we do appreciate it.

Paul Aubin
CAREFISH

[bg1000]

I wonder how many of the people who signed the petitions were actually educated about this issue. I wonder if they knew anything about current Marine Parks (Green and Yellow Zones), other closed areas, closed seasons or the other pages and pages of rules in which commercial fisherman must abide by. All the material on this website in relation to the petition in swayed to being influential rather than to gather the true information. It sounds more like a marketing campaign. With statements like "Do it now, it's your last chance."

I wonder if they were informed that the fish in the water are a public resource and everyone not just recreational fisherman have the right to access the resource. Such petitions rarely give the true objective results because they are so influence by the people who create them. In this case Paul Aubin runs Cairns Bed'n'Boat so he ahs a clear conflict of interest. He is set to benefit by putting others out of business. Anyway just another way to look at things I know one on here agree. But I think the general public in Australia have the right to be able to access fresh caught seafood.

[mayer60]

I tend to agree with bg. As a recreational fisherman who believes the commercial fisherman have issues within their industry, I looked at signing tis petition. I researched the people pushing for this and came to a conclusion that they have a vested interest in getting a positive outcome.the politician (labor member good luck) chasing votes and paul aubin with his business. I found out the fisherman have a sunset clause on their licence which means ( i think) that when they retire cannot pass this licence on to another person to fish in this area, so in time there will be no net fishing in trinity bay.
So whenever i would put my name or signature to anything I ask myself who has to most to gain or to lose and in this instance i believe the general public would lose more than the personal gain to a few. I didn't sign....good fishing to all

[Macks forever]

I signed the petition for a number of reasons.
But it is interesting to note some of the reasons stated for NOT signing.

As BG said the fish in the water are a public resource and everyone not just recreational fisherman have the right to access the resource. This is true. BUT as long as one extracter of the resource is allowed to use hundreds of meters of monofilament net with no catch limits while other users are restricted to a line with a hook and severely restricted to bag limits, then there is no fairness and equity which is a basic premise of fisheries management and "access to the resource." Therefore, as long as one group has a distinct advanatage, there must be areas set aside where those disadvantaged can compete on an equal footing which is exactly what is being asked for - a net free area in close proximity to the population centre.

As there are sunset clauses already in place, it is obvious that someone in authority in the past has already done the math to decide that this should be done some time. Whether or not there are sunset clauses, the depletion that the nets are doing to the fish stocks in a very prominent tourist area is not in the best interests of the local economy. It has been proven time and again that recreational fishing provides a greater economic boost to local economies than commercial extraction for the major recreational species near population centres.

This is not saying there should be no commercial fishing. Simply that there are not enough fish for everyone to take as much as they like, and that line fishing cannot possibly compete with netting, therefore there needs to be areas for line fishing to have a chance. It is also possible in many "net free" areas that commercial line fishing can still operate along side recreational.