Now here is the bargin vulture in me comming out.
If there is all this gear being confiscated............. ...... when and where is the auction.
cheers
FNQcairns, thats exactly what I'm saying. They're completely within their power to confiscate gear used to aid an illegal activity. I know of a few fisheries officers on the central coast of NSW who have over 100 masks/snorkels/wetsuits/gloves from illegal lobster diving, as well as all manner of rods, reels, tackle etc. Alot of the time its just confiscated, not put on the books and the officer ends up with some new gear. Thats just the way it goes.
There was one particularly funny incident that he was telling one of my fishing mates where they confiscated a pair of stellas and matching rods off a pair of, uhhh, 'oriental' blokes in their mid 20's who had a large number of undersize fish. That afternoon after shooting around the river doing their business found the same pair of blokes, back again with another stella combo a piece, with even more undersize whiting, bream and mullet. This time they copped a heavy fine and had their second combo confiscated! Very exxy trip for a bucket of undersize fish.
Now here is the bargin vulture in me comming out.
If there is all this gear being confiscated............. ...... when and where is the auction.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
They confiscate the gear, do no paperwork and keep it for themselves. Thats no different to a policeman doing a drug raid doing no paperwork and keeping it for themselves in my opinion nothing short of corruption and they should be bought to task for it if this is really the case.
Craig
This is a great post guys and one that has provided a number of ideas and thought processes. The reality is though that the rules and regulations are easy to find and access.
Put simply the current rules on bag limits, size and in posession limits are set and there will be ramifications if you are caught.
To clear up one little matter mentioned earlier. The Estuary cod is NOT a Coral Reef Fish....it is listed under 'other tidal species' and carries a size limit of 35cm to 120cm with a bag limit of 10.
The following applies to the rules and reg of today.....naturally they will be changed somewhat in March.
In Posession
Is there a limit to the number of fish I'm allowed to catch?
It depends on the species of fish.
If the experts decide that the fish is abundant, there is no limit.
Other species may be regulated by number, known informally as a "bag limit". This limit varies from species to species. The aim is to conserve fish populations and spread the catch more fairly among all fishers.
The limit means that you are not allowed to catch and keep more than a set number of the particular type of fish at any one time. It doesn't matter when the fish were caught, so if five (say) is the limit, you cannot take five today, put them in your esky or your fridge, and take another one or two tomorrow. You can only catch more when the supply in your fridge falls below the official limit.
In addition to individual take and possession limits for each species above, all coral reef fin fish species have a combined take and possession limit of 20. For a complete list of coral reef species see the Fisheries (Coral Reef Fin Fish)
For those that want to read the relevant pages themselves.....
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/2876.html
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...2_ENA_HTML.htm
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/documents/...sionLimits.pdf
And this is the link to the new regulations.....
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...nd_size_limits
Hopes this clears everything up.
Shane
Catfishkid, I'm unsure of the validity of the lack of paperwork but the confiscated gear is definately true. There was a write up in the local rag about 6-8 months ago about a guy who had his boat confiscated because he was keeping 10-20 jewfish a day, as well as huge amounts of lobsters and cobia, and selling them off without a licence.
I suppose having my gear confiscated would deter me alot more from illegal activities than a simple fine although I think there needs to be a certain dollar value incorporated into this.
While there is no excuse for knowing the variuos laws and regulations, I do have a very big beef with how much the QLD government does not do to inform the general public about various laws and regulations.
they are very big on spending money and media time promoting vote winning polocies that realy have no direct impact on our daily lives and do not influence our daily choices but they spend very little on publicising changes to laws and regilations...... and this is right across the board not just boating and fishing.
Several full sized highway type bill boards media events and television campaigns on how wonderful and marvelous the water grid is but didly squat on changes to electrical laws, traffic regulations, or in our case fishing size and bag limits, boating regulations and we are still waiting on the printed maps of the moreton bay marine park.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
Well said.
When was the last time you saw an ad anywhere about new fishing regs??
At least in NSW they have big signs near a lot of popular boat ramps with size/bag limits.
They used to even give out fish measurers for the boat with pictures of species with the regs.
I still have a spare one here somewhere. They're brilliant. They're even entertainment for the kids learning the different species when the fishings quiet
Never seen the like in QLD I'm afraid.
I intend on living for-ever....so far so good
Might be Bullshite but rightly or wrongly its the law
The Bomber
I think this " angler education" / public information thing is something that "we" need to have words with our locak members and the government about.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
I thought so, it has been the way it goes for a long time too, the culture that cuts though all minions in authority is what's yours is mine, if I can get away with it, seen this from just outside the ranks often. Shame but who are you going to call...ghost busters?
It's the regulated presumption of guilt before innocence that's driving it. The level of human sophistication under regulation needed to drive our system astounds me.
cheers fnq
If my gear was taken by the boys in blue I'd be asking for a receipt I reckon.
But I think I'll try and not have to ask for one.
I intend on living for-ever....so far so good
Last time I looked at the signs they were out of date and had no date on them so no one would be the wiser. Ramp ones only hep those who do the boat from a ramp. Stickers should be sent out with fishing lic as they have our addresses and should be done out of fisheries or DPI budget not out of fishing lic fee. Either that or make a fish length sicker mandatory and send it out each year with our rego stickers and that will at least keep boat holders up to date as near no cost - nah that would be too easy like having the option of paying your fish lic with boat lic so you don't forget it and then it is marked on your card and on their computers . I don't mind a fair cop in any case but one because some small detail has changed and a fisheries bloke o authority is on a revenue quota day just isn't what it is all about. Come toNSW and go back 20 years
I would just like to add a little to the debate, with regards to the current regulations in place today, Has anyone looked up the size and bag limit chart (current publication) for red throat sweetlip, under sweetlip?
You will be please to find that it says, all sweetlip 30 unless red throat.. No bag limit, (not even a mention of please refer to emperor section), then on another page under emperor it says "red throat sweetlip" 38 bag limit of 8. WTF
I would also like to point out that the DPI website until 2 weeks ago that there was a publication on that indicated a yellow circle around flat rock, hendersons and Cherubs cave indicating that it was open to all forms of fishing, It looks to have been replaced in the last week or so.
Aguably both these document could be used against fisheries successfully.
What the QLD government needs to do is get all the current legislation from "all" the governement departments and create a single document, this should be free to the public and well advertised, they should release the document anually, it should be in a form that we are able to carry in our fishing bags or boat, it should also be in a simplified manner so everyone can understand it (put sweetlip under the sweetlip heading).
Why not add boating rules and regs to the document as well..
The laws are becoming too complex and changing far to often for everyone to know all the exact details of each of the laws they need to be simplified and consolidated and made available..
Regards
HOnda