Seafood Markets and Shop

[MIKOS]

Hi Guys and girls,

I seen to notice that everytime I go to the seafood markets or a seafood shop that they have heaps of undersized fish.Bream and whiting seem to be the main ones.How come that they can get away with this?
Do they different rules to us?
If we caught 1 x undersized bream for example only and it came to 1cm undersized we would be in trouble.The markets have hundreds of them.Do the inspectors get around to check what they are selling?
I just saw the fishing report section and the post on trawlers in the bay got me thinking.It seems that as soon as the bay starts fishing well that they come along and stuff it all up >:(.Is this where all of the undersized fish are coming from? :-/

Mikos :) ;)

[MIKOS]

No Body seems to know :-/?

[Black_Rat]

Mikos this subject has been brought a few times before and the general conclusion was that they are not allowed to have undersized fish on sale and should be reported :-?

[Pwoida]

Yeh, my local Action supermarket has a large seafood section and if notices some pretty small fish. I intend to take a tape measure in one of these days and check them.

[MIKOS]

Pwioda,

Yes im with you mate. ;)
The local place over on my side of town never has the good quality prawns any more and the last 2 times ive bought mackeral steaks ive had to throw them out and mate there not cheap.
I think that the prawns are imported so they should be cheaper as the quality is crap but they still charge the usual $29 a kilo.
Dont want to sound like a bastard but i have been getting ripped off.
Who do I call to report these undersize fish sellers to? :)

MIKOS

[Pwoida]

Fishwatch - 1800 017 116

[Az]

those bloody supermarkets! I was in coles the other day to see barramundi fillets... IMPORTED! bastards should be supporting australian business, there are plenty of barra farms here yet they continue to buy this crap from the asian fish farms

[Big_unit]

Supermarkets do not give any preference to Australian goods. The Dairy Industry for example whilst supermarkets dont import fresh milk yet they do import butter, cheese, yoghurt and other lines. They simply drove the on farm milk price to a point where dairy farms go broke or can not afford to pay wages. In my district there used to be around 170 farms now there are only around 40. They have driven the milk and dairy products price right down for the farmer yet the general public is paying more than ever for a litre of milk. At one stage Victorian farmers were being paid $0.14 / litre while the public was paying around $1.10 / litre. At the same time Queensland farmers were being paid $0.26 / litre while the public was paying around $1.15 / litre. The cost of production on the "average" Queensland dairy farm is around $0.27 / litre whilst in Victoria the "average" cost of production is around $0.21 / litre. The reason I use Victoria as an example is because the bulk of the dairy industry is now operated in Victoria.

James

[Pwoida]

Action had imported barra fillets too, from Taiwan. While I was standing there looking another guy was quite verbal about what he thought of that.

[gunna]

This is the same supermarkets who are pushing us into generic products produced by them using ingredients that are mostly sourced OS.

[MY-TopEnder]

Been there, done that.,.. bitched and moaned about it, did coverage on TV and it was cleared up for a little while but seems to be just as bad now.

Ring fishwatch mate.

I've dobbed Sumners Fish Market in a few times now. Every time i walk in now i think they cringe. Yet they still sell the small stuff.

[Hapuka]

I can't believe what I see in the supermarkets not just the under size fish but the state of the frozen crap they sell , it's thawed out in fresh water and re frozen what looks like a dozen times and people still buy and eat this sh!t.....

If the people that buy this stuff actually ate a nice piece of fresh fish (cook properly) they would never go back ..... the one that really errks me is when they advertise Baby Barramundi as the veal of the sea ,just another way to market undersize fish.

Rob

[Lucky_Phill]

Mikos,

take a tape measure, camera and buy some of the undersize product. Ya need evidence. Keep ya reciept etc.

Report it imediately. NOw, that you have undersize fish in your possession, are YOU liable ? Well, you have a reciept to say no.

Cheers Phill

[DaveSue_Fishos_Two]

This has been discussed in quite an amount of detail previously. It was found that a lot of the fish, especially the undersize stuff, is brought in to Qld from the NT. Apparently they have different sizes, rules and regulations to Qld and that is how the seafood outlets in Qld get away with having an undersized product to retail. Also, it was found to be quite legal and there was bugger all that we could do about it. That is why they continue to do it and why the Qld authorities can't stop them if the product is caught in another state or territory with different rules. Personally, I think it stinks. But I guess we have all become used to Qld size and bag limits etc etc and now look with scorn at other states who are not aligned with our regulations.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Dave

[JubJub]

Wow thats a crazy law. Maybe next time I catch an undersized fish I will keep it and say I got it up north.

If anyone talks to fishwatch can you let us know the ruling on this. It seems so wrong. If its undersized here then is shouldnt be sold in my opinion

[bigmack]

Many of these places do themselves a disservice anyway - the local Coles Supermarket Seafood Counter actually stinks - you can smell the off fish as soon as you walk in the front door (mooloolaba) another place had the stalest looking fillets of fish Ive ever seen - they were advertised as snapper and they were an opague yellow colour. Yeee uck!!! I wouldnt even feed it to my dog.

What about large flathead filltes Ive seen in shops that actually would have come from female breeding fish (noosa) is that allowed.................That said - we have the best range of fresh seafood I have ever seen along the Mooloolaba Spit with Browns, Mooloolah River Fisheries with the deck upstairs, a Sushi Bar, Seafood Restaurants etc its really developing into a nice fishermans wharf type complex. if you like that sort of thing of course!

[Killing_Nemo]

I reported seeing Jenny Sand Crabs at the local Action Supermarket to the DPI. They were great about it and explained that over in WA Jenny's were ok to keep, and that is more than likely were they came from.

However, they did say that they would go out and check the paper work to see which wholesaler they came from etc and traced them back to WA.
They even gave me a courtesy call telling me what the result was.

They also explained when purchasing Jenny's in QLD always to keep the receipt, incase they follow me home from the boat ramp and i have them in the fridge etc.

Dont agree with it, but thats the law.

[Argle]

Another good reason to have the same legal sizes & crab regulations in all states/territories. But that probably makes too much sense, silly me what was I thinking :D

[borisdog]

You guys BUY fish? ::) ::)

[bigmack]

Yes - we buy fish sometimes. I bought atlantic salmon for dinner guests and sometimes buy prawns and scallops with roe on.

Occasionaly we also buy mahi mahi - but the rest of the time we eat mackerel and we just ran out.........soooo we are waiting for the weather to clear up so we can go on the attack.

[fishman7]

hi guys
i use to own a seafood shop in ulladulla nsw we use to get fishery in there every now and then to check the size of the fish and all the paper work. some state do have smaller size on fish but if you have some you have to show were it come from.as for prawns most of then are frozen and they just thraw then out and not tell you.because they can get then cheap.i us to get prawn from queenland fresh crystal bay there are nice.for frozen prawn they pay between $12 t0 $16 a kg or depend on the size and the big supermarket get then cheaper if they buy a lot.someone said they pay $29 a kg down at batemans bay you can get then off the prawn boats for $12 kg and they are catch that night.
cheers
danny
one thing i for got is if you are catch with undersize fish you are fine and so is the poeple you got then off

[Reefmaster]

Some seafood shops actaully have licences to sell undersize fish which come from different states.

a couple of weeks ago i was at Raptis seafood market getting bait when i noticed Red Emperor for sale around the 30cm mark.(should be 55cm) I rang the DPI knowing that there would be a reason for this. Turns out the fish have come from NT where there is no size limit for this fish and some seafood markets can actaully buy a licence to do so and Raptis happens to be one. They told me this is the same for Sweetlip and gold banded jobfish which are commonly purchased from NT and sold in QLD undersize. Here we are in QLD trying to educate people on bag limits and sizes and we have shops selling undersize fish. What happens when joe blow who doesn't fish much see's these fish in the shops and when he is fishing catches one and thinks its the right size because he saw it in the shop? >:(.

Bloody stupid

Regards Greg

[rocket]

You beat me to the punch Greg (But I suppose it's only right that the Red Emperor King should address this issue first).

I used to have fish shops and undersized Red Emperor were always on offer from Raptis, The fish factory, Morgans etc as they were purchased from the NT. Whilst local fish stocks were low in inclement weather, I could supply Red Emperor or Red Jew and Gold Band every week of the year regardless of the weather.

The industry up North is absolutely HUGE and yet the size limits and restrictions are a joke!!!