I decided to head to woody point jetty for a fish, so i grab a mate and his missus and tell them to come for a fish with me down the jetty. Dropped into bcf on the way grabbed myself some new crab pots and line etc as i thought i might try for a shark or two. Arrived at the jetty just after dark. Whilst walking up the jetty i noticed a group of foriegners (race not to be disclosed) checking there crab pots. They had heeps out atleast 10. There would have been 5 or 6 of them i thought nothing of it and headed up the end of the jetty to set my lines out. After an hour with only catching one catfish and lots of undersized and female crabs (nothing legal) in my 2 pots after checking them which were all returned to the water rightfully, so they can frow up to be big and fat and make a huge offspring this summer. I turn around to see fisheries officers with there torches looking through the foreigners polystyrine box, obviously something was wrong as they stayed there talking to them for around 10 - 15 mins.
ONe of the officers came up to me and introduced himself (nice bloke) and asked if the 2 pots here were mine. I replyed with 'yes officer'. He checked them and checked the knots on them and said no worrries and proceeded to ask me about the young chaps down the jetty, telling me they had found a large quantitiy of undersize and female crabs. He asked me if I owned any other pots on the jetty i said no officer. He asked me if I'd seen them check the pots close to them and if id seen them with the polystyrine container, i said yes and yes. He thanked me for my co-operation and said he might come back later on for a few more questions. No worries i said.
About half an hour passed and as i looked down the jetty they seemed to have finished talking with the foreigners and began walking up towards me. This time the other officer walked up to me, not the one i had talked to previously, as he approaches me the other fisheries officer says to him, this is the guy i talked to before i checked the knots on his pots and theyre tottally different, he then said he is going to follow the foreigners to see which car they got into. So off he went and left me with this new officer. The new officer explains whats happened down the jetty again and he says that they deny that they are theryre pots and they also deny that that is theyre polystyrene box. He also said that I have the same type of rope on my dillies as the ones further down. I explained to him that i bought these both brand new today and that is the rope that comes with them. HE proceeded to ask if the7y were my poits down the jetty and if that was my polystyrine container.
Now I realise for legal reasons they have to eliminate everyone who could have owned these pots but i felt a bit insulted after helping the other officer out telling him ive seen them check the pots and everything. These guys were a good 50 metres from everyone on the whole jetty and they had there pots next to them and there box full of female crabs right next to all there gear but it seems they can jsut almost getaway with it by jsut saying no thats not ours. Then to make things worse this officer comes up to me and suggests theyre mine when i am one of the most people backing the fisheries, i have fished the pine river all my life and have never thought of taking anything undersize and i know how bad the system is there at the moment. Especially reading that it has got marked D's on the last 3 annual reports.
Any way so after that he says to me if you caught anything in your two pots how would you transport it home, i said in my bucket right over there, so off we go and he looks through my bucket. No undersize anything there!!!
HE then says ok thats all good i want to ask you some questions about what youve seen tonight.
Q. Do you know who owns those pots down there.
A. YEs the foreigners who jsut left
Q. How do you know that they are theres??
A. I saw them check them numerous times before you arrived.
Q. Was it a male or a female that checked them.
A. 100 percent it was a male.
Q. Did you see them put anything into the polystyrine box?
A. No i didnt.
Q.Do you think it is theres (the box) if so why??
A. I've seen them down here every day with it, i come down around 3-4 nights a week and they are always here with it and always have all of those pots out.
The series of questions went on, he said what will happen now ill go back to the office and give this to the boss and see if we have enough evidence to take them to court. I asked him what sort of quantities were involved and he said he couldnt tell me. He than ked me for my co-operation and gave me his card and off they went.
They werent so bad after all i jsut felt a bit insulted that they had to check my stuff, When it was so blatenly obvious that it was the foreigners gear.
I hope these guys do go to court and if they need me to give any evidence i will be ready to any day. This has gone on too long, here i am wondering why i cant get a nice big buck in my pots when these di*&heads are raping the ocean taking every single tiny jenny they catch. The polystyrine container was left on the jetty after everyone left so i looked into it and they only left one crab in it obviously the only legal one as all the others mustve been thwon back after photos were taken, i grabbed him out and through him back in.
I would like to congragulate these two officers that came out there last night, it really is good to see that they are protecting out waterways from these thiefs. Good on you youre doing a great job keep it up!
And to the thieves i hope that wack you with a huge fine in court so you cant afford to buy any new crab pots.
end rant now ////
cheers rob
Reply With Quote
