Review of jennies ban ?

[brush]

HAVE YOU READ THAT MINISTER WALLACE IS ASKING FOR FEED- BACK FROM FISHERS ON OVERTURNING THE 120 YEAR BAN ON THE TAKING OF JENNIES???
SUNDAY MAIL 23/10/11 PAGE 21.
I TRIED TO LOOK UP THE REPORT, AS STATED VIEW AT deedi.gov.au
I COULD NOT FIND ANY INFO IN THAT SITE.
CHEERS ,
BRUSH

[Cheech]

I saw that on TV. Use to having restrictions placed, not relaxed. If it is as they said that at a certain age the females stop producing eggs, then makes perfect sense to allow Jennies over a certain size to be kept. As long as they can come up with what that size is.

[Oh Gee]

I thought I heard Annas' lap dog, Andrew 1+1=3 Fraser, bumping his gums on this issue during the weekend. I wonder what they are trying to divert our attention from. Saltwater fishing licences mabey. Or am I just cynical.

[rando]

I seem to remember something about jennies continuing to breed I will try and find it .If it is supported then I don,t think taking jennies should be allowed.

[rando]

I seem to remember something about jennies continuing to breed. I will try and find it .If it is supported then I don't think taking jennies should be allowed.

[rando]

I cant find what i was looking for but here is food for thought. from a NT DPI paper

Stage one crabs are only about 4 mm wide, but frequent moults mean that they grow very quickly. It is
thought that wild mud crabs reach 100 mm carapace width in about a year and sexual maturity in about
two years. Maturation time varies according to water temperature, with higher temperatures accelerating
the growth and decreasing the time taken to reach maturity. The typical life span of a mud crab is
thought to be three to four years.

If they only live 3-4 years and reach sexual maturity at two years there does not appear to be a large window of opportunity to become non breeders

[Si]

i think it should be reviewed as with all management practices at some point. recruitment may not be spawner related at all and may be more of a result of the post settlement success of larvae - good available habitat quality, good currents and wind etc. This was actually found to be the case in other crab fisheries as there was no biological justification for no take on female crabs as recruitment was more dependant on other factors as stated above. Would be interesting to see if fisheries have actually looked into into this at all. I cant seem to find any. I think the precautionary rule applies with a better than safe than sorry mentality which is good i guess.

[rando]

aborted post

[krusey]

I cant find what i was looking for but here is food for thought. from a NT DPI paper

Stage one crabs are only about 4 mm wide, but frequent moults mean that they grow very quickly. It is
thought that wild mud crabs reach 100 mm carapace width in about a year and sexual maturity in about
two years. Maturation time varies according to water temperature, with higher temperatures accelerating
the growth and decreasing the time taken to reach maturity. The typical life span of a mud crab is
thought to be three to four years.

If they only live 3-4 years and reach sexual maturity at two years there does not appear to be a large window of opportunity to become non breeders

Rando mate i would disagree with that as i have seen that many gennies that are about 2 inches (50mm) wide completely loaded with eggs and i have never seen a gennie over the 100mm mark with eggs and i'm not saying that they don't breed but i have seen 100's of smaller ones eggbearing while i haven't seen any larger ones eggbearing

[Horse]

The research that I have found seems to support the idea that the big girlscan still breed. It was noted in some reports that egg bearing females do not enter pots, I'm not sure why this would be the case.
I'm against any change without concrete proof that they are not spawning

[Lucky_Phill]

It is extremely important that everyone responds to the Fisheries Qld request.

I have attached the link that will direct you to the email address.

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/28_21087.htm


Here is the link on AF in the News Forum.




http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...male-mud-crabs



LP

[Lucky_Phill]

BTW. If the proposal gets up and allows 1 crab per Rec angler, how will that spill over to the commercial sector..?

Will they ask for a 10% of their catch ?

Will they be able to trade their catches ?

How long before the pro's lobby for greater quota ?

The crab fishery is already in a fragile state of sustainablity........ moreso north of the Central Coast and up to the Cape and Gulf.

Let's not get carried away with what this will mean to the recreatioonal anglers, but what it means for the whole industry / fishery.

Fisheries Queensland cannot control the black market now, what hope would they have if the rules were relaxed ?



LP

[bundylundy]

It only takes 5 minutes of your time to have your say through the DPI/Gov. site. If you sit back and do nothing, then the powers at be will interpret for themselves what your opinion is. Wether you are for changes to the crabbing rules or against, it is your right to have your say. So take the time to let your opinions be known.

Jeff.

[chris69]

From what i know about mud crabs the older females dont breed to well or every year after they get older like 4years old and lots of smaller males that attempt to breed with larger females are destroyed by them attempting too , so i would have no problems with one large female being kept with a 21cm or large shell and drop the bag limit to 5 with one female per person ,theres a lot more pots out there these days and thats the pots with floats and just as many with out floats , even a closed season like the snapper for a few years to let then build back up .

And for those interested mud crabs spawn out to sea and grow up in the most important layer of the the ocean ,from the surface down to 2 fathoms and live there until they sink down to the ocean floor and move into the estuarys on the makeing tides on the makeing moon if i remember correctly.

[rayken1938]

"From what i know about mud crabs the older females dont breed to well or every year after they get older like 4years old and lots of smaller males that attempt to breed with larger females are destroyed by them attempting too"
Incorrect just a urban myth. When I did tour of DPI facilities that were experimenting with breeding mud crabs male crabs as small as 3 inches across were locked on to jennies about 7 inches across.
When the jennies are in breeding mode they have soft shells( Just after moulting is the only time they breed) and would be incapable of harming the males