Fish kill front page news.

[Louis]

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

[nulla]

Louis

"Large amounts of bycatch (non-target species) are caught in prawn trawls. Typically, less than 20% of the catch is prawns, and the remainder – mostly fish and crustaceans – is discarded. An estimated 30,000 tonnes of bycatch is discarded in the Northern Prawn Fishery each year."

The above comes from a CSIRO marine fact sheet for those that want to know (Information sheet #20 updated September 04)

The Northern Prawn Fishery is basically from Cape York west to NT Western Australia border and yields around 8,000 tonnes of prawns. Thats 30,000 tonnes of by-catch for 8,000 tonnes of prawn. Not a very good conversion ratio.

While I agree with the concept of fair by-back of licences I don't agree with moving them into more remote areas. Remote areas are already fished by commercial fishers and don't need extra effort placed on them. This will just have the same effect as RAP - concentrate effort to create a problem where none existed previously.

[waldo35]

mmmm total bycatch figure representing wot australia wide/all of qld waters/ qld east coast wot.......mmmm refreshing to see figures used in a vacumn once again. 3/4 of the bream harvest in queensland is taken by the recreational section [henry and lyle 2003].
not try to score points with this but merely offering an alternate stat inna vaccumn.
if u could tell me , particularily with refernce to the last all up figure, to which australian fishery these figures apply ?
damn how do u attach pictures on here?

[Matt_Campbell]

nulla I think you will find that a bycatch:prawn ratio of 30:8 or 3.75:1 is probably below par. In fact that is very good for a tropical prawn fishery. I certainly dont disagree with your figures. The commercial trawl industry are required to install bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) and turtle excluder devices into all nets. Recent research indicates that there is a potential for significant reductions in bycatch using these devcies. Check this out.

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/far/12589.html

[4x4frog]

Waldo,
Did you read Nulla's post at all??? He quoted the areas as being the Northern Prawn fishery.


My answer is that all the money being wasted on studying who is taking/wasting what should be channeled directly towards research into aquaculture. Farming the fish commercially is the way to go IMHO. Surely these days technology is advanced to the extent that they could commence farming and then improve on it as they go?? The oceans are large yes but how many people can all the waters of the world sustain successfully?

[nulla]

Hi Matt

Figures I have quoted are from research and don't necessarily reflect what is happening in the industry. One could be forgiven for thinking that a trawl operator would be on 'his best behavior' when he has researchers on board. The 30:8 figure is as reported by CSIRO and was probably based on measurement of a number of 'test shots' although I don't know for sure.

Do you work within the industry (I don't) and if so is it correct that operator’s now record by-catch in log books?

I am aware of BRDs and TEDs and understand they go some way towards solving the problem but 20% to 30% reduction in by-catch still leaves a problem.

Admitting a problem exists is the first step to resolving it. Denial will achieve little except perhaps make it worse.


Waldo35

I am not sure if your last post relates to me. If it does and you read what I have written you may notice that I make no claims about Australia wide figures. I am not sure what you mean by 'in a vacuum'. I mention:

"Eastern king prawn sector off southern Queensland",
"Red spot king prawn sector off central and north Queensland "
"tiger /endeavour prawn sector "
"Northern Prawn Fishery"

If the 'last all up figure" refers to the 30,000 tonne figure in my previous post, you may need to re-read the post. The figure relates to "Northern Prawn Fishery", "is basically from Cape York west to NT Western Australia border".
Go to http://www.marine.csiro.au/LeafletsF...0prawn/20.html for the full report, including a map.

The numbers aren't mine. I am not a researcher. I am merely trying to put forward the 'facts' as they are reported in scientific circles. The reason I say 'facts' is that most research has limitations but it represents the best available knowledge at the time.

[dinga1]

"The catch rates of scallops and bycatch were measured from all four net treatment types and it was found that when the TED and square mesh codend BRD were used together in the same net that bycatch was reduced by 78% with no significant effect on the catch rate of legal size scallops. If all of the scallop fishers were to use the devices it would equate to reductions in bycatch in the order of about 10,725 tonnes annually"

this is the sort of results that are potentially possible. square mesh codends have now been distributed for testing in the east coast otter trawl fishery with tremendous results. Benefits of the scallop fishery is the target is so much bigger than the bycatch so ridding the net of bycatch whilst retaining target is more achievable. with shallow water prawn trawls the bycatch and target are similar sizes so if you let one out you let the other out of the net for this reason fishermen favour BRD's that require fish actively seeking them out rather than just falling out of holes as happens with the square mesh codend. as you can imagine a fish trying to find a hole in the net at 20m in darkness is a bit slim and hence not as effective in removing them from the net but at the same time prawns arent lost either so fishermen maintain whatever profitability is left for them. bycatch can be removed from nets but often it comes at a loss in prawns which isnt satisfactory for fishermen trying to make a living.

[waldo35]

4bi4 frog u need to do a little more research into the destructive nature of largescal aquaculture b4 u claim that as an answer... [ particularily the south american experience in the 70s].
nulla i was working in the gulf when these figures were researched. tho i didnt have an observer on my boat i had guys in my company as well as mates who did. it comes back to stats inna vaccumn . the yr these stats were compiled had sfa rainfall and there was fish every where. tell me how i can put fotos in here and ill show u an alternative reality to the media frenzy and the use of incomplete data with no regard for any variance/historical averages/rainfall information.
dinga keep up the good work my brother.

[Owen]

waldo35
to put a pic in hit the reply button in the blue bar at the bottom of the page rather than typing in the "Quick reply box"
You will then get a section where you can browse for a pic and post it. Has to be under 100kb in size.

[Derek_Bullock]

Waldo, if you are still having trouble with the photos, email them to me at derek@aussiecampovencook.com and I will do it for you.

Regards


Derek

[waldo35]

thanx to derek and owen for the hints on posting pics will give it a go tah.