Closed Seasons for different species

[Timmy94]

Whilst fishing today (didn't catch anything bar one 18cm bream) I was thinking how we could get more fish into our waters. I thought about closed seasons for each species over a 5year period. Eg each species has 3months break over their spawning season. This will bring alot more fish in and im sure if it was just one species of fish i wouldnt mind. I would just go and target Something different. This could do a world of good if we lined up the 3 or 6 month closed seasons during the fish's spawning season. So if we had 3 months closed season for each common species over a 5year period. We would do the world of good and have so many more fish for the future.
What are your thoughts?:-/

[Worm Bait]

Timmy, i see your point. I had a good fish this morning and couldn't manage to land a single thing, which makes me wonder if we should have designated times where we cannnot take a certain species, but i think 3 months is a preety long time. maybe something with a shorter time frame would be more suitable?

Worm Bait

[Timmy94]

Well how long does it take for a bream to go through a whole spawning cycle?
The longer the better though.

[tunaticer]

I have often thought of rotational closed systems along the coastline.

Seeing most major creeks and rivers are not spread that far apart long the coast usually it makes sense to me to have every 3rd or 4th waterway closed for 12 months for all fishing forms. The end of that closed season brings the next system north closed for 12 months and so on. Every 3 or 4 yrs each river in qld has had a full 12 month break from being fished.

It would require a fair amount of policing but at least with a 12 month recovery period the system would be able to re-establish more balanced environments and most likely the bait grounds whether they be yabby worm or fish would come back to native levels almost.

Every 1st of february (for the want of a date) the rotation would occur each yr and be well publicised accross all radio stations and tv stations. Bait and tackle shops could be handing out fliers regarding where is under protection currently etc.

Surely a system like this would be as beneficial as green zones giving the breeding fish a chance to spawn and grow out for a full year.

This system would also give our scientific community some real data on fishing pressure opposed to protected zones for health checks on our waterways.

Jack.

[Luc]

I beleive that size limits are a better way to go.

Minimum size such as to allow fish to breed at least a couple of times and maybe slot limits to protect the big breeding females (eg barra & flathead)

Minimising habitat destruction and degradation will also go a long way towards maintaining our fish stocks.

Luc

[sleepygreg]

Its great to see a post putting up some positive suggestions - rather than just bagging the EPA and DPI&F. This is the way we need to approach the issue. Thought out suggestions that are palatable to the end users (us fishermen), but also achieve the aims of the conservation crowd........of which we are part. Keep the thread going guys....well done.

Greg

[PinHead]

I have often thought of rotational closed systems along the coastline.

Seeing most major creeks and rivers are not spread that far apart long the coast usually it makes sense to me to have every 3rd or 4th waterway closed for 12 months for all fishing forms. The end of that closed season brings the next system north closed for 12 months and so on. Every 3 or 4 yrs each river in qld has had a full 12 month break from being fished.

It would require a fair amount of policing but at least with a 12 month recovery period the system would be able to re-establish more balanced environments and most likely the bait grounds whether they be yabby worm or fish would come back to native levels almost.

Every 1st of february (for the want of a date) the rotation would occur each yr and be well publicised accross all radio stations and tv stations. Bait and tackle shops could be handing out fliers regarding where is under protection currently etc.

Surely a system like this would be as beneficial as green zones giving the breeding fish a chance to spawn and grow out for a full year.

This system would also give our scientific community some real data on fishing pressure opposed to protected zones for health checks on our waterways.

Jack.

what you are saying here is that you would have closed areas similar to what is proposed at the moment except that you would move yours around frequently.

I am totally against closures..I am in favour of more stringent policing of current regulations and constant monitoring of bag and size limits.

[choppa]

i agree with greg,,, the more emphasis that is is placed on educating and enforcing current regulations the better,,,,

just take a look at the number of fish that are caught and kept daily by those that aren't aware (or ignorant) to size limits,,,, most of your jetties/piers produce these fisherpeople

dpi&f needs to adopt a policy where more public awareness and patrols are issued,,,, perhaps a ""volunteer"" or a reserve inspector status that could be assigned to local waterways and ramps??????? surely this would overcome there current predicament of being undermanned and having existing resources stretched to the limit

the closure of waterways will only bring about the need to have further officers patrol them anyway,,,, those people that aren't as honest as most would endeavor to find someway of using this to their own advantage,,,,

curiously,, at the top end of ningi creek yesterday morning,,, a holden ute was parked in the middle of the scrub,,, 2 blokes both in a tinny retreiving about 20 pots in a very close proximinity were that busy that they didn't see me pull up,,, when they did,, the ""small"" amount of crabs that were emptied out of the esky was interesting to witness,, made me wonder why they were placed in the esky in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

choppa