DPI&F meet with Rec Fishos

[Lucky_Phill]

I attended the DPI&F consulation meeting at Blue Fins Fishing Club on monday night. Can't tell the numbers that were there , but, there was some ' experience ' in the room. Bruce Alvey, Barry Pollock, Dave Bateman, Dave Downie, Webby and host of others. Also the stock standard breed of us fishos turning up to put bums on seats and vent their thoughts for the propossed management plan to the Inshore Fin Fish.

And interesting night and lots of good questions and points raised. I may be sceptical, but I always get the feeling that telling a Govt department the truth, ends up coming back to bite you on the bum. ( The Nth Qld boys will tell you about this in regard to GBRMPA and their latest closures ).

Terry Healy and Jim Gillespi ran the show with Tara added for asstetics. NO, she was there to take some comprehensive notes.....I suppose Terry can't type fast enough , sorry Terry I really hope that the info passed onto the DPI&F team last night gets taken into account for the RIS. BUT, as alluded to by the boys at the front of the audience, sometimes outside influences speak louder than common sense. They are of course talking about Political Lobby Groups such as the Green , Conversation and Animal Lib groups. Well funded and always showing a united front.

The previous department, Known as QFMA were mainly in place to protect, legislate and promote the commercial fishing industry. The legacy from those days, probably still exists in some of the staff that now work for the DPI&F. I really hope the people that have the power can truely see the benefits of a well organised, well legistated and well informed Recreational Fishing Industry. We do of course have to work with the commercial lads to provide an even platform that will enhance the opportunity to share the finite resources that is the " Inshore Fin Fish ". The goal, of course, us to put in place a management system that takes us forward into a ' sustainable " fishery for both rec and com folk alike.

The questionaire is being drawn up as we speak and will be available in electronic form as well as hard copy. It is an opportunity to have your say, get informed and be a part of the solution.

I feel the night was well spent, jeez a couple of hours listening and learning, cuppa tea and scones provided. In the end, I believe numbers will be heard, so the more of us concerned fishos that respond to the RIS the better it will be for all, I hope.

The DPI&F have promised to get back to the time when they were putting up media releases here on Ausfish. This will happen again, and I will let everyone know when the RIS is available to fill out and return.

Good to see the AF crew there, rando, Hi-Yo, Nugget, Webby, Shane Boese... did I miss someone ?......OH, me

Cheers Phill

[jim_farrell]

Phill, I went to the one in southport last week. I thought the night was fairly well constructed. However, The dpi is only a part of the process. I have no reason to believe that they won't take on board most of what we had to say and try and find a rec/pro/sustainability balance. That all goes out the window when the epa gets involved.
Let me stress, i think the meetings were a good concept, but I don't think they are of much use unless all the decision makers are represented.

The dpi stated that the epa has not even begun looking at a zoned map of the bay marine park. Are we supposed to believe that?

I am very cynical, but our concerns are with epa, not dpi. If the epa valued what we thought they would've been represented at these meetings. I can only conclude that the government can now say "we consulted the public".

I believe there is a place for the epa, but I don't believe that in the current form they take a balanced view. That is as diplomatic as I can be.

Jim