Green zones working

[laugag]

Went snorkelling around the keppels the other day. The difference between marine life within the green zones and out of them is like night and day.

The fish in the green zone were three times as big and much more plentiful. Too bad you cant touch them.
Guess green zones do their job. Just wondering if they should rotate these green zones perhaps every 5-10years.. That way give all areas a chance to come back.

[FNQCairns]

Went snorkelling around the keppels the other day. The difference between marine life within the green zones and out of them is like night and day.

The fish in the green zone were three times as big and much more plentiful. Too bad you cant touch them.
Guess green zones do their job. Just wondering if they should rotate these green zones perhaps every 5-10years.. That way give all areas a chance to come back.

Yeah they did a good job of choosing spots that recfisherman would have chosen to fish first. You had better ring GBRMPA or AIMs or any other of the radical groups and let them know this has occurred.

They have been sinking millions studying like for like areas in an effort tot justify the theft into zones and have failed badly under science and statistical difference's just as they did beore the zones when they tried to have a justification for their implementation before giving up and doing it anyway with ideology under power.

Fishing pressure is so grossly slight it's almost uncountable-for if it where not a visible activity, I wonder what magic the zones have protected.

Still observation is the cornerstone of science so they say...shame ethics isn't held so high. The reports we hear are propaganda, conveniently leaving out the important bits that nulls or reverses all they have just claimed within their (to satisfy grant criteria) media release, who you going to call.....ghostbusters??

Cheers fnq

[Scott nthQld]

Rotating the green zones was on the table when the zoning was first being introduced, but I don't know how far it went, but if we were to have the zoning, rotating zones would be a good idea in reference to what you said, but not ver practical when it came to navigation and know where you could and couldn't fish. imagine have to go and buy a new GPS chart card every 5 years just to get the new zoning and since GPS manufacturers aren't in any way obligated to make them available (more of a sales focus with those that do have the ability), that's just more dollars for them to spend whihc will force price rises.

But I do beg to differ with your argument of more fish in green zones. On that particular day there just may have been more, I have fished and seen reefs which one day will hold very little of anything and another day in almost identical conditions will just be full of fish, keep in mind that these are the same reefs and same spot on the reef. If the reefs are close together fish will move from reef to reef in search of food and somewhere to spawn so don't discount that either. The grren zones are based on coral trout numbers almost exclusively, and IMO closing fishing to a reef can only be detrimental for the species, I mean sure, no fish are being taken, but as you said the fish are bigger and therefore hungrier and will fight and carry on for a feed, not to mention coral trout are canabalistic and will eat their own if they can fit the other fish into their gob so any of the new generation that choose to settle on the reef where these big fish reside will no doubt be eaten, leaving a smaller population of bigger fish (think cows v sheep, a farmer can have more head of sheep per acre than cows, simply because sheep will eat less and therefore need less space to graze where as cows require more grass and therefore more land to grow the grass they need).

Anothr reason to avoid a reef with all big fish is that the bigger fish are all male. trout are the opposite to Barra, they all start out female but once they reach about 3-4kg they turn male and stay that way (which would be a reason as to why I question the max size limit for trout). So that why we don't want closed reefs with smaller number of big fish, in a nutshell its a sausage fest, with no smaller female trout (because the big brute males have eaten them), there will be no next generation.

Anyway that my 2 bob and a bit, but there's not a lot we can do about the green zones now so we just have to live with them.

[peterbo3]

GBRMPA & EPA staff would rather drink nitric acid than rotate Green Zones. It would be an admission that their "voodoo science" is just that.
These people are fanatics with a degree. They extrapolate, interpolate, average, estimate & obfuscate to the tenth power. They are never wrong. Their studies are done within parameters that ensure they will get the result they seek. Their only goal is to close more areas to fishing because those greedy fisherman have no respect for authority.
If that is not the case, then they should be winding down their organizations as they have achieved their stated aim of "protecting fish stocks, fish habitat, surrounding areas & ensuring that the fisheries remain viable forever."::)::)::)::)::)::)

Or rather, closing down HUGE areas of productive reef & ocean leaving the dregs for those who fish for recreation or commercially.>:(>:(>:(>:(