what the?

[ronnien]

just came back from the iga store down the road & there is 2 under sized yellow sweetlip (they r calling them moses perch) for sale, how can these b legally sold. got me bet?>:(

[jtpython]

Bi Product Of Trawlers

[BARRAkid]

Bi Product Of Trawlers

Exactly my mate ownes 3 trawlers and you see some off the fish that gets pulled out of the boats when they unload :o

[ffejsmada]

Would they be farmed fish????????

[ronnien]

just spoke 2 fisheries here in t'ville he told me that if caught in commonwealth waters it's alright(gulf). but is concerned about different name & is sending a couple of officers down now.

[tunaticer]

How is the gulf "commonwealth"waters? I would have thought it would simply be joint Qld and NT waters?

Jack.

[ronnien]

jack, i dont know mate but he also said that a wholesale seafood place here imported barramundi cod from nt & sold here & is legal, but here in qld they r protected.

ron.

[johnny roger]

yeah its a bit of a worry all these fish rules etc. but what about the prawns etc...they are being imported from vietnam and thailand, and are much cheaper. but i dont reckon they taste any good. not lile good ole aussie gulf prawns. ok, you pay a little more but i guess its the same thing as the clothes that are on the shelves these days as well. they are all made in china, dam sight cheaper, but not as good as good ole aussie fabric. where do you stop?
John

[Lucky_Phill]

Ron,

I believe there is currently a study being undertaken to determine the extent of " inncorrect" labeling of fish for the retail market. This will eventually allow all fish species to be identified as an individual fish:-

eg:- Rosey Job fish are now called ... king snapper.. !!

They should be labeled correctly. The study has to determine whether a fish gets identified by it's correct ( Fisheries ID ) name or a common name, but there are so many common names for different areas and fish.

There has been legislation introduced into Queensland some time ago to have fish labeling improved. Some times it is not the fault of the retailer, it is the wholesaler wrongly naming fish.. maybe on purpose, maybe not !!!!!

eg:- Coral Cod are ID'd as Coral Trout.....

John.....

The prawn industry has taken a huge turn in recent times, particularly here in Qld with the stopping of imported ' green ' ( raw ) prawns from overseas markets, due to high bacteria levels ( virus's ). Also the cooked prawn imports have been reduced by 75% over the last 2 years, also due to lack of quality control.

Australian farms prawns are a great product with many farms now exporting their product, which in turn, makes any product we recieve here, dearer.

Gulf ( wild ) prawns are good chewing, but like all areas where trawlers operate, by-catch is an issue. I do believe that the gulf by-catch is far less than the east coast trawl fishery. Fisheries are constantly trying to develop ways and means of reducing the by-catch but the best way is to stop trawling altogether. This can only happen when the Prawn Farming industry becomes big enough to handle the demand. I also doubt this will ever happen, but you never know. !!

AS for the clothes etc...... we are in a Global Market and therefore we buy and sell our product according the " best price ". IF I am a prawn farmer and I can get $30/ kg for my prawns overseas, I will sell it there and not take $20 /kg here. Further, if I am a retailer who sells a product that I can get 50% cheaper from an overseas source, then I will buy that product. After all, I am in business and being in business means making money to feed the family, pay the mortgage etc etc.

At the end of the day we all have choices... Ron made the right choice in phoning the fisheries about his concerns regarding the ' sweetlip ' , others have the choice to buy imported prawns or Aussie stuff and similar to clothing, fishing tackle etc. It is good to have choice.... !!!!!

Cheers Phill

[ronnien]

spoke 2 the fisheries not long ago he told me that the fish are legal(just), also told them that they r not mosses perch & 2 correctly name them. i would have let them go (on the small side).

ron.

[RayDeR]

Ron,

I believe there is currently a study being undertaken to determine the extent of " inncorrect" labeling of fish for the retail market. This will eventually allow all fish species to be identified as an individual fish:-

eg:- Rosey Job fish are now called ... king snapper.. !!

They should be labeled correctly. The study has to determine whether a fish gets identified by it's correct ( Fisheries ID ) name or a common name, but there are so many common names for different areas and fish.

There has been legislation introduced into Queensland some time ago to have fish labeling improved. Some times it is not the fault of the retailer, it is the wholesaler wrongly naming fish.. maybe on purpose, maybe not !!!!!

eg:- Coral Cod are ID'd as Coral Trout.....

Cheers Phill

G'day Phill!

What chance have we got for retail stores to label fish correctly when a local fishing magazine in this month's edition has a picture labelled "parrot" and the expert in the article calls them parrot then admits in a bracket they are actually venus tuskfish?

It is interesting parrot have a minimum of 25cm and a bag limit of 5 while tusk fish have minumum of 30cm a bag limit of 6. (from memory).

I have recently caught my first tuskfish which I was told was a parrot but was identified in this forum as tuskfish.

Ray de R

[choppa]

i think its fair to say that phill is on the right track with having the "choice" to buy imported or not,,, and i understand that when your in business the "choice" to make an extra buck to pay the bills is always on the list

profit afterall is not a dirty word,,,,,

profiteering is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, especially when the "choice" is underhandably placed in the resellers control,,,,

simple test,,,, when your next in the deli section of your local supermarket,,, compare the average of aussie seafood product opposed to imported

then picture yourself in a bind,,, you've got a barbie,,, or a hankering for a feed of prawns,,,squid,,,or any other species,,, you run into the supermarket and "voila",,,, 80% importered on average,,,versus 20% australian

then add the reason behind this post,,, foul play comes into effect due to it being "named" wrongly,,, makes you wonder why a small percentage of people "hate" eating one variety of fish,,, but when there offered the challange of taste testing the same meat caught elsewhere,, they state that its better

i use supermarket deli's in the above due to the percentage and volume of seafood that they sell and buy,,, (clothing and other essentials can be added,,, but thats a different scenario)

me... i can honestly say that the deli manager cringes when he see's me making a bee-line for his section,,,,, mainly i buy tigers or kings,,,, and only for bait,,,, i've never purchased and eaten deli prawns,,,,, but at 15-20 bucks a kilo,,, its cheaper than buying 2-3 packets of bait prawns from the servo when i have chopjr in tow,, and they only last one trip out,,,

i asked the above manager to explain what a ""black bream"" was ,,, his answer had me in fits,,,, seeing that it was a luderick,,, and the same goes for flake,,, whiting,,,and "coral fish"

being raised in victoria,,, flake is generally gummy shark,,,, but its definately not ray,,,, whiting, well qld has so many variety's its hard to keep up,, and "coral fish pieces" well that leaves the imagination wondering,,,(what do they do with the left over fillets),,,,

i suppose when you add the vast amount of "imported" species to the mix, and have more of these on show than local product,, the real "choice" is to buy steak,, or is that at risk too??????

choppa

[Cobia Kid]

Its not a good thing to see, i feel moses are a great eating fish and to be distibuted as something with a complety different flavor, just not on!

[Tailortaker]

As stated in the above posts, you cant really blame the supermarkets as a large % of the staff are uneducated dew to the fact it is so hard to find staff that are trained in areas such as seafood. I've constantly seen incorrectly named fish coming in to supermarkets by the wholesalers and sizes that are questionable and as for the imported fish filling the supermarkets it is far to expensive and inconsistant to stock local seafood..
Cheers TT

[rob tranter]

In NSW we already have Truth in Labelling at Supermarkets and Seafood Shops.
They have to label the fish as per Fisheries ID and whether it is Aus or Imported.
Woolies were forever calling a fish Red Snapper and I'm yet to properly ID it.
Now they have to give it it's correct name and Place of Origin.

As for Commonwealth Waters V State Waters

I think it is determined on Distance from shore? Any thing beyond a certain point becomes Federal/Commonwealth., and then further out International?
Otherwise why would Queensland have a different set of Rules and Regs for East Coast fishing and for Gulf Fishing.

Lucky you are up on your fish species ID Ron.

Rob T8-)

[ronnien]

tt, that ant got me yesterday & just got me now both times tried 2 get it off the screen.

ron.

[Tailortaker]

tt, that ant got me yesterday & just got me now both times tried 2 get it off the screen.

ron.
it's annoying is'nt it ;D ;D ;D

[tony_fish]

Ron

I don't follow, you said they were yellow sweetlip (I assume you mean spangled emporer) their size limit is 45cm. Moses perch is only 25cm??

Big difference between sizes.

Are they "just" less than 45 cm or 25cm??

[ronnien]

tony_fish, they were on the legal limit no bigger thats what the officer told me (yellow tailed emperor 25cm min).

[fivefishes]

Evening all,

Similar issue going through the rec fishing press in Cairns at the moment, a particular "FISHing +BOATing" mag has had articles to and fro regarding undersize Nannygai in retail shop displays. I've left it alone even though i can settle the argument in two seconds, i don't need the crap thrown at me about being a Pro supporter etc. However after this thread i can't help myself. UNDERSIZE (BY QLD RULES) NANNYGAI SOLD IN RETAIL SHOPS IN CAIRNS AND SURROUNDS ARE HARVESTED BY FISH TRAWLERS TARGETING THESE FISH, NOT BYCATCH, IN THE GULF OR CARPENTARIA. PERFECTLY LEGAL. THEY ARE NOT, AS SOME EMOTIONALLY CHARGED REC FISHERMEN SUGGEST, TRAWLER BYCATCH FROM THE EAST COAST AND MORE IMPORTANTLY NOT FROM ANYWHERE ANY SANE REC FISHERMAN WOULD EVER GO FISHING.
I know what these guys think, why is it that i have to throw back an undersize Nanny when the trawlers can go scoop up whatever they want and sell it as bycatch. Simply not true, wrong state, wrong rules, wrong everything.
Stop and think fellas, you go into a retail shop, a shop that prob cost $100,000's to set up maintain etc and think these guys are stupid enough to have blatantly illegal fish in their displays, it is incredibly unlikely. Sure some stuff up's occur and people make mistakes, some even do illegal things on purpose occasionally, but dumb enough to have undersize fish in full display, i doubt it. Unfortunately the rules and regs are that complicated that very few people, even fisheries management and enforcement officers know exactly what's what.
By all means find the bloke doing the wrong thing and kick his butt, just make sure you know what you are talking about.

Matt

P.S I welcome any questions regarding the above or similar seafood related questions, i'm in the industry and have been for 17 yrs so i'm not blowing hot air.

[ronnien]

matt, the 2 fish in question were not mosses perch as sold as, they were yellow tailed emperor. so my question is how can they label them a different fish & sell them? to me a bit like i got a turkey just to get home & find a chicken.

ron.

[fivefishes]

Ronnien,

That's illegal, no if's or buts. No argument from me. No excuse for mislabelling of fish or any produce for that matter. Throw the book at em!!

Thing i'm not comfortable with is how many times i hear accusations like your first post (There were 2 undersize yellow sweetlip) and the F+B article re undersize Nanny's that end up being incorrect, i'm not having a shot at you, it's just that once that's said it's said. True or false mud sticks, some people prob haven't read the entire thread and don't know the outcome.Likewise with the local F+B mag, if people don't read all the follow up articles they will assume that trawlers can keep undersize fish when we have to throw them back.
At the end of the day Fisheries managers in Bris have a lot to answer for, the rules are overly complicated.
Example for you, i stood next to a fisheries officer one day in plain sight of an undersize Camoflage Cod (40cm) and he had no idea, fish was there by an honest mistake by a fisherman but even the fisho had no idea, Camo Cod have a 50cm-100cm slot size limit by the way, most Cod are 38cm min.
How much chance do we have when the Boating and fisheries inspectors don't get it right??
Hope nothing offends.

Matt

[ronnien]

matt, no prob's at all. the main reason for ringing the fisheries was incorect naming, & the fish were legal (just) at 25cm, if they had of been bigger i would have a laugh at naming & left it at that.

ron

[tony_fish]

So the issue is, the incorrect labeling of fish and not undersize fish :o as per your post??
(selling undersize yellow emporer as moses perch both 25cm ).

Why call the fisho's?

Do Fisho's enforce naming of fish as well??:-/

[ronnien]

because they did not look legal, right on 25cm, & the fisho's told them to change name of the fish.

ron.

[Custaro]

I think a lot more can be done about fish labeling here is a couple of suggestions I will throw out there;

1. The market place obviously has issues with certain names of fish. Putting the scientific name isn't practical. Why not put a picture? A simple logo that people can identify what they are eating. A picture doesn't leave any doubt. Obviously not required if sold whole.

2. Also, why not promote the vessel who caught the fish, where the fish was caught and how it was caught. We do it with beef, promoting particular breeds of beast, grazing properties and farming practice. This could have excellent follow on, with poorly set up commercial fishing outfits forced out of the market or forced to change their ways to get the best buck.

And, I'll chuck in another point too. Why does the market place insist on leaving a whole fish or fish fillet to turn to yuk in their display? Some are better than others but why not freeze it, bag it and sell it frozen while still in good condition. There is nothing wrong with frozen fish. Yes, some are better than others but if done in a right way...good as fresh. I think some fish have better taste and particularly texture after being frozen.