Fish kill front page news.

[Dug]

Almost the full front page headlines in Saturdays Sunshine Coast Daily.
the shame is the fishing industry still seems to be in denial about it happening.



Fish graveyard exposes the shameful waste of our trawlers



11.03.2006
By CAROLYN TUCKER

THE four tonnes of fish washed on to a 16km stretch of Sunshine Coast beaches on Wednesday and Thursday was the usually hidden price we pay for fresh prawns.
Horrified beachgoers were shocked to find the foreshore from Buddina to Peregian smothered in rotting fish, prompting calls for an immediate inquiry into the industry.

An industry insider said it was not uncommon for trawlers to churn through a tonne of by-catch including red emperor and coral trout each hour for returns of as little as a 20-litre bucket of prawns.


the full story at:
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au...ondsubsection=

[Lone_Wolf]

So that's where Caroyln Tucker ended up, ex ABC reporter. Shameful waste of fledgling fish stocks too.

[Owen]

1 tonne of by-catch for a bucket of prawns?

Like to see the data to back that up.

I'm all for keeping the pro's honest, but ya can't do it with bullshit!

I'd think any pro with that kind of record would go broke pretty quick

cheers,
Owen

[waldo35]

thankyou owen for being sensible enough to see thru the spin a bucket of prawn might be worth 60-70 dollars to the fisherman...... its just ecomically impossible to work that way when u consider the size of boat needed to haul a tonne of fish on..

[Deelirious]

It is a shame to waste product that could otherwise be turned into fishmeal protein for use in animal feeds etc. Lets face it most of what we eat is fish - chicken / eggs are all fed fishmeal and feedlot cattle are all fed fishmeal based feed supplements, aquaculture fish and crustaceans are all fed fishmeal based feeds. Most of this comes from processed oceanic caught Krill and the like. Apart from some drop in the ocean attempts to generate protein from algae used to purify waste water most of it comes from live animals.

Except in Australia because the live animals caught and processed somewhere else because our pro fishers are not allowed to retain non permitted species and even if they were there isn't anyone to by it and process it and it wouldn't be economically viable to bring back a boat as soon as it filled with bycatch.

It's a vicious circle.
Ed

[dazza]

only trouble with that is when the season is lean, the "by catch" then becomes the target.
cheers
dazza

[Big_unit]

It is a shame to waste product that could otherwise be turned into fishmeal protein for use in animal feeds etc. Lets face it most of what we eat is fish - chicken / eggs are all fed fishmeal and feedlot cattle are all fed fishmeal based feed supplements...

It's a vicious circle.
Ed

I would like to know where & who feeds Cattle fishmeal ?

I have managed herds of Dairy cows that range from 250 head to 2900 head, all the Dairy cattle except young stock are fed in a feedlot situation as well as having experience with 2 Beef feedlots and I have never had an Agronomist, Nutritionist, Dairy Advisor or any person ever make any mention of feeding stock Fishmeal. The risk of Botulism is extremely high when using any high protein meat meal. Not to mention the legalities of feeding fish meal, meat meal or any by product of animal slaughter, to any animal intended for human consumption.

[4x4frog]

An industry insider said it was not uncommon for trawlers to churn through a tonne of by-catch including red emperor and coral trout each hour for returns of as little as a 20-litre bucket of prawns.

And this mob, the pro fishers want us to take them seriously and feel for them and they feed us that sort of bull. They deserve all they get...nobody would be dumb enough to try and etch out a living making that sort of loss. If what she says is true, we will be OK, they will all be broke by this Easter and the waters will be ours ours ours

[Louis]

This might appear a stupid question but please excuse my ignorance in relation to Commercial Fishing.

But with modern technology being what it is. I would have thought that someone would have, by now, been able to invent devices etc to make sure that there wasn't any dead bycatch?



Louis

[nulla]

For those interested in some of the research done on trawl bycatch:

Robins & Courtney (1999):
• bycatch from trawling in the eastern king prawn sector off southern Queensland
is 66 – 85% fish. Common species include stout whiting, leatherjacket, tongue
sole, toadfish, flathead, grinners, spiny head flounder and red spot gurnard;

• estimates of total annual bycatch from the red spot king prawn sector off
central and north Queensland are between 7150 t (Robins & Courtney 1998)
and 8000t (Hill and Wassenberg 2000);

• total annual bycatch from the tiger /endeavour prawn sector is estimated to be
in the order of 10260 -19200 t.

Hill and Wassenberg (2000):

12% of all bycatch (mainly crabs and bivalves) survives

2% of fish survive

From the above two fisheries some 25,000 tonnes of bycatch is probably killed. With estimates of Bycatch Reduction Devices reducing bycatch by 20% to 30% the trawl industry has a long way to go

[Jeremy]

Nulla,

how refreshing to see someone with facts to back up what they say. Great to see.

Jeremy

[Matt_Campbell]

Coral trout as bycatch? Perhaps nulla, with his excellent research skills, can tell us what proportion of bycatch is made up of coral trout. Carolyn Tucker is obviously are very good journalist but when she sprouts rubbish it makes you think about the credibility of journalists looking for a story.

[Big_unit]

Fact is journalists will always add to a story, especially when its something that the reader will want to believe.

[nulla]

Hi Matt

Don't know about coral trout as trawl by-catch. Ms. Tucker may have used some 'poetic licence' in writting her story. I think it would be hard to confuse Stout Whiting with Coral Trout. Stout, Trout, I don't think so. Perhaps you could ask her about it.

Do you disagree with the figures I quoted in the previous post?

I am not an expert in the field but would welcome comment from the industry re levels of bycatch. I believe it is or will be in the future a requirement to record levels of by-catch in log books. Is this the case and does anyone have access to this data?

[Louis]

I’m curious to know what the percentage of By-Catch is to kept targeted species.


Eg. 1 By-Catch fish for every 5 kept Targeted species etc.


Does anyone have the figures on this?





Louis