orange roughy declared endangered

[Sea-Dog]

Quote from ABC website ( http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2006/s1785717.htm )

Fishing industry disappointed by orange roughy decision

Friday, 10/11/2006

Tasmania's fishing industry is disappointed by a decision to list the orange roughy as endangered.

It is the first commercially caught species to be listed.

The fishing industry had been preparing for their catch quotas to be slashed to allow stock levels to recover but were not expecting a complete ban.

Neil Stump from the Tasmanian Fishing Industry Council says the decision makes the future of the fishery uncertain.

"I only heard about it yesterday so I haven't had the opportunity to evaluate the potential ramifications but I think it's the unknown, what does this actually mean for us?" he said.

"I really need the chance to sit down and evaluate what the long term ramifications may be."

[Grand_Marlin]

If you have a few small pinnacles where these fish live, and you keep flogging them with trawl nets, then something has to give out.

They did the same with the Scallop industry down there, and that was closed for years.

Are we ever going to learn?

Dont think so.

Cheers

Pete

[disorderly]

Read somewhere these fish can take 20 years or more just to reach maturity at 1 foot in length.So its going to take a while for the numbers to increase.Looks like commercial fishers are well and truly on the endangered list also!

[wayneoro]

yep these were the boom fish for the nz fishing industry 20yrs ago the boffins warned them that the age of most fish was 40yrs and would take to long to replace if over fished bigger and bigger trawlers came it was exported everywhere short term greed has its pitfulls in fishing

[wayneoro]

yep these were the boom fish for the nz fishing industry 20yrs ago the boffins warned them that the age of most fish was 40yrs and would take to long to replace if over fished bigger and bigger trawlers came it was exported everywhere short term greed has its pitfulls in fishing

[jim_farrell]

Speaking to a prawning mate of mine the other day, he wants to get out, can't get much for his boat and licence. Govt. offer was less than poor. (apparently). I wish the govt. would make it so attractive offer wise that they had a queue. I'm not anti pro, but it would appear that pro catch rates are declining.

As far as the roughie goes, they aren't targeted by recs are they? Are they not a very deep water fish?
Jim

[Shitty_Master]

? Are they not a very deep water fish?
Jim

Yeah they are a very very deep water fish and should be left alone down there.

[PlasticFantastic]

They're very tasty too. Used to get them fresh form a Fish and Chip shop in Tas where the trawlers came in.



PlasticFantastic

[Sea-Dog]

I remember somewhere that the adult fish could be as old as 70 years.

It sounds a bit implausible, but who knows.....

In answer to my own musings - I just did a quick Google and NZ fisheries says that these fish could live up to 150 years :o

Also that they don't breed until they reach 25-30 years - Even I was quicker than that ;D

http://www.starfish.govt.nz/science/facts/fact-orange-roughy.htm

- Sea-Dog

[Brett1907]

Unfortunately it's not surprising. The pros decimate fish stocks and the rec fishers cop the no fish zones.

By the way I am not against pro fishing, it is a neccessity of our society. Why not put money into researching fish farming for other high use species (snapper, perch and others). Did you know the Greenies squashed a proposal to establish tuna farms in Moreton Bay? Apparently it would be bad for the marine ecosystem!!! What a load of s@#$. Would mean briliant fishing near the nets.

Brett

[Nic]

Did you know the Greenies squashed a proposal to establish tuna farms in Moreton Bay? Apparently it would be bad for the marine ecosystem!!! What a load of s@#$. Would mean briliant fishing near the nets.

Brett

Fish farms aren't all good... the local area gets socked with a massive nutrient load from the caged fish, there have been cases of parasite and disease outbreaks that have killed off local fish populations, etc. The fishing certainly would be great... you'd just want to be sure the area could cope with the impact of the farms.

[Brett1907]

Fair enough Nic. I wonder if that problem could be addressed by making the nets mobile? I don't know what sort of anchoring system is used, but if it could be possible to vary the location that would minimise the impact to other fish stocks??

Brett :)

[yibbiy]

Ive also heard that the fishing farm designs are based on japanese types, and are not built to stand the natural forces we encounter of the southern coastline of australia, causing them to break and large numbers of fish getting loose.

[Noelm]

there is also the probability that to raise a farmed fish to a marketable/eating size requires more food (pilchards etc) that has to come from the sea, than is managable, and it would have been better to have taken 1 wild fish than to have fed it kilos of food while it was growing, and thus decimating the native bait schools, kind of something to think about huh! unless of course we can feed them Carp or Rabbits or Starlings or some other introduced vermin.

[_Dan_]

Fair enough Nic. #I wonder if that problem could be addressed by making the nets mobile? #I don't know what sort of anchoring system is used, but if it could be possible to vary the location that would minimise the impact to other fish stocks??

Brett :)

The ones in SA are movable, they can tow them to different areas. And to my knowledge they feed the fish special granules shaped like chicken feed.

From what i have seen they only use farms to get the fish to the sale stage and fatten them up, then someone jumps in the water catches them by hand and they get the brain spike and off to japan.

Cheers

Dan

[woodchopper]

I have read several times that fish can gain 1 kg of weight to 1.5kg of feed (national geographic oct 1998 pg 65). i don't know what fish they were but consider that beef can gain 1 kg of weight with 8kg of feed. Some species of fish would be able to make up most of their protein diet from vegetable matter. I believe ultrabite was designed to make this type of fish food palatable to ensure good growth.

It stands to reason that if you feed say 2 ton of feed to fish a day, it will create maybe 0.5- 1 tons of waste a day. thus on a comercial scale and in sensitive areas, a fair amount of crap is deposited into the water and could affect local ecosystems and fisheries.

I'm sick of hearing people blaming "GREENIES" for important development decisions that don't go their way. If one is concerned about "GREENIES" why not participate in the consultation process that 99% of the time is given to the public and voice your concerns there. Another option is to review the environmental impact assessment associated with these types of development and make an informed decision instead of blaming people and processes that you have no idea about.

Just because pople swin in sh_t at bondi, it doesnt mean the rest of australia has to follow suit.

Beno

[wayneoro]

fish farming has to be the future they have to find a system where all nutrients are used up maybe a combined farm food fish,oysters,bait fish all working togeather in insync with nature

[Brett1907]

We already farm large expanses of land to raise cattle, maybe that can be done in the ocean. It just needs to be aproached with what has been learnt from the mistakes of the past and a mind for the future health of the oceans.

We all need to keep our heads, developers, farmers, conservationsists, greenies and the rest of us who sit somewhere in the middle.

Brett

[blaze]

watched a show on abc the other day where a tassie fish farmer is doing the salmon thing, he is doing it on the land in concrete tanks. He has created a wetland filtration system where the water coming out of the wetland is cleaner than going into his tanks. His wet land has attracted its own ego system even to the extent that platypus's have inhabited it.
cheers
blaze

[Brett1907]

Unrelated but similar situation at Ranger Uranium mine in the NT. The water leaving the mine area is far LESS toxic than that entering the dam. And the GREENIES are still kicking up a stink.

Brett

[woodchopper]

point taken Brett


mining the uranium is actucally making it safer in terms of human health. But i dare say the majority of those GREENIES are actually peace and anti war activists and ideological types inclined to jumping on the band wagon when it suits their purpose.

Beno

[Brett1907]

I do agree Beno. They tend to jump on a bandwagon they like. Unfortunately that gives them a poor reputation as people who will protest against anything.

Our uranium shouldn't be used for weaponry AT ALL!! However I personally have no problems using it for other beneficial reasons.

Anyway, we have gotten off the topic. I think we all agree that the fact that the need for the ban on any fish is unfortunate. It is a direct result of abusing the marine environment and hopefully we (commercial & reco) will learn from this harsh lesson. Some estimates I have heard for the recovery of this species is 100 years, others say never as the breeding stock and environment has been destroyed.

Brett

[Sea-Dog]

Why not rotation cropping.

Tuna produce quantities of cr@p

Prawns eat detritus (read cr@p)

Take the tuna out of the pond, put in the prawns.

Take out the prawns, put in more tuna.

[wayneoro]

thats what im thinking to coral also cleans the water in some well set up fish tanks nature does the lot

[Brett1907]

We just have to actually study how nature does it before we try it. No point jumping in with our hands on our @#$$% and heads up our a@#$ as per usual.

Brett

[reel_scream]

before i get booed, let me say i have seen the error of my ways.

I worked on a roughy trawler out of hobart when i was 18-23. It was a relatively new fishery at the time with mainly Kiwi skippers.

We trawled down the numerous southern hills/volcanic pinnacles targeting fish from 700m-1200m. A single shot with the net actually "fishing" could take 10min+ and up to 100+ton a shot.

The fish are living in water temps 4-6 degrees and the CSIRO told us they can reach 120 years old and don't spawn untill 20+.

The Kiwi's new their fishery was on the decline and the reasons, but had no hesitation in plundering ours. A couple of years before i started it is said that supply would often so much exceed demand that ton's of fish would be taken to the tip as it was cheaper than freight costs and market price.

the roughy congregate at St Helens hill on tassies east coast to spawn each year. Insane Quota's, such as 550ton for our boat, were allocated to twenty+ trawlers. We would que for hours for our shot. We had blowouts cut into our net at 120ton as nets are prone to tearing over that amount. Others would be gready , bring up 200ton, net splits, tinny brigade zips out on nice days and scoop up free fish in landing nets. The rest drifts away.

Likewise the 1000m flats sw of tassie hold large numbers of juvinile fish 10-20cm which are not viable to sell. Shots of 50+ ton's would be disposed of to Float away. All dead due to pressure and temp changes.

Truly a waste of a resource and i am not proud to have been associated with it.

scott.

[Brett1907]

At least you have seen how wrong it is. Unfortunately there are people out there (comm & reco) who are still too dim to figure that out.

Good on ya for speaking out and showing just how thoughtless some fishos are.

Brett

[reel_scream]

cheers Brett

[wayneoro]

instead of all those trawlers destroying so much would it be possible for small boats maybe with powered hand lines to fish these depths it would provide income for a lot more people and stop the damage the trawlers do i was involved in nz longlining for snapper that industry is going great with top quality fish all exported they had a declining fish numbers but once they reduced the trawlers etc now as far as i know all works great there

[reel_scream]

Thats a good thought wayneoro. Problem is the southern grounds are 80+ miles south of Tassie and it's a bloody loooong way to the fish. I might add the weather was usually pretty rat shit. We tried catching Blue eye once with some Japaneese longline that somehow made it on the boat ;). With a ten kilo weight and using our net drum to winch it it was still a shit fight.