Well said Waldo. For once I agree with you. At least you also see the bycatch as a problem and are trying to do something about it.Originally Posted by waldo35
As someone else pointed out though, it is difficult for recreational fishers to see the justice in tight bag limits and size limits, when prawn trawlers kill the same juvenile fish and face no repercussions for it.
Jeremy
"The underlying spirit of angling is that the skill of the angler is pitted against the instinct and strength of the fish and the latter is entitled to an even chance for it's life."
(Quotation from the rules of the Tuna Club Avalon, Santa Catalina, U.S.A.)
Apathy is the enemy
Waldo, to continue "prawning" when there seems to be large schools of whiting in the same area.....NEEDS to be looked at.
Bugman put up photos a while back after the Brisbane was sunk.....
Mate ,IF the whiting has a TAC ,and you were allowed to keep them, as long as you guys abide by that same TAC, that would be something you trawlers & the Frazer Is. guys "need" to sort out.
JMO....digging for a solution , not a "rapist" dig
Jono-SS,
Thankyou for pointing out my mistake regarding the stout(trawl) whiting. I never knew that they existed and apologise for my ignorance. In the photos on the news reports, they looked like winter whiting.
Following your post, I did some research and am now better informed. The old saying, that you learn something new everday never rang truer.
With regard to trawler by-catch, I still reseve my own opinion.
Jeff.
In regard to the often quoted "sustainable fisheries" line, doesnt the sustainability relate to the "target" speicies not the "by-catch"? An extream example would be if "A" fish is the target and has a high replentishment rate, fish "B" & "C" are by-catch and have low reproduction/repletishment rate that "B" & "C" could be wiped out yet the fisheries would still be regarded as "sustainable" as fish "A" is still available in high quantities. Leigh
I put this on the other thread originally. So my appologies for those who read it twice.
Much of the coastline of Australia is scanterley inhabited and has quite reasonable levels of fish stocks, certainly more than places such as Moreton Bay.
Recreational anglers pay huge sums of money through taxes etc into the economy.
I’m not sure of the exact price but I believe that it costs the average angler when everything is done and said about $65 per kilo of fish they catch.
When I look at the money I have tied up in boats and repairs and fuel etc I can say that this certainly would apply to me.
Subsequently I don’t know why the Government doesn’t buy back as many of the Commercial Fisherman’s businesses as they wish to sell.
I’m not advocating forced buy backs as this is in my opinion would be wrong. But instead offer them decent prices and perhaps new licence deals for less populated areas where their catch rates would be higher anyway.
Those Commercial Fishermen who wish to take up the offer would then place less pressure on already stressed areas and those Commercial Fisherman that wish to stay, well that is their right and we should respect their decision.
It appears to me to be a win/win situation for everyone involved.
Louis
This is a debate which will never go away. As Derek points out, Australias non fishing public deserves access to Australias seafood. On the other hand seabed trawling is described by the likes of the highly excalimed "Blue Planet" series as "the most destructive method of fishing ever devised by man"
TFPQ has adopted a policy against inshore beam and otter trawling. Regardless of the current efforts in bycatch reduction it is still just too destructive. Both to fish stocks and seabed communities. The marine equivalent of clear felling. That and the commercial exploitation of billfish species are 2 sticking points we have with commercial fishers. On most other things we agree or can compromise on.
Every time I buy wild prawn, and that's a lot, it is with mixed emotions. These are amongst our best seafood, but at what cost.
In short guys like Waldo are not the problem. They are usually hard working blokes working legally to earn a living....in some cases a very good living. If society deems the environmental price we pay for prawns is too great, then buy out the trawl licenses and get used to farmed prawns.
If that happened, then personally, I would appaud it . I don't believe inshore beam and otter trawl can justfy the public service they provide when compared to the damage they cause.
KC
whilst the bycatch from prawn trawls can be quite high there is also a need to consider the scale of the fishing area that is utilised. prawn trawling can not and does not happen just anywhere. bottom habitat restricts the potential trawl area to a small overall percentage of the fishery area. a lot of the effort would be concentrated in a few areas and potentially doesnt affect the ecosystems evenly across the board. monitoring species and catch rates of bycatch species only demonstartes changes in the populations of species in the area the trawl are undertaken. why isnt it conceivable that populations of bycatch species are sustaining themselves in areas that dont receive trawl effort eg reefy,rocky areas and these stocks can more than handle the biomass removed from prawl trawling??? just something to consider.......this small "take area" in comparison to the entire coastline combined with advances in gear technology means that the potential for bycatch reduction is real. DPI research has shown this to be possible (see Matt Campbell post a refernece in the other bycatch thread). Environment Australia has also enforced legislation that bycatch reductions of 40% are the target for the East Coast otter trawl fishery. peoplke are aware of the situation and ar adressing it as best they can at present. Fishermen are involved in this process as well.
Its interesting to read that there are folks that are so passionate about removing prawn trawlers (beamies and inshore) from Qld but still purchase the end product from those industries.
Hi dinga1
I assume you are involved in the trawl industry and it is good to hear your point of view.
Word of improvement with BRDs etc needs to get out. The 78% reduction in bycatch for the scallop fishery (in your post on the other thread) is indeed very good news. I hope the "If all of the scallop fishers were to use the devices" means that these measures will quickly become mandatory. In my view this goes a long way towards acceptance of that section of the industry, but there may still be other issues.
I can't agree with the argument you seem to put that while bycatch with prawn trawl may be quite high, this is acceptable if it is sustainable. What is literally the destruction and waste of 10s of 1000s of tonnes of fish etc may or may not be sustainable but I doubt that it is an acceptable use of a limited resource. Reducing the amount of by-catch by the elimination of non-target species from the trawl area would hardly be considered acceptable.
Having a 40% bycatch reduction target is still only a target. If it is achieved that will be a great step in the right direction. What if that is the best we can do. Bycatch levels will still be very high. Do we just say OK, thats the best we can do so we accept that we still waste 10s of 1000s of tonnes?
Its good that the industry accepts there is a problem and they are doing the best they can. Let's hope a solution is found quickly.
dinga nice work my brother keep it up.
nulla still tryna work out how post fotos here [ any tips] but i trialled a new/modified brd last week with initial trials very encouraging........ showed a 60 % reduction in bycatch......seemed to work particularily well 4 whiting.
kc i dont know bout a very good living if i could do the hours i do on wages comensurate to my talents [ master class 4 med 2] id be doin a lot betta. and mate to quote the blue planet and the abc seriously .......this organization is so green ridden that on their websites they spread misinformation about the fishing industry [one abc website claims the only prawn fishery in aust. using teds is the npf.... wot a load of twaddle the only prawn fishery in aust. not using teds is sth aust as they have no turtles. kc u wanna hava look at the wmb oceanic survey done on moreton bay b4 u start making unfounded claims.
mmmmm louis surveys show a decline in in recreational fishing participation from 24.6% in 2001 to 20.6% in 2004.....so ur economic input argument seems to be waning also if u are going to claim that recreational fishing is an industry why should it be allowed to be the only unregulated industry in aust. and gee mate how much munny do u reckon i spend in tax dollars on fuel, repairs etc.
Waldo - could you please give me a link to the particular page you are referring to on that leftist green ABC web-site?
bugman these outrageous claims are made on the abc website 'the lab' which i think is a jjj spin off from the dr karl program. this sitye has a section purporting to offer betta seafood choices. in this it claims the brown tiger is an overfished resource. the 2004 fishery assesment paper on the east coast states no depreciable drop in tiger stocks over the last 10 yrs. also there had been an issue with the brown tiger in the npf fishery which was addressed in 2002 by closing the month of august [when browns were trad. targetted]. last yr stock assesment showed the brown tiger had recovered to sustainable levels and the fishery was reopened in august. further more the information used to determine low brown stocks was from fishers log books from the tiger season in 2001, a season where 85% of the first 6 weeks effort was directed into fishing 4 banana prawns. an immediate assumption wasx made by fisheries that there were no browns that yr. what a load of twaddle there were heaps
it was that they werent targetted and therefore there was no logbook info and fisheries [using the no info = probable high risk equation] made an uninformed and in my mind poor choice.
thanx bugman 4 ur question but i only said green ridden not leftist.
jeremy just did a search on dpi fisheries for a size/bag limit on stout whiting [ which seem to me to be the majority of the bycatch shown on the beach] cant find a size or bag limit. not tryna score points just tryna see a little further past the media hysteria.
Thanks Waldo,
Here are some links I found mentioning brown tigers
Even the seems the federal environment minister feels the brown tiger was in trouble
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/nt/stories/s1081342.htm
The science site has this list which was published by the Bureau of Rural Sciences as Overfished
http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/fish/table.htm
Was this the article - has the same list
http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/fish/default.htm
Sounds like the season you were refering to
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/nt/stories/s891218.htm
I've always wondered if I have a green tinge
Bugman
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