Sydney Harbour Fishing

[bcb20]

Here's a scary story for all to take note of that fish Sydney Harbour......http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=96483

[bo_sawyer]

i hoped they warned rec fishermen about this after banning commercial fishing!

[bcb20]

Logic would indicate as much, but the fact that bureucrats are involved would defy any logic known to man......

[blue-mako]

lol and ppl say the brisbane river is bad???

[choppa]

there was a spread about this in the daily sunshine coast paper,,, so i assume it was in brisbane's as well,,,,,,when you think about it they have been complaining about this for years now and bugger all has/was done,,, as the last paragraph shows oysters are now purchased away from the harbour for general population consumption,, and this is where most of the turmoil stemmed from 10-15 yrs ago when the farms in the georges were found to have a high level of toxin due to pollutants,,,,,the reports back then warned about fish stock becoming effected,,,,,,,,well well guess what???

ban recreational fishing all together from the harbour,,,,dont laugh,,,they banned the top end of the georges around liverpool and casula for a few years,,, so if they allow the crap to be continued to pour into the system since then, it has to wash into the bay sooner or later,,,,,,,,,

looks like now some pollie will stand up,,,,point a finger and place the blame on some former cabinet member,,, dance around a bit,,,, and say,,, hey presto,, no fish zones

just my opinion,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,choppa

[snapperdan]

I live in about 1 minute walk from Sydney Harbour in the inner west and over the years I have seen a great improvement in the visable water quality. I swim at a harbour pool (which received a very poor score for water quality recently). This pool is full of bream and gar fish, pinkie snapper, mullet, jackets round the pylons and tiny litlle fish fry. If you swim here after rain you will come out black with tiny particles from storm water all over you. Any other time you are fine. Oysters and mussels common again in areas where they were greatly depleted. Saying this it is the sediment of the harbour and not the water itself that is the problem and I feel that the commercial fishing ban on the harbour is of a great benifit to this city. The government has been forced into action not only to clean up the harbour sediment but to increase fish stocks in the process. The winner in this situation is the recreational fisherman. Reports of snapper of up to 2 kilos have been coming in over the pasy few months. In my short life the biggest genuine harbour snapper I have witnessed topped the scales at 1.1 kg. Squid are now longer being targeted , therefore kepping the kingfish also not fished for happy which intern keep the fishos happy. The flat head , and jewies can now roam freely with out the prawn nets. So the fish are there if you can catch them and even though you might not be able to keep all you can catch if your on a boat you can just drop in at the fish markets and get it as cheap as it gets.

If you think Sydney Harbour is bad you should see what is happening with Botany Bay with this ORICA thing. This company produced super toxic chemicals for years and contaminated the ground water around the area. The contaminated area is now spreading into Botany Bay. Orica has pledged to fix the problem but it maybe to late.

I cut and pasted a small snippet I found

There is also widespread soil and groundwater contamination. Polluted groundwater escaping the site, passing under residential areas and making its way towards Botany Bay, where pollutants have been building up in the Bay's aquatic life for years. Local residents have been banned from using their backyard bores to prevent possible health impacts.

I don't know what the progress of the clean up is like as it has been out of the news for some time now but we have to face the fact that Sydneys water ways are in need of direct action.

End of rant.