Fish Frames at the Ramp - Blatant Waste

[ahjayem]

I have to agree with the sentiments of this post, and believe that the smell of rotting fish frames and skins whether they be in a bin, near a bin, on or near a boat ramp, washed up on a beach or sand bar, or on the compost heap can be gut wrenching, or unbearable to say the least. Maybe I’m a bit of a conservationist, and a little bit “scotch” into the bargain, but I recycle most of my fish frames as crab bait.

For example, on the weekend just gone, a party of eight of us chartered a boat out to the reef off Townsville. We had moderate success and on Monday arvo my son and I filleted and skinned twenty-two fish of our thirty-four fish catch. A couple of our party members were from out of town so took their share as whole fish. All of the fish had been gutted and gilled at sea.

After keeping the frames and skins on ice until yesterday, I cut up the frames and made up about sixty crab baits which were put into (old type) plastic shopping bags, at the rate of ten per bag, and then put in the freezer – just a small one (the old Tucker Box size) which I keep just for bait etc. They will be used as required in the future by family members – beats buying kangaroo meat or fish frames from the fish shop. A couple of years back I paid ten bucks for three mackerel frames and thought it was a bit steep, considering that years ago one could get a potato sack full for free or at the most ten shillings (that’s a dollar for those who went to school after 1966).

The frames are only good for one day’s use if “dillying”, or two tides, if setting safety pots. After use, the baits are returned to the creek or river where crabbing thus feeding the crabs who are “pot shy”.

Tight lines,

RJM

[robersl]

what a waste of good frames i recycle mine deep freezer to crab pot to mud or sand crabs ( not the other sort of crabs) to my stomach


shane

[robersl]

what a waste of good frames i recycle mine deep freezer to crab pot to mud or sand crabs ( not the other sort of crabs) to my stomach


shane

[-spiro-]

I am one of those people that throw my frames into the water at Kawana ramp. First thing is- have you seen how full the bis are most of the time. 2nd- There are stingrays, cod, bream, whitting, and crabs that all live around the pontoon and deeper water. I have seen all these critters over my time down there eatting left overs. 3rd- The amount of run{current} in and out of there picks the rest of the left overs up and takes them away. 4th- I would gladly throw my frames offshore but we all know the rules about that. 5th You want me to take my frames and dump them back at sea so i have to put my boat on the trailler clean my fish then take it off again. Yeh right u must not use a ramp very often and see the amount of traffic there. 6th- I have a average family size and would not be able to put fish heads or frames in the freezer for crab bait. Our chest freezer is full most of the time with day to day things. 7th-I would guess that most people dont have a veggie patch to go burry there scraps. Also how many people have a dog or cat that would raise the frames from the dead, this add's to vet bills now{great}8th- i don't know when your bin gets emptied but mine is never around fishing time, so my neighbours would be reel happy with the smell as would the free roaming dogs in the neighbour hood.

So that is what i do for now. You come up with a better solution that would work and i would be quite happy to change my practices.
Maybe you want me to ring you on the way in so you can have my frames for crab bait? Then you would want to hope that we don't have good weather as i might have to ring you 2-3 times in one week.

I am not the only one who dose this, so i would like to here from other members who do it to!!!!

[-spiro-]

One more thing
I fillet my fish properly and don't waste any flesh

[Streaker]

Spiro,
You got me. I have often made comment about the Kawana ramp that they should have a bin for the disposal of fish frames. I too fillet my fish and return the frames to the water where I fillet, I would prefere to do all of this at sea but the regs do not allow this while being sensible about the fillet sizes. Dammed if you do Dammed if you don't.
Wayne

[propdinger]

bigmack i was playing with all the new smilies and someho wforgot to delete one so in no way was i having a go at you fair dinkem. and i dont know if you noticed when i realised it was still there it was deleted .

as to your post on fish frames and waste all mine get filleted at home and taken out on my next trip for burley so i dont leave any waste at the ramp

[bigmack]

no worries Prop Ding! - the site of it just got to me and the frames are not being washed away on the tide so over the last couple of weeks each time i have been down to the ramp I have picked up and turfed into the drink about 20 frames to get rid of it all. A lot of people swim their dogs and themselves along this reach of the river and I wonder how long before we have some kind of shark incident. Someone told me that the men in grey follow the trawlers into the river.

Apart from that - its just a smelly mess and I dont want to tread on a sharp rotting carcus in the dark.

to the rest of the guys - why not put your frames in a bucket and drop them off the end of the pontoon instead of throwing them in front of the fish table.

Cheers

[-spiro-]

not a bad idea?
but that is still going to entice SHARKS.

Why we are on this cleaning up the ramp. Get rid on the people that fish on the pontoon, that i have to try and miss there lines when landing. They should'nt be on there at all.
The car park is for boaties not a car park for lookers!!!

[westie]

Spiro.... The pontoons are PUBLIC pontoons BUT fisherman have the right of way same as a jetty. They MUST make way for boats to berth and if they refuse give them your boat No, tell them to report you to the authorities for using it, when they are fishing. They will set them straight, there is signage on these pontoons just they can't read them.

Now my 1 cents worth of frames at ramps, I have stood on a frame after getting out of the boat ( I now us the Coast Gaurd ramp) and for 6 mths was reminded of it. To Me maybe instead off throwing them from the table a sign with something like Eg:

"All frames returned
to water depth
of a Mininum
of 2 meters"

This would make people keep frames at table until finished there task wade into the water and throw them into deeper water, some may get washed back but the bulk would stay in the deeper water.

Authorities still have the fish to check, anyone not doing the right thing can be fined, no more smell, no more spikes. We live in a world of signs but some have not learnt to read them.

I am one of the lucky ones that live on an acre, and do all my cleaning on a table down the back and have a freezer in the shed for bait and frames not that I am one of the lucky ones that catch big fish, if I was then I would do as the sign suggests above.

This is not having a go at anyone, I feel we are after the same thing here and need to find a solution to this problem. The sign above would be a step in the right direction. We all know the bin thing is not a option at ramps NO one wants that smell outside there door and why dump it on landfill when the marine life can benifit more, returning them to the water ,where most ,if not all, of it would be disposed in time, is the best option.

Westie

[finding_time]

. And One last thing I almost forgot - remember the big snapper are the breeding fish - its the 2kg / 4kg fish that eat the best.

BigMack

Dead right about the taste. unfortunately i can't chose which fish take the bait.( If i could they all would be HUGE ) after pulling fish from 90+ meters i doubt the realease of bigger fish would be sucessful. I recently caught a very large female full of roe it would have been nice to release this for breading reasons would it have been successful ? not buy the size of the swim bladder and chest cavity . Would i have released it. Not on your life. it was a pb.

I quite often take the frames and drop them into the esturary near the inlaws hoping to improve the crab population some GREENIE will tell me i'm some sort of enviro vandal though. >

[gunna]

Its worth thinking about because if people complain the obvious Council solution will be to remove the cleaning table.

[Custaro]

If you can't keep your frames & skin in your freezer until bin day, then maybe try and keep em bagged and on ice in your esky. You should have plenty of ice left over if your looking after your catch. If you go fishing again then dump out at sea OR they should keep till bin day.

[roz]

I think local councils and in some cases local fishing clubs could help the situation, by providing facilities.

The local fishing club at Coffs, years ago built sheds with tables taps etc, just up the hill from the launching area, keeps the boat ramp spotless...well sort of.

roz

[dfox]

I believe its important that all these frames and off cuts are returned to the sea. We take alot from the sea whether its bait, fish and crabs ,so anything that isnt going to be used should be returned. What good is it dumping it in the bin and only adding it to land fill. In the ocean at least it helps the food chain.
Looks to me like as fishos we just have to be a little more sellective where we dump our unwanted frames....foxy