Tagging Crab Pots - Fisheries

[Cobbo1]

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I'd make you all aware of some recent info I found out in regards to tagging crab pots. Recently I had a trip to Tin Can Bay where my pots were stolen (), so in hopes for a Christmas feed of sand crabs my neighbour and myself decided to drop his pots (4 total) around Wellington Point. The next day, he had a few things come up with work and couldn't return with me to pick them up. No problem, I thought as we only had 4 pots in the water. Getting back to the ramp I find fisheries waiting for me for an inspection, again no problem as I'm quite diligent with keeping my safety gear in check. I will say before I go too far, I was as polite as possible to these gentleman so this was definitely not an "attitude" issue, though it was quite frustrating at the time as they were basically treating me and talking to me like I was a criminal. Anyway long story short, they cautioned me for having crab pots that were not tagged with my details, even though I explained the situation with them and if they like they could call my neighbour to confirm. They were initially going to fine me but as I had a clean record they thankfully decided to leave it at a warning, not without a lecture from the fisheries officer sounding like my father though.

Now that I have new pots and in the process of tagging them and adding floats etc., I decided to call fisheries and ask the following questions:

a) In a case where say, my girlfriend and I go and drop 8 pots in (4 with her name, 4 with mine), but for whatever reason she cannot return with me to get them, can I have another second person in her place come and retrieve them with me?

b) Can I mark all 8 pots with my details and use all 8 with a second person in the boat?

The answer to both these questions were the same, no. The person I spoke to then told me that if my girlfriend cannot return to retrieve them with me, that I should just leave them there (what?), and that if I have 8 pots in the boat with my name on them, it won't matter how many people are in my boat at the time, fisheries will see this as one person using 8 pots.

I've always had a lot of respect for fisheries and what they do, but these rules are simply insane and I'd hate to see a common, honest person fined for such a silly thing. It's quite common if I'm away camping with friends that if we go do the daily crab pot check, it may be a different person come with me from the camp to check/retrieve. It was also not uncommon for me and many people I know, if I had a mate come out with me for the day, I'd throw all 8 pots I have in the boat thinking that I was ok as I had a 2nd person with me.

Anyway, just wanted to make unsuspecting people aware.

[Noelm]

Been down that road (but in NSW) the laws are very specific, not fuzzy grey, I was crabbing with my grandson, and loading the boat, I put in 4 for me, and 4 for him, but, I missed the name on the floats and loaded 2 with my sons name on them.....on the very rare occasion Fisheries were out on patrol in my area, they checked us, and discovered the name discrepancy, they were quite good about it, and didn't register an "official" warning, but said our names were in a diary for "later" inspections. They also suggested the names be redone, as they were a bit hard to read, which was probably true.

[shaungonemad]

It’s been like this for a while, my pots were used similar to yours, I got sick of changing names and what not pretty quickly. I was of the understanding that you could pick someone else’s pots up with a written letter, still a pain in the arse .


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[Dignity]

I gave up crabbing due to the rules and the share farmers. It got to be a pain where you would drop the pots with your mate at night, he'd get called out on a job and the next morning you could only pull your 4 pots up. Also marking those styro floats and then having to change the name is rather more difficult if you want to reuse the floats for visitors and other family members. What I ended up doing is making up tags and using a small cheap carabini, those you buy in the reject shop and use these tags on the pots and on a loop on the float. If I had to have a different person on board the next morning I'd take out a new set of tags and replace them as we pulled them in, not in the least bit legal but as we would generally be putting them back in it worked. Eventually the share farmers put us out of the joys of crabbing.

[Noelm]

I only set traps late afternoon (we are allowed 2 per person) then use lift nets near them from daylight the next morning (we are allowed 4 lift nets per person) the lift nets you check every 10 minutes, so you are always there, and can keep an eye on your set traps. I pull them in to take home when I have finished lift netting.

[chris69]

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I'd make you all aware of some recent info I found out in regards to tagging crab pots. Recently I had a trip to Tin Can Bay where my pots were stolen (), so in hopes for a Christmas feed of sand crabs my neighbour and myself decided to drop his pots (4 total) around Wellington Point. The next day, he had a few things come up with work and couldn't return with me to pick them up. No problem, I thought as we only had 4 pots in the water. Getting back to the ramp I find fisheries waiting for me for an inspection, again no problem as I'm quite diligent with keeping my safety gear in check. I will say before I go too far, I was as polite as possible to these gentleman so this was definitely not an "attitude" issue, though it was quite frustrating at the time as they were basically treating me and talking to me like I was a criminal. Anyway long story short, they cautioned me for having crab pots that were not tagged with my details, even though I explained the situation with them and if they like they could call my neighbour to confirm. They were initially going to fine me but as I had a clean record they thankfully decided to leave it at a warning, not without a lecture from the fisheries officer sounding like my father though.

Now that I have new pots and in the process of tagging them and adding floats etc., I decided to call fisheries and ask the following questions:

a) In a case where say, my girlfriend and I go and drop 8 pots in (4 with her name, 4 with mine), but for whatever reason she cannot return with me to get them, can I have another second person in her place come and retrieve them with me?

b) Can I mark all 8 pots with my details and use all 8 with a second person in the boat?

The answer to both these questions were the same, no. The person I spoke to then told me that if my girlfriend cannot return to retrieve them with me, that I should just leave them there (what?), and that if I have 8 pots in the boat with my name on them, it won't matter how many people are in my boat at the time, fisheries will see this as one person using 8 pots.

I've always had a lot of respect for fisheries and what they do, but these rules are simply insane and I'd hate to see a common, honest person fined for such a silly thing. It's quite common if I'm away camping with friends that if we go do the daily crab pot check, it may be a different person come with me from the camp to check/retrieve. It was also not uncommon for me and many people I know, if I had a mate come out with me for the day, I'd throw all 8 pots I have in the boat thinking that I was ok as I had a 2nd person with me.

Anyway, just wanted to make unsuspecting people aware.

Yer it’s frustrating but they did the right thing and checked the story out others just would have taken the pots and fined you for having someone’s pots in your boat..

[Alchemy]

I pulled my four pots from behind Green one day, and dragged another old pot up with one. The old pot had no float, or markings and had become tangled with mine. It was clearly old and had heaps of growth on it. It had a couple of fish inside, which I released and not wanting to leave it to trap and kill other life I took it back to the ramp where I was met by fisheries. I had intended throwing it out and it took some explaining on my part but I ended up with a written caution. Moral of the story is that it doesn’t pay to do the right thing.

[Cobbo1]

I pulled my four pots from behind Green one day, and dragged another old pot up with one. The old pot had no float, or markings and had become tangled with mine. It was clearly old and had heaps of growth on it. It had a couple of fish inside, which I released and not wanting to leave it to trap and kill other life I took it back to the ramp where I was met by fisheries. I had intended throwing it out and it took some explaining on my part but I ended up with a written caution. Moral of the story is that it doesn’t pay to do the right thing.

Clearly not with these guys, to tell someone that the best and only course of action is to leave the pots where they are if a specific person is unable to get them is just pathetic, and contradicts what fisheries have to say about pots becoming trash when left behind. The fact that they can caution you for removing a piece of rubbish from the ocean blows my mind, shows where our government’s head is at.

[Cobbo1]

Yer it’s frustrating but they did the right thing and checked the story out others just would have taken the pots and fined you for having someone’s pots in your boat..

It was appreciated that they did and while I didn’t appreciate their attitude towards me I’m sure they put up with all sorts….

My gripe is not so much with them, but the department as a whole.

[Cobbo1]

It’s been like this for a while, my pots were used similar to yours, I got sick of changing names and what not pretty quickly. I was of the understanding that you could pick someone else’s pots up with a written letter, still a pain in the arse .


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While on the phone to them I asked what if the owner of the other 4 pots gave consent for person x to retrieve them, her response was “the rules are firm, the pots must be pulled by whoever’s name is on them”

[Cobbo1]

I gave up crabbing due to the rules and the share farmers. It got to be a pain where you would drop the pots with your mate at night, he'd get called out on a job and the next morning you could only pull your 4 pots up. Also marking those styro floats and then having to change the name is rather more difficult if you want to reuse the floats for visitors and other family members. What I ended up doing is making up tags and using a small cheap carabini, those you buy in the reject shop and use these tags on the pots and on a loop on the float. If I had to have a different person on board the next morning I'd take out a new set of tags and replace them as we pulled them in, not in the least bit legal but as we would generally be putting them back in it worked. Eventually the share farmers put us out of the joys of crabbing.

That’s what’s truly grinding me here Digs, it feels like they do nothing in regards to sharefarmers except “we’ll fine them if we catch them”, I have no issues with following rules but now they’re just taking the piss

[Cobbo1]

Been down that road (but in NSW) the laws are very specific, not fuzzy grey, I was crabbing with my grandson, and loading the boat, I put in 4 for me, and 4 for him, but, I missed the name on the floats and loaded 2 with my sons name on them.....on the very rare occasion Fisheries were out on patrol in my area, they checked us, and discovered the name discrepancy, they were quite good about it, and didn't register an "official" warning, but said our names were in a diary for "later" inspections. They also suggested the names be redone, as they were a bit hard to read, which was probably true.

Glad you had a good interaction with them Noel, I thought it was a bit overboard getting a written caution for this…
I’m not sure the laws are so specific in Qld, for example one section of their website reads “must be marked with the USERS details” yet another section reads “must be marked with the OWNERS details”.
I and many others I know have been guilty in the past of having 8 pots tagged with my own details while having a second person in the boat, it was a surprise to me to find all this out as I’ve had checks from fisheries in the past while having 8 pots (and a second person on board) and this has never come up, hence why I thought someone else here might like to know

[Dignity]

Clearly not with these guys, to tell someone that the best and only course of action is to leave the pots where they are if a specific person is unable to get them is just pathetic, and contradicts what fisheries have to say about pots becoming trash when left behind. The fact that they can caution you for removing a piece of rubbish from the ocean blows my mind, shows where our government’s head is at.

Yep they're quick to caution crabbers to ensure pots are heavy enough not to float away as ghost pots destroy wildlife yet one can't retrieve an obviously abandoned pots is verboten. In a couple of weeks time there will be heaps of them in the Passage from the tourists who put them out but it blows up over the next couple of days snd they won't go and collect them but need to return home. Many will lose their floats, find quite a few flicking lures. I carry a few small floats around 75mm that my missus had left over from some project she did, she got them from spotlight for only a few cents each and I attach a piece of 4mm rope of which I have heaps and the other end I make a little clip like a shark clip. Usually keep the ss metal strip from windscreen wipers for this. I write on the floats "abandoned pot" and leave it so that I keep clear of it next time I'm flicking there. They sometimes last for 3 or 4 weeks but often gone in less than 2 weeks. I did let fisheries know about them with gps marks.

The rules are just too inflexible.

[Noelm]

I guess to be fair, rules need to be inflexible, the second there is a fuzzy grey area, someone exploits it! It's up to the inspectors to use common sense when checking people, I have pulled in, and dumped dozens of traps over the years, and countless witches hats (still legal in most places here) this time of the year, the Fisheries are out and about checking the thousands of tourists, most don't have a fishing license, have no idea about nets or traps, size limits, bag limits or anything else. For the rest of the year, you will never see an inspector, let alone be checked.

[Dignity]

Cobbo raised some important issues, about 12 months ago or thereabouts, I lose track of time, the Qld govt were going to change the rules abd asked for input. I put my bit in including being able to register online if an abandoned pot (90% of them are pretty derelict) so that they can be brought ashore. Also supported banning of light weight pots which the govt mooted they were working towards, suggested a weight 1m below float level which would avoid floats being cut by floating rope, and several other suggestions. The only thing that came out of it was a slight change in how floats and pots were marked, basically reverse to previous ways. What a waste of time that was.