Fisheries Boarding

[thelump]

Hi all
Just like to let everyone know about some dealings I had with the fisheries yesterday. Was slowly trolling dead baits at around 5.15am YES 5.15am offshore from Straddy when the RIB comes up from behind me and gestures me to pull up. After asking where my lines were they came up on my port side and asked if one of them could board my boat. "No worries" was my reply and let this fella come aboard. They were very pleasant and thorough checking all my safety equipment and having a bit of a chat about fishing etc. All in all were aboard for maybe 10 minutes. They then left and fronted the only other boat near me and, same as me, one guy boarded their vessel. Then after a few minutes another one jumped on his boat as they motored around for a good 30-40 minutes with the 2 fisheries officer on board and the RIB with a 3rd officer following close behind. Would love to know what went on in that boat:-? They then drove the RIB onto the mothership and headed off toward the cape.
Good to see them out doing their job!

Cheers Jason

[samson]

Had the same the other afternoon on my way out to work I,d just drove 4hrs put the boat in the water and got ready for the steam up Fraser to get to my spot just before dark to get the last bight for the day in the window of weather I had and here come the rib 100mts from the ramp doesn,t announce himself as fisheries just jumps on my boat without permission and starts arrogantly grilling questions and checking things, I showed him the paperwork from last check 1 month earlier to speed up process still not happy 1 hour later done nothing wrong as usual and 2 hrs steam to spot shit too late dark already and blowing by now, fishless and broke ass later not happy arrogant prick needs to show some courtesy to a bloke trying to make a living

[DALEPRICE]

great to hear they are out and about doing a bit of spot checking.

[thelump]

great to hear they are out and about doing a bit of spot checking.
Yeah mate thats what I thought. Would be good to see them visit more Jetties etc too.

[Lovey80]

Samson,

what on earth could possibly take them an hour to do a boat inspection?

[ShaneC]

Paperwork....

[Apollo]

I must admit, I have only ever had plesant and polite interaction with the fisheries boys on the water. They have been respectful and received the same in return. We have had some very interesting chats about fishing and fish in some of those incounters. They even told us where a dugong was feeding so I could show my daughter who was on board. I have seen a couple of blokes on another boat give them a bit of lip on their approach and they certainly copped a fairly thorough inspection for their efforts.

[softplasticsdude79]

they checked me at caboolture river boat ramp last month,asked me my intentions for the day,then asked me to show him life jackets for the two of us who were onboard.then wished me a good day and gave me the current Qld waterways book.

he was very professional,but easy going,i was happy to see them checking people out,im getting sick of the ammount of boats i see flyin past me while the driver is sucking down a can of spirits,or out night fishing with no lights.

Adam

[rowanda]

i've been boarded a couple of times and most of them are really good, having a chat etc while they check what they need to. One day I had an older guy who was being a real pain in the ar%e so after being on the boat for 5 min I asked him to leave my boat as I didn't have the required safety equipment for him to be there. When he asked what I didn't have I replied water! only had the required 4L on board for 2 people x 2L each, as I didn't have another 2L I asked him to leave....his mate in the RIB laughed and said I was right and leave he did....

[lampuki]

No way, that's classic rowanda - so are they not required to carry saftey equipment in the RIB? If so, he could have simply carried his waterbottle onto your vessel.

I have had mixed experiences....some really good, 1 not so. Not sure if they were playing good cop/bad cop, but the genetlmen who boarded my boat was fine, the lady officer in the cat however was rude and unproffessional. From the helm of the cat, she yelled at me asking me to pull out my V sheet, which I did, and then proceeded to shout "Thats not a V sheet, thats a rain jacket!" I had to unfold the V sheet to prove otherwise. She continued to carry on, until she realised that all my gear was in order. The lady's attitude was completely unproffessional and out of line.

What the officer didnt know is that my wife, who was on the boat works for the police, and knew the officer :) She was mad, I told her to let it slide :)

[samson]

Lovey when we get boarded they fill out paperwork they want crew names addresses ,phone numbers details of stupid bloody deck training then if you havent got previous paperwork they do the usual stuff with emergency equipment but not just checks they fill out forms on everything then out come the licences ,logbooks then god help you if you have fish and they want to dump it on the floor for a sort and count to match logbooks and phone reporting requirements,but in a perfect world you get some officers that are great no licence checks as they know your got them anyway from previous checks and they don't turn your boat inside out being arrogant pricks ,I wonder how much these guys that go overboard would like some of their own medicine if they got pulled over by the cops 50 times a year and went through full vehicle inspections and fined for going over the speed limit which they all do they might wake up to themselves.

[Jarrah Jack]

Fisheries here in Vic don't have any power regarding safety equipment, only the police do that. I had the police tie up alongside a few weeks ago to do a check. While we were having a chat two rods went off so I gave one of the rods to the sarge who fought the fish well and landed it. ;D

He was as proud as punch and got his mate to take a pic to show the boys back at the station.

I know most of the fisheries officers and to them the attitude test is the main thing. They come across a lot of bad attitude and much worse and are very quick to become officious when they find it.

[Louis]

There are good and bad in every profession, and whilst Queensland is well on its way to becoming a Police State, thankfully we are not there yet, and this is our Politicians fault, not the fault of those they force to carry out the laws they pass.

My attitude is always to be friendly and helpful to them as they do have a tough job, and sadly they do cop so much attitude that it's no wonder that some become arrogant in their ways.

I have always taken the approach that if they treat me well, I will often send a letter in to their department head praising them for their professionalism etc. and if the day comes that I feel that I've been treated rudely or unfairly then I'll send in a letter of complaint.

Thankfully I have never had this experience yet.


Louis

[crab man]

your just a bad ass Samson ;) haha sucks mate

[nickstock]

I have to say that I have been pretty lucky and have not had any rude officers yet. The blokes in Weipa are pretty good. One bloke in particular, Owen, is a top bloke who is an avid fisherman and spearo himself! They are always polite, ask how your trip went and even share fishing stories about good sessions! The blokes that used to come up to Cooktown were also good. The only problem with Fisheries is that they are way under staffed and under funded.

Cooktown is one of the biggest commercial Trout ports in QLD yet it doesn't even have a full time fisheries officer. The amount of illegal gill netting that goes on between the Bloomfield and P.C.B is incredible yet they only have two staff based at Port Douglas and they don't have the funding to come up more than once a month.