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View Full Version : Disgusted - Over the Number of Trawlers Today



harry_h01
19-05-2008, 02:38 PM
Looking out from the hanger here at work, we have had 5 trawlers working the upper end of the Brisbane river all day.

So far we have counted 4 passes per trawler.

I know they need to earn a living, but this is rape and pillage. they are across the whole river, from our banks to the mangroves on the other side.

Is there anything that can be done, or anyone we can contact?


Harry

Local_Guy
19-05-2008, 03:15 PM
don't know about down there, but fisheries up here seam to be on their side... we get slugged with tigher restrictions while the "professional" doesn't have any more restrictions applied to him.

All i can suggest is that you ring the fisheries and vent your frustration... My guess is prawns are around and that is what they are after.

Alex The Angler
19-05-2008, 03:25 PM
And they all blame us recreational fishos for depleating fish stocks, it's absolute BULLS#!T>:(>:(

argentimaculatus
19-05-2008, 03:57 PM
It's obviously legal doing what they're doing. What's the problem???

You said it, they gotta earn a livin'!::)

Oh....btw, I think you meant Disgust, not Discussed.;D

Angla
19-05-2008, 04:04 PM
That would be a good sign for you to not fish there tonight. There are some spots where they are not allowed to go I believe. Like you and me, they like to make a living from their trade.

Chris

bluefin59
19-05-2008, 05:04 PM
I guess thats the same as the ones that rape the pine imagine being allowed to trawl that pi##y little drain its an absolute disgrace but thats the way they make a living ,doesn't mean it's right though ...matt

Magella
19-05-2008, 05:29 PM
To stop the trawlers get everyone to stop buying bait and seafood we all complain about them but we all like to grab a couple of kilos of prawns etc to eat or a packet of prawns, herring, squid, pillies etc for bait
maybe we should import all this stuff from some deceased ponds from overseas.

Cheers Foxie

Poodroo
19-05-2008, 05:42 PM
It's obviously legal doing what they're doing. What's the problem???

You said it, they gotta earn a livin'!::)

Oh....btw, I think you meant Disgust, not Discussed.;D

Sometimes all because something is legal it doesn't necessarily mean it is right. I don't agree with the frequency of trawlers working certain areas because it is raping our waters of a lot of species and a lot of it isn't what they are targeting.
EPA have approved dedging billions of tonnes of sand from moreton bay itself to use on the new Brisbane runway. It has passed through the government offices and therefor "legal" but does this mean it is right? The pen pushers in government offices have a lot to answer for.

Poodroo

argentimaculatus
19-05-2008, 05:53 PM
Moreton Bay needs more deep holes, keep dredging I say!

They could fill up the underground mines at Ipswich as well as create new runways.

Good idea hey?

We're all entitled to an opinion.

r3volt
19-05-2008, 06:05 PM
So people would rather get thier seafood from overseas i assume?

Mr__Bean
19-05-2008, 07:00 PM
Which hangar Harry, I am at VB.

- Darren

Poodroo
19-05-2008, 07:04 PM
I for one would love to hear from the trawler owner/operators themselves and let them tell us honestly whether their hauls are as productive now as they were say 10 years ago. According to the "so called" scientific studies carried out by the supposed expert scientists working for the EPA the fish stocks are dramatically reduced. r3volt if the raping and pillaging continues we may have no choice but to buy from overseas. This doesn't necessarily mean I believe any of the crap that EPA go on with but I have to wonder how big an impression the trawlers are having on our fish sustainability.

Poodroo

tunaticer
19-05-2008, 07:11 PM
As evil as the trawlers may seem to our river and bay environments, it is still good that they are there in greatly reduced numbers and managed via thier licences.

I would like to see some more passive way of harvesting taken up rather than just plain trawling but as to this day such a method does not exist.

It is sort of like us and our boats and our cars and our demand for energy and all things new or pretty, it all, every little speck of it, has a negative effect on the environment whether it be locally or elsewhere. Everything does have an impact.

The prawns are a manageable resource that does to date keep breeding in regular cycles to support the local environment. The numbers of commercial harvesters has dropped dramatically in the last 20 years and most likely will keep dropping. The recreational harvesters of prawns are flourishing and multiplying almost radically each year. The equilibrium of recreational and commercial catches within the rivers will soon be reached I think and then what?? Effectively we will have doubled the commercial catches by adding the same amount of take as the professionals. Should we too be discarding our cast nets to save the environment?

How much damage is done with cast nets to the river floor?? Has there ever been any research done in commonly cast netted zones to assess damage levels?? I presume the damages will be quite similar to trawling with loss of benthonic habitat and lifeforms.

I think pointing the finger at people earning an honest law abiding living should be given some duty of respect. There are all forms of employment out there that may not be to our liking but there is obviously a need for it to exist or it would not be there.

Jack.

PinHead
19-05-2008, 07:53 PM
I enjoy buying a feed of prawns at times so I do not have a problem with the trawlers at all as long as they are abiding by the conditions set down for them.
Certainly much better than the ignorant cast netters that block channels and entries to ramps and marinas down the Pin way.

reel scream
19-05-2008, 08:12 PM
Please correct me if i am wrong, but from memory, Tasmania has a 2 mile exclusion zone around its entire coastline. Trawlers are not allowed to operate within this area or in rivers. This is going back ten or so years but i would think it still applies today.

Cheers Scott

ffejsmada
19-05-2008, 08:18 PM
Please correct me if i am wrong, but from memory, Tasmania has a 2 mile exclusion zone around its entire coastline. Trawlers are not allowed to operate within this area or in rivers. This is going back ten or so years but i would think it still applies today.

Cheers Scott

Who's talking about Tasmania?????

reel scream
19-05-2008, 08:38 PM
Who's talking about Tasmania?????


I was! Just thought it might be of interest comparing their practices to what goes on up here

Scott.

SummerTrance
19-05-2008, 09:30 PM
These been some good reports in the estuary section of nice fish caught from the river mouth over the last few days. But I suspect there wont be much caught there for the next couple weeks, cause those trawlers just depleted all the stocks from that area.

Mark-P
19-05-2008, 10:56 PM
The funny thing is, what he's doing ( the pro fisho ) is what we call overtime & others call a (subby) someone who works alot of hours for little return !! Its a bit like sunday trading, not everone needed it but we got it .... And the same with fresh seafood, not everone eats it but we've got it !! Look at caviar, the sturgion fish are flogged to death for that stuff.... Bla Bla Bla the list goes on !!!
What im trying to say is, we as a whole are the problem .. Not just a few individuals, we are for ever wanting as humans for what ever comforts we can get ...!!!

Mark

Sounds alot better in my head

webby
20-05-2008, 06:25 AM
I've done a trip on one of these trawlers, and also did a write up on it.
They are only targeting bait prawns.
They have and are still working hard on improving their bycatch reduction devices.
They predominatelty trawl certain sections of the river during certain months, and some also move down to the Logan.
After being on one and having seen physically what they do and their efforts in improving their bycatch reduction i see no problem with them.
regards

harry_h01
20-05-2008, 08:20 AM
Webby, I read the write up, and it made sense. My concern is the number of trawlers operating together, in a short stretch of the river. They had bank to bank coverage yesterday.

This morning, there are three running the river that I have seen already, and two are on their second run.

As to the by-catch, they are almost scraping our poles in the river, coming so close. The team here often come in after hours and drop a pot, and throw in a line. Of late, they have been getting nothing. The number of times the trawlers have been running up and down is a killer. We count them daily and they do at least 10 runs total (through all the trawlers) per day.

As I said earlier, I understand this is someones livelyhood, and I am not one to say get another job, but the way they are taking the prawns, we have to wonder what is it doing to the eco system.

Jumps off the soap box.

Harry

r3volt
20-05-2008, 09:06 PM
Please correct me if i am wrong, but from memory, Tasmania has a 2 mile exclusion zone around its entire coastline. Trawlers are not allowed to operate within this area or in rivers. This is going back ten or so years but i would think it still applies today.

Cheers Scott

I thought mainland australia kept a 2km exclusion zone around tasmania to keep tasmanians over there ;D

reel scream
20-05-2008, 09:21 PM
I thought mainland australia kept a 2km exclusion zone around tasmania to keep tasmanians over there ;D

LOL. Especially the west coast.

Cheers Scott

webby
20-05-2008, 09:27 PM
Not sticking up for them, would like to see their numbers both in our rivers and bays reduced dramatically.
Just saying that they are trying or most to make it a sustainable fisheries/business
regards

Horse
21-05-2008, 07:08 AM
The ball is in fisheries court. If they think the current practices are the best for our sustainable fishery future then as long as they monitor the situation I will go along with it. I would prefer to see a lot less effort in terms of trawlers in inshore waters but at the moment we need their produce and these people rely on it for a living
If we ever get a fishing liscence in place then perhaps bcommercial allocations can be bought at fair market value and "retire" some of the fishing effort

danryan75
21-05-2008, 03:15 PM
Not sticking up for them, would like to see their numbers both in our rivers and bays reduced dramatically.

is that the Tasmanians?

tunaticer
21-05-2008, 06:01 PM
The ball is in fisheries court. If they think the current practices are the best for our sustainable fishery future then as long as they monitor the situation I will go along with it. I would prefer to see a lot less effort in terms of trawlers in inshore waters but at the moment we need their produce and these people rely on it for a living
If we ever get a fishing liscence in place then perhaps bcommercial allocations can be bought at fair market value and "retire" some of the fishing effort


Fair enough comment Horse, but one with which there are an issue or two.

If we buy out the majority of these smaller commercial trawlers where will the market source the product that is in demand? I sure hope it is not from overseas.

Also by retiring the commercial fishing sector, what will become of all the infrastructure built around the industry over the past 100 years or so?
There are a lot of businesses that rely on the commercial sector to survive whether they be suppliers to that industry or buyers from that industry. Then there are all the berths being used that create income for the owners of the berths. A lot of them are owned by grandparents these days after inheriting them through family ties with the industry. Most of these grandparents rely on those berths as part of their monthly income.

Removing the majority if the commercial fleet will have wide ranging effects to a very broad section of the community and although it can be done and work through the consequences I think the better avenue is to better manage the commercial sector and introduce now fishing techniques that have much less damaging effect on the marine ecosystem.

As our population grows, so does our demand for seafood. With SEQ being the growth area of the country population wise, it would be unwise to remove them and be further reliant on imported seafood and diseases and loss of our dollar.

Jack.

r3volt
21-05-2008, 06:10 PM
Time to start culling people so theres fish left in the bay

harry_h01
22-05-2008, 03:00 PM
Some skippers just don't know when to change direction and use the other side of the river.

We are currently testing an aircraft, over a sanctioned hover point in the river for Aircraft. From the right comes a little trawler, who had already done two laps, straight through the flight path.

The pilot had to gain height, during the test flight, so as not to swamp the trawler. The area has been designated a no fish / boat zone for the past four days, yet this guy just motors on through.

The pilot got out of the aircraft shaking his head, and could not believe what happened.

Yes I have pics, but I need to get a release for them before posting on here.

Harry

kingtin
22-05-2008, 03:18 PM
Time to start culling people so theres fish left in the bay

You could cull me and the fish numbers wouldn't increase! ;D

kev

timddo
22-05-2008, 04:02 PM
Better Still pay me $1,000,000 and i'll stop fishing altogether.

disorderly
22-05-2008, 04:24 PM
I think part of the problem is that once the target species(in this case prawns) are running then all the operators are going hell for leather working there asses off to catch as many as possible/allowable while the good hauls are available...
When this is in plain sight and in the fishing zones of many than it becomes a problem and allegations such as rape and pillage and plundering surface...

I used to rent on the beachfront and watch these trawlers running up and down the beach here night after night while the prawns were on.
It was really terrible to see (and smell) the tonnes of bycatch washed up on the beaches during these periods.

How glad I am that the practice was banned here quite a few years ago...

I think inshore trawling and netting practices needs to be closely examined regarding the long term effects particularly in growing populated areas and also those coastal areas that heavily rely on rec fishing tourism to survive(ie the hinchinbrook area).

I'd much rather see the uneducated/uncaring consumer eating imported seafood than see our stocks depleted purely to keep up with demand.

scott

outsiderskip
22-05-2008, 07:08 PM
i owned and operated a trawler in that area for 10 yrs
we supplied food and bait market
when the product was too small we moved on to another area
prawn move to different parts at certain stages of the year but when prawn are found we work the area till they move on
so people complain about comercial fisherman
wait till u cant buy or eat local product
it is the best prawn in the world bays
try eat some other prawn from other countries
i travell a lot seen some of their rivers
its full off polution
getoff their back let them earn a living

pete

fivefishes
22-05-2008, 07:24 PM
These been some good reports in the estuary section of nice fish caught from the river mouth over the last few days. But I suspect there wont be much caught there for the next couple weeks, cause those trawlers just depleted all the stocks from that area.

Summertrance,

I don't think i've ever read a bigger load of rubbish in my life. If you don't catch any fish it's cause you are a crap fisherman. The beam trawlers that work the Brisbane River are very selective in both the time of year they fish and what they target. They are targeting schooled up Banana prawns, Banana Prawns not Bream, Tailor, Snapper, Jewies etc, nothing in those fishing reports you read will ever see light of day on the back deck of a beam trrawler. THEY DON'T WANT TO CATCH THEM.
Now no one is ignorant enough to think they get no bycatch, but i have personally unloaded some of these beam trawlers in the early 90's and their bycatch wouldn't feed a starving somali family.
Fair's fair fellas if you don't like em fine, but make sure you don't like them for a reason not because they are trawling all "Your" fish, that is ridiculous!!

Matt

SummerTrance
22-05-2008, 07:44 PM
Matt, where did I ever say they are MY FISH? Im looking through my post but cant see that anywhere.

My theory is that there wont be as many fish in that area this week, because all the bait is moved, and thats just my opinon, which im entitled too. You can get off your soapbox now.

fivefishes
22-05-2008, 08:07 PM
These been some good reports in the estuary section of nice fish caught from the river mouth over the last few days. But I suspect there wont be much caught there for the next couple weeks, cause those trawlers just depleted all the stocks from that area.

ST,
Correct you are ,no reference to your fish, also no reference to fish moving away because of no bait only the "cause those trawlers just depleted all the stocks from that area" comment. If you mean't depleted bait/prawns maybe you should have said that.
Yes i enjoy the pedestal or soapbox you politely ask me to step off, i am not a commercial fisherman but i am involved in the seafood industry and i so often see and hear the pro's copping it unfairly. Many different harvesting techniques appear random and indiscriminate yet are very selective through equipment types, designs, and implementation. Even the dreaded gill nets so often scoffed at, most inshore gill nets are very selective in their catches by having certain size meshes and certain breaking strain lines allowing both undersize and oversize fish to pass through.
Point is the perception out there is trawlers scraping and scouring ever living thing from the ocean is not quite true.
You are entitled to your opinion, but please take notice of some of points and consider them next time you bag out a particular form of commercial fishing.

Matt

r3volt
22-05-2008, 08:17 PM
We may aswell start importing BASA by truck load considering so many people are against australian commercial fishermen..

disorderly
22-05-2008, 10:02 PM
Now no one is ignorant enough to think they get no bycatch, but i have personally unloaded some of these beam trawlers in the early 90's and their bycatch wouldn't feed a starving somali family.

Matt

G'day Matt....I don't know what happens elsewhere but when the trawlers used to work between Dunk Island and the mainland here ,the bycatch that washed up along the high tide mark was substantial....

I realize that these guys are operating within the law and have families to feed, However I still think close inshore areas,bays and estuaries should be off limits to trawling and netting...these areas are already pushed to their limits due to population pressure,sedimentation from agriculture,pollution etc...

Scott

outsiderskip
23-05-2008, 05:25 AM
scott
and so are the number off trawler operators
10yrs ago you could not fish mud at night
now you hardly see a trawler work there

pete

breamnut
23-05-2008, 08:07 AM
To stop the trawlers get everyone to stop buying bait and seafood we all complain about them but we all like to grab a couple of kilos of prawns etc to eat or a packet of prawns, herring, squid, pillies etc for bait
maybe we should import all this stuff from some deceased ponds from overseas.

Cheers Foxie
australia are way behind other contries in pressurving our marine evviroment as most other places have farms for there bait prawns ect
why cant australia start these sort of projects to conseve the marine stocks.
Fishing brings a hell of alot of tourists traveling round the contry or viseting the country each year and say for a small town up north for instance that has great barra fishing they might not have anything else to attract people to there towns there for fishing is the only thing that can bring money into a small conmunity.
Trawlers do flog our rivers and sea's and go back and forth wiping out one particular area ''why? because 10 years ago they didnt have to work so hard to get a catch.
id like to see the netters and trappers out of our rivers first as this is were the little fishes become the big fishes, well alot of them;D and fishing licences were supposed to buy these pro fisherman out??? i havent seen much done so when i turn 18 i will NOT buy a licence.

Louis
23-05-2008, 02:22 PM
The government needs to offer more money to buy up the trawler licences.

You would think that with the incredible levels of tax us anglers pay every year it would be more than enough to cover this.

Louis

lampuki
23-05-2008, 03:08 PM
I love prawns....i can eat kilos, and i mean kilos!!!!! As much as I love them, I would gladly give them up to protect our fish stocks. If you want seafood, go get it yourself! if you can't fish, eat chicken. I know my response to this post is very negative towards commerical fisherman, but the commercial fisherman I have met, and I have met a few, disgust me!

outsiderskip
23-05-2008, 03:30 PM
when new bag limits u wont have to worry about fish stocks
as marine park will fix them and stop all fisherman

pete

coucho
23-05-2008, 03:33 PM
I think you will see a decline in the amount of prawn trawlers operating over the next year or so. rising desiel costs stable product prices and the phasing out of otter board trawls in favour of the more environmentally friendly beam trawls over the next few years should see a lot of operations go bust or at least become unviable.

fivefishes
23-05-2008, 06:07 PM
G'day Matt....I don't know what happens elsewhere but when the trawlers used to work between Dunk Island and the mainland here ,the bycatch that washed up along the high tide mark was substantial....

I realize that these guys are operating within the law and have families to feed, However I still think close inshore areas,bays and estuaries should be off limits to trawling and netting...these areas are already pushed to their limits due to population pressure,sedimentation from agriculture,pollution etc...

Scott

Scott,
You are spot on, the closing of the Mission Beach trawl area was a good thing. There was massive negative publicity regarding bycatch there, which was substantial. Mission Bch and surrounds relys very heavily on tourism as do many areas in NQ and i'm not opposed to limiting commercial operations in these areas.

Brisbane river beam trawling for Banana prawns never used to yield much bycatch and the Brisbane River where these guys trawl could hardly be described as a tourist mecca, anyhow. I understand the concern of the guys who regularly fish the Brissie River but how's this for thought, the beam trawlers have worked the river for well over 20 years and guess what, the fishing now is as good as it has ever been. Threadies, Snapper, Grunter, wall to wall Bream and big Jewies under the lights at night. I grew up in Brissie and unless i was walking around with blinkers on very few of the more exotic species were ever caught in the mud drain known as the Brissie River back then. So fish species are more varied and there's plenty of them and the beamies are still working the river same as they have for years, doesn't sound like unsustainable rape and pilage to me as suggested.

Matt

Blueroom
28-05-2008, 04:08 PM
Point is the perception out there is trawlers scraping and scouring ever living thing from the ocean is not quite true.
Matt[/quote]

Sometimes there's something to be said for public perception. I recently fished 3 days in a row outside of Morton Bay on the inshore reefs and it was the worst fishing ever. Beaucoup trawlers - very few fish. We even had a dive down to look at the reef to see where the fish were at - what fish??? Maybe it was the weather or maybe it was the number of trawlers working back and forth, hmmm?

Trawler fishing in other areas of the world for example Europe has devistated the fisheries and there's no argument about that, why should SEQ be any different? Well I suppose the Spanish aren't involed are they?