wasted money

[dunmears]

Received a letter in the post yesterday and on opening I found it to contain expensive glossy coloured pamphlets telling me what a wonderful job the N.S.W. Government was doing with our funds from fishing licences. It also contained a letter reminding me that my licence was to be paid shortly. What p.....ssed me off though when reading through the publicity blurb they mentioned that they were releasing thousands of Jewfish fingerlings into various rivers, two of which were the Tweed and the Richmond both of these rivers are heavily netted by proffesionals. I drive by the Tweed every day and I see the netters netting the river constantly. The Tweed to my mind is fast becoming a dead river wth only seasonal fish such as trevally on offer, try and catch a decent bream, impossible. Why waste our money on releasing these fish into rivers that are flogged to death by the proffesionals????????

[Brett1907]

Simple. So the pros continue to net fish while the rest of us get hit with no fish zones.

Brett

[Steve_Monckton]

I think it is just a public relations exercise to make us think we are getting something for our money. Unfortunately we will never see much of a rise in jewie numbers as most of these fingerlings will be dead in the back of some pro's net before they get too big. The Richmond river at Ballina is very quickly becoming a dead zone. cheers, steve. :(

[fishin_till_late]

Mate I look over the Terranora Lakes in the upper reigion of the river. Allmost every morning i see the netter or marks in the mud at low tides by netters. Gives me the sh!ts. We moved here 6 years ago and the fishing was great down there. Today your lucky to get much at all and whenever it starts to come good the netters are back and we're back to square one. Tweed is becoming a dead river thats for sure. I say ban netters, if they want to fish commercially fish with a rod the good old way. Just my opinion.

Cheers Jono

[woodchopper]

i'm tempted to stop renewing my fishing license for the reasons mentioned above. I thought the bulk of the funding recieved by nsw fisheries was to buy back fishing licenses particularly in estuaries and also for research.

Is it true that some netters had several licenses for boats they did not physically fish with? So basicaly they sold licenses that were not in operation and continued to catch the same amount of fish in the estuary. In the end buying licences was like buying a piece of paper and had little impact on reducing netting impacts on river systems.

Can anyone clarify this for me?

Beno

[hooknose]

It is a sad situation in the Tweed and I sympathise with you but the whole area including the river still holds good fish. For Bream, if you have a boat try fishing " the blue hole" if not try under the Barney point bridge with fresh mullet fillets, have seen some big fish come from both spots and you might even get a bonus Jack at the bridge !!

[tunaman]

If you get rid of the pro,s, who,s going to catch the fish for the people that cant catch fish, and like I said a while ago, you just cant say, throw
away your nets and go and get another job.
Its the governments job to deal fairness, and if I was a pro fisherman
and if thats what my family has done for generations, what would you suggest they do.

I still catch plenty of fish, and went luck isnt on my side and I need a kilo of this or that, Iam glad they are there. There was
a good program on landline about pro fisherman and they are getting squeezed.


signed tunaman #

[Lucky_Phill]

dunmears,

Sad situation there. You are right if feeling betrayed in that your fees are being used for the purposes of lining the net fishermens pockets.

We all acknowledge that a commercial fishing industry has to be in place for the sake of the retail market and non-fishos.

But, do we have to support a practice that is outdated, clinical and non-selective ? Netting IMO , of estuaries is a disgrace. It is a well known scientific fact that these areas are the breeding grounds and the beginings of the food chain that supports our entire marine environment.

I believe that the fees gleaned by the fisheries via a licence can be used to buy out commercial licences. The " it's been in my family for generations " does not stack up. Just because your father and grandfather reaped a good living by a practice that did not encompass any form of sustainability, does not mean you are entilted to do the same.

Please lobby your local member, local newspaper, councillor, opposition members and any media that will listen to you. Sending fingerlings into a system that is currently being pillaged by commercial fishermen is not on. There are many new forms of technology that enables the commercial industry to continue to supply the retail market, without resorting to this outdated method.

I will acknowledge at this time that the commercial fishermen are not the sole reason the river systems are not holding stocks of fish that they should.

Cheers Phill

[tunaman]

The government beleve,s that both ends of the scale has equal importantance,s to the economy, and thats why the fee,s form licence,s is taken to restock the water ways in order to keep a balance.
In time the pro,s will be shut out, but I think this war will be not over
in any time soon, and like Lucky phil say,s, there is new type,s of technology,s on offer, but its a case of, out with the old and in with the new, but at what cost.
Lucky Phil has another good point. In short, Man made pollutants are having a large impact on water ways where fish breading is concerned, and its true, that the pro,s netting ways are not helping, and the government are rolling back on them. { slowly }

In short!
Is it a wasted of money, no I dont think so, IMO, It would be alot worse
for both sides if they didnt restock with the money that they take.




signed tunaman

[Brett1907]

Yesthey should restock if it is possible. They also need to research what impact possibly releasing more fingerlings than would be porduced naturally. If you put too many of an apex predator fish in the water they will decimate their food sources and we would end upwith the sameproblems, or maybe worse.

Pros are needed, but not using the old/current methods. If we used the same methods in earthworks they used 20 years ago, a lotmore houses would be sinking and cracking. We have had to refine our methodologies in an attempt to improve our end product and to try and minimise our impact on the surrounding environment.

Did you see silt management 20 years ago? Now you get big fines if you don't have it.

Iwill continue to make comments denouncing the way pro netters take their catch untill a better way is discovered, if it hasn't already.

We do need them, but they must develop safer and less harmfull methods of making their living.

Brett

[roz]

I fished the Tweed for over 15 years and have become very cynical after seeing the way that river has declined over almost two decades.

The upper reaches around Murwillumbah have become shallower with little or nothing consolidating the river bank in many places.

There have been some massive fish kills between Murwillumbah and Stotts Island, in one instance the river ran clear with an almost total lack of oxygen, it didn't just kill the fish but almost the entire food chain.

The finger was pointed at the cane drains and their impact on lowering the water table.

So the last thing that river needs is netting by pros, but it's still happening. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Dunmears, I agree with you, but I will always pay for my fishing licence in the hope that something good might one day happen, the poor old Tweed needs a lot more than a bunch of Jewie fingerlings, the entire food chain that supports these fish needs help. IMHO.

cheers r.