Selling undersize Jewfish

[marty+jojo]

I went to a seafood shop today, and i saw some small Jew for sale around 50cm. I asked the lady were they local fish, she asked a guy who worked there and he says yes they are local mate... I reply they look small the size limit is 75cm in Qld now... He then takes the sign off them and says they are not Jewfish they are Mulloway and then walked away. WTF?
Marty.

[TheGurn]

Make the call to the fisheries mob Marty. You just never know.
And all these years I thought jew and mulloway were the same fish ??

[MudRiverDan]

I was suprised when I went down to Yamba and I was fishing in the estuarys, met some fishos said some guy near the bridge was catching good Jewies.. "Oh yeah what size?", I asked, the fisho gestured with his hands about 40cm...

yeah right I thought... undersized soapies.

[TimD]

I was suprised when I went down to Yamba and I was fishing in the estuarys, met some fishos said some guy near the bridge was catching good Jewies.. "Oh yeah what size?", I asked, the fisho gestured with his hands about 40cm...

yeah right I thought... undersized soapies.


If they were 45cm then there would be no problem, in NSW Mulloway are legal at 45cm with a bag limit of 5 and only 2 can be bigger than 70cm.


cheers tim :)

[marty+jojo]

Tim, it was at Scarborough and the guy said they were caught locally...
Marty.

[TimD]

Tim, it was at Scarborough and the guy said they were caught locally...
Marty.


Yeah i was referring to MudRiverDan's post about Yamba :thumbsup:


cheers tim :)

[marty+jojo]

Doh!!!!!!!!!::)::)

[MudRiverDan]

If they were 45cm then there would be no problem, in NSW Mulloway are legal at 45cm with a bag limit of 5 and only 2 can be bigger than 70cm.


cheers tim :)
lol no wonder, but really how stupid, they would be soapie jew at that size and crap eating.

[samson]

wouldn't be the first shop to try and pass interstate or farmed fish off as local its just this time someone more knowledgeable has caught him out on it but thats not to say it wasn't an illegal fish.

[Blythy]

Some of the fish that you see are farmed in NSW, it's the same as all of the small barra that you see in shops. Alot of the staff at seafood shops wouldn't have any idea about what fish are what or think that the people buying don't know, I have seen "fresh local atlantic salmon" advertised in brisbane, and my pet hate is all of the shops around that sell rosey jobfish as snapper, I know that jobfish are a snapper but it is not SNAPPER.

[MudRiverDan]

My home town in Tamworth (Northern Tablelands) NSW had a Barra farm down in the industrial estate among all the truck mechanic shops and warehouses.
It is probably still producing.

[rabbi]

They seem to be getting smaller in the fish shops every year and some of the trag I have seen in the shops are no bigger than whiting along with the schoolies.
As soon as you see really small fish turn up in quantities its starting to scrape the bottom of the barrell.
I wonder if it will be like the freshwater Redfin where they adapt to where tiny little fish start to breed but they all end up stunted and small.
The mulloway fingerlings they released into the Northern rivers of NSW were a Bonanza for all the wannabe fishos and Pros as they caught thousands of undersize and barely legal soapies with ease and thought it was great fishing, unfortunately a large percentage were kept>:(

To all you wannabes out there, you will never know what good fishing is if you keep taking out the juveniles, so never complain to anyone about no good size fish as I for one will not be listening to you, Morons!!:P

To the people that do the right thing, you have my respect, keep up the good work.
Cheers, uncle steve.

[mattooty]

lol no wonder, but really how stupid, they would be soapie jew at that size and crap eating.

Have you ever eaten them at that time or are you just re-spilling what you've heard? I've eaten jew from just legal through to 36kg and there wasn't much variation within the taste between them. If anything the smaller school fish in the 6-10kg bracket were easier to process. You'll find that those smaller fish taste just fine, and if the bloke who caught them treated them right and enjoyed it, then good on him.

Chances are they were farmed jew, with dippy shop assistants not knowing where it came from. The jew farm I did some work for a few years ago grew them up to about 2kg (perfect marketing size) and they were only within that 40-50cm bracket. They got sent from SA to Vic, NSW to QLD. As long as the seller has a paper trail of where it came from then they're perfectly within their rights. Its when you start seeing fish that aren't commercially grown that the alarm bells should start going off. Didn't mind the taste of the farmed jew either and you were nearly assured there were no worms in them.

[timddo]

To most peolple,Local means fish caught in Australia.

Farmed fish or crabs have absolutely no size , no restrictions. ( what what i know).

As for Jewies, 6-10kg is best. Anything above that is not a juicy. Bring on the jews again

[mattooty]

To most peolple,Local means fish caught in Australia.

Farmed fish or crabs have absolutely no size , no restrictions. ( what what i know).

As for Jewies, 6-10kg is best. Anything above that is not a juicy. Bring on the jews again

People will say anything is local if it means it sells, and if its not imported than you're 1 up already. You're correct with no restrictions on farmed species, its up to the grower as to when he needs to fill his wallet.

[URAGANGI]

I work for an Iconic Seafood outlet on the Gold Coast and I do share those view's on undersized fish sold between states.
For an example last week I took a delivery from a whole sale agent in brisbane. NO names given here...,But the fish being Gold Band Snapper was way under size. Let's say the bulk of the fish didn't hit 30cm's. The total weight of the delivery was 120kg.

The next day a call was made to WA Fisheries and NT Fisheries. The result was if the fish were caught in a specific area and the fishing pressure wasn't great then the fish become legal in Qld...according too state legal sizes. I was told this Verbatam. They need proof of a delivery docket and a true location of a capture site and State in order to act. This is where my job could be on the block.
Something has too be done about this loop hole..., or let's say an ever growing Black Hole.
On this side of the industry as an employee I hold my head down low. All the fish were later filleted and sold.

Could I here back from a Pro in these locations? Your point of opinion is required.

[Charlie]

I believe a certain percentage of undersized catch is allowed ??? not good however the alternative is throwing back dead fish and then people cry about buy catch. My main problem is all these loop holes for accidental by catch, a lot of pros seem extremely adept at falling into them.

[chris69]

If they had a blunt nose they were scaly jewfish 45cm size limit looks a lot like a mulloway or silver jew.

[Lovey80]

How hard is it for them to legislate that ALL commercially sold fish in QLD MUST meet QLD minimum size regulations. If you catch mulloway in NSW that is legal in NSW but not in QLD then you cant ship them here. Simple as that.

[ShaneC]

Charlie,

No incidental undersize catch allowed in Qld mate. Anything undersize= fine. Dont know about interstate regs, Qld's are hard enough to keep up with. Also have an obligation to try and release undersize fish to give them the best possible chance of survival.

FYI,

Shane

[Feral]

Just like buying barra in a restaurant, wild caught, yeah right, fillet would be an inch thick and 40cm long if wild caught, 20cm fillet about 1cm thick if your lucky. its farmed and no legal size applies.

[URAGANGI]

How hard is it for them to legislate that ALL commercially sold fish in QLD MUST meet QLD minimum size regulations. If you catch mulloway in NSW that is legal in NSW but not in QLD then you cant ship them here. Simple as that.

Yep Yep what's so hard. Why carn't there be mandatory uniform legal sizes from state too state. This includes commercial and recreational fishing activities. If the green's feel that their gonads have swollen over time and gone zoneing mad. How about giving yourselves a pull on this topic and use your power a little more productively!
Viper.

[Smithy]

They weren't teraglin were they, minimum 38cm but yellow on the inside of the mouth and a concave tail, not a diamond shape tail like a jew?

[mattooty]

How hard is it for them to legislate that ALL commercially sold fish in QLD MUST meet QLD minimum size regulations. If you catch mulloway in NSW that is legal in NSW but not in QLD then you cant ship them here. Simple as that.

As long as there is a paper trail I see nothing wrong with getting fish from inter-state. Going by your reasoning, there'd be all sorts of supply issues nation-wide. There'd be entire industries turned to smoke over it. It would mean certain fish caught in remote area's cannot be shipped to Sydney Fish Markets, it would mean that operators would not be able to sell fish into Raptis fish markets, it would mean that alot of members on this site who work within the seafood industry would have trouble keeping their head above water.
The hardest part about the entire seafood industry is the constant plight of a handful of pro's to find and abuse loopholes put in place by "Those in the Know" and tar the entire fleet with the same brush. Alot of operators can't afford to have an undersize fish on their boat, to them that's their livelihood at stake.

[URAGANGI]

True the minority spoil it for the majority.
Viper.

[Lovey80]

As long as there is a paper trail I see nothing wrong with getting fish from inter-state. Going by your reasoning, there'd be all sorts of supply issues nation-wide. There'd be entire industries turned to smoke over it. It would mean certain fish caught in remote area's cannot be shipped to Sydney Fish Markets, it would mean that operators would not be able to sell fish into Raptis fish markets, it would mean that alot of members on this site who work within the seafood industry would have trouble keeping their head above water.
The hardest part about the entire seafood industry is the constant plight of a handful of pro's to find and abuse loopholes put in place by "Those in the Know" and tar the entire fleet with the same brush. Alot of operators can't afford to have an undersize fish on their boat, to them that's their livelihood at stake.

I have no problem with fish from interstate just fish from interstate that are under size in the state they are being sold. Paper trails in this industry would be too easy to doctor up. It's just closing the loop hole on locally caught illegal fish being flogged off as interstate. There wouldn't be supply problems at all IMO. Instead of sending 50% of a catch to QLD as a whole they sort out the right length ones to send up here and the undersize stay down there.

[crab man]

Hi all im a pro fisher from NSW and i guess just me 2cents worth

Diff states have diff sizes and if there is a paper trail (which in NSW is law once the fish leaves the boat if there is not a writtern recipt then its on the spots fine and fish taken off the fisher ) and shops have to have there fish reciepts in the shop at all times or on the spot fines aswell. then there is just no problem at all . what would happen if you stopped pro's selling interstate .... lots going out of bussiness ask the NT , NQ mud crabbers ,Mackerel fishermen , trout fishos etc etc what would they do if they couldnt send down to SFM and melbourne markets and thats just one small example.
You carnt get angry at a pro for keeping a LEGAL size fish guys , write letters to I & I DPI etc but its not the fishermens fault for keeping a fish there intitled to keep .

So seeing the little jew in that shop does suck but most likley farmed or wild cought NSW legal 45cm jew who knows .
In NSW for commerical fishermen there is no Allowince for under size fish and no areas that allow undersize fish to be taken from .

Cheers Craig

[MudRiverDan]

To most peolple,Local means fish caught in Australia.

Farmed fish or crabs have absolutely no size , no restrictions. ( what what i know).

As for Jewies, 6-10kg is best. Anything above that is not a juicy. Bring on the jews again

One thing that kinda annoys me is the tiny blue swimmers I see in the fish shops.
If these crabs were left to grow a bit they would hold so much more meat and be far more presentable on a restaurant table.

But those tiny little ones, I can't see the point.

[timddo]

Another point people to to think is seeing and assuming is wrong. Your eyes are not rulers and what appears to be underseize may well in fact be legal.

[wayno60]

This is going back many years now but while staying down at brunswick heads i ventured over to the co-op for a feed of prawns, While i was waiting to get served i was having a gander in the display cabinets and there was a tray of flatties, Now there must of been 30-40 of them and the biggest would have been 10 inch with the majority 8 inch. whats the go there???

[marty+jojo]

They weren't teraglin were they, minimum 38cm but yellow on the inside of the mouth and a concave tail, not a diamond shape tail like a jew?

Your right Smithy, they did have yellow in there mouth, they must have been Teraglin and they were trying to sell them as Jew.
I have never caught a Teralglin and only a handful of undersize Jew so I did not notice the difference, also the fish was 3/4 covered in ice.
Marty.

[mattooty]

This is going back many years now but while staying down at brunswick heads i ventured over to the co-op for a feed of prawns, While i was waiting to get served i was having a gander in the display cabinets and there was a tray of flatties, Now there must of been 30-40 of them and the biggest would have been 10 inch with the majority 8 inch. whats the go there???

They may have been Sand or Trawl flathead. I'm not sure what the limit on them is, but fairly sure its only the quota and not by weight. Usually that's your flathead fillet special at alot of places if they're not using those long pre-battered things.