What chance have the fish got?

[nathank]

Flatzie im with you mate.. that kinda observation makes my blood boil... my grandpa used to take me fishing when i was a little kid and i can clearly remember him measuring each fish we kept and he would always tell me the importance of sticking to the rules. Now i look back it was pretty rare from someone from his generation but we have to teach our kids these very important lessons.. I went out along the sand pumping jetty last night to catch bait and the amount of people fishing and keeping undersized fish is just staggering.. this will always be like it is... the amount of people and spots that people are fishing is just impossible to police... its up to the older generation to teach the younger generation about such things to have any chance at reducing the amount that it happens.. As far as what the pro's are doing and relating it back to one measly flathead..well thats just a cop out.
Also on seeing the undersized fish on the sandpumping jetty.. no i didnt take them out of peoples bucket and measure them but when i see undersize fish... well i know one when i do.

[Knotpretty]

One old fella and one flatty is not going to deplete the worlds fish stocks. Over harvesting everything in the ocean causes that. A story told to me by a fisheries inspector pretty much sums it up. He had recently spent a night on a trawler down home to monitor ther by catch. He said over 1500 juvenile mulloway were killed in the process of harvesting prawns that night. Thats just one species multiply that by the days worked and there is the answer to why fish stocks are in some areas are low. Commercial fisherman need to earn a living (they have bills like everyone else). Non fishing people want to eat fish, recreational fisherman want to catch fish. Everyone has an impact on the fish stocks (my trips of late have had no effect on fish stocks lol). Maybe we should look at the fisherman who target the big breeding flatties and brag about their huge daily catches of the fish not the old fella with one small flatty. Just my thoughts mojo

[flatzie]

Thanks for the sensible non judgmental replies guys! I was hoping there was still a few objective souls out there!
You are dead right Baz! Im on another couple of forums, you see as much of this on them.
Cheers Flatzie

[Dignity]

There is nothing wrong with noting that some one has kept under sized fish, I notice it all the time and used to comment to people all the time but with the amount of verbal abuse I got I stopped and only comment on fish that I see actually caught and still have a chance of survival. I will often watch familys fishing at Golden Beach and it is obvious that many of them don't know that the fish they have caught are undersized as they appear to be very pleased, and so they should be as fishing is meant to be a pleasant past time even if you have to put the fish you caught back. I do though compliment the angler on a fine catch and also add that if it was a little bigger it would be legal and they could have it for dinner, This has resulted in nearly a 100% release.

Last week I was at Busselton, WA and there were a number of people fishing and their bucket held a dozen or so Bream around the 20 cm mark and I saw them catch other herring like species which were in the 15 cm range but as they didn't speak fluent english and I didn't know the minimum sizes in WA I said nothing however when leaving the jetty there were a number of anglers ready to go out and they looked like they had been doing it for a while judging by their gear. When I asked them what was the leagal size for bream in WA none of them knew, this is what worries me.

I have spent time in asia and seen how depleted their stocks are and how because they are so poor an 8cm boney bream is considered a good catch, unfortunately this can become embedded in their culture and is very difficult to change, we need to stop the same from happening here. As for pro fishing I do not have any solutions and am just as sad as a trawler passes me on the high seas while cleaning their catch to see the amount of dead undersize fish floating on the ocean. But then again we also seem to forget that a lot of our fish stock problems also stem from the fish nurseries being filled in e.g. mangroves, for tha sake of a developer making some money, this is un sustainable in the long run.

These are only my thoughts and I understand that others will have opposing views.

Cheers

[fisher28]

dignity that is a great post,good to see that the whole big picture is seen by you.awesome!!

[culbara]

did you ring fisheries and report him then only way things will stop is if you do something we are all responsible

[ssab1]

give the old bloke a go, it was a bar tail? wouldnt like a jury with some of you blokes "guilty 'cause my mate said so .Want to see taking of undersize fish? go down to the seaway and pumping jetty. Yes fisheries are aware but cant patrol 24/7.cheers Alex

[flatzie]

Saab1, there is way more judgement of me writing about that flattie, than any thing I wrote about that old bloke. I never wrote a nasty word about the poor old bloke, just made an observation.
Tired of It... was a Dusky!! Ive caught hundreds of them..he walked right past me...it was way undersize, not everyone is stupid when they look at a fish.
Culbara..
I have reported illegal fishing, but as mentioned, they are way under resourced, and it takes forever to get someone on the phone, let alone getting someone to catch people doing the wrong thing. But they do get a lot, and thats good.
Flatzie

[Beatsworkin2]

I love my grandad thanks for taking me fishing

[Mike Delisser]

The thing that sh*ts me about the pros is that for the most part the produce they get doesn't even stay with us as they are chasing the dollar.. good on them I suppose it is all business but surely Asia and other countries have their own fish, I mean we import a heap of their crap and send our prime fish over there WTF.. If the government got serious they could stop it overnight and simply have a sustainable fishing future for all but until then the seas will be raped over and over and over..

Totally agree Fat-Bouy, I heard once that we export roughly the same tonnage of prawns that we import. The issue is we export big tigers, kings ect ect, and import tiny little 2cm things that end up in fried rice.

BTW one issue I've always had is calling the wild fish caught by pro's "produce" or hearing them refered to as "primary producers". I recon these terms should only be used when refering to aquaculture.
Cheers

[rumy1]

I remember my grandfather telling me once after a not so successful crabbing trip that he would fill the large copper boiler in just one night with his catch of mud crabs. I said to him that maybe this is why we have not many crabs these days, he said nothing.

The recreational fisher is nothing, go over seas and see how they rape the seas over there, anything and everything is taken. Dolphins, marlins, sharks, whales, turtles, you name it they take it.

[lifestyle]

unless you measuresed the flatty you are only guessing it was undersize. could of been a sand flathead. So You opion if it being undersize is unjustified with no evidence.

[odes20]

Hey lifestyle . The fight is over. Bell has rung, winners/losers declared. after fight drinks and car park empty, all gone home. And now you come out swingin? weeks after?Funny Mate.

unless you measuresed the flatty you are only guessing it was undersize. could of been a sand flathead. So You opion if it being undersize is unjustified with no evidence.