Double Island Lagoon netted and cleaned-out by the pro's!!!How can this be allowed???

[shane450]

hang on guys , without the netters people won t have crab pot bait and heh a gov report tells us its all ok and sustainable . Bring on an independant study who has no financial consequence on the outcome IMO

[Mark Robinson MP]

Thank you AUSFISH members for bringing this to my attention. I have sent it on to the Fisheries minister.
Tight lines, Mark

[carnster]

Thank you AUSFISH members for bringing this to my attention. I have sent it on to the Fisheries minister.
Tight lines, Mark

Thanks Mark, but is this the same guy Graig Wallace, who was informed about the kiwi trawler taking all the yakas from goldie bait reefs to plunder our offshore waters. His response "it would have a minimal effect"???????

[Lucky_Phill]

Thanks Mark, but is this the same guy Graig Wallace, who was informed about the kiwi trawler taking all the yakas from goldie bait reefs to plunder our offshore waters. His response "it has would have a minimal effect"???????

No, we have had a change of Government. John McVeigh is the Minister. http://lnp.org.au/john-mcveigh

LP

[bondy99]

You are correct. You didn't see me at some TAFE and my info is not 27yrs old.

Through my job, I deal with commercial fishermen quite regularly and have a better than fair understanding of what their current fishing cycles are and what they ACTUALLY do and the money they ACTUALLY make. I didn't hear it from someone who taught a TAFE subject near three decades ago.

A lot of commercial fisherman work year round and target different species/areas depending on what licences they hold. Most of the ones I deal with, this is their sole source of income and yes they manange to pay mortgages, etc They also are entitled to the same fuel rebates any primary producer on the land is entitled to.

Comparing land based farmers to commercial fisherman is a bit far fetched, don't you thinK? Yes, I deal with farmers pretty much ever working day too. Two completely different business environments with completely different factors affecting their economics and terms of trade, but I guess you heard different from a guy you met on a train in 1989 or something, so maybe I am wrong!

As I said - check your facts, as I think your info maybe a bit dated.

All the best.

Apollo, I too was a commerical fisherman working commonwealth waters outside Qld and NSW State waters, which my licence is endorsed Also worked for Raptis when based in Karumba, been out on the SeaMounts working for Rolley before he bank rolled everyone.

No diesel fuel subsidy applied in NSW when I was skippering the boats, diesel is hell of a lot cheaper than today's prices. Governments tend to plow more money in subsidies helpijg farmers than commercial fishers irrespective of factors, economics and terms of trade. . I only state the latter from the news reports in the media over time. I'm sure the journo would have his or hers facts correct from the person they spoke to before going to air.

Not all commerical operators work year round, its season to season and whether dependent and some do draw money from the Commonwealth to support themselves, it aint much but every dollar helps

I hear you was a deckie, so are you now an an accountant or an Actuarial? I'm not having go at you or anyone , just having a conversation.

Have a great day, Bondy

[samson]

Bondy to a degree is right on the fuel rebate the beach netters would not get it for their trucks unless they have a 4.5gvm which none do and up until a few years ago wouldn't of on their boats either unless they ran deisal as the unleaded rebate was only introduced through pressure from qsia to government which finally decided to wake up and help the struggling fisherman as it stands now the rebate is the same now with fuel at $1.50 as it was when fuel was 50 cents add a dwindling fishery and I don't think you'll find too many fisherman boasting about a good profit margin.

As far as netting the lagoon I used to beach launch that area a lot going back over 25 years and remember them netting it long ago and leaving plenty of by catch on the shore, but it can be a good source of sea gar and hardy heads aswell as edible fish like whiting and flathead, I know most hate netters with a passion but just because someone can't catch a feed it's a bit tough pro bashing guys that have netted that lagoon longer than most of the guys fishing off the shore of the lagoon have even been alive.

[trymyluck]

Apollo, I too was a commerical fisherman working commonwealth waters outside Qld and NSW State waters, which my licence is endorsed Also worked for Raptis when based in Karumba, been out on the SeaMounts working for Rolley before he bank rolled everyone.

No diesel fuel subsidy applied in NSW when I was skippering the boats, diesel is hell of a lot cheaper than today's prices. Governments tend to plow more money in subsidies helpijg farmers than commercial fishers irrespective of factors, economics and terms of trade. . I only state the latter from the news reports in the media over time. I'm sure the journo would have his or hers facts correct from the person they spoke to before going to air.

Not all commerical operators work year round, its season to season and whether dependent and some do draw money from the Commonwealth to support themselves, it aint much but every dollar helps

I hear you was a deckie, so are you now an an accountant or an Actuarial? I'm not having go at you or anyone , just having a conversation.

Have a great day, Bondy

Not much of a decky but don't hold that against him..........

"I'm sure the journo would have his or hers facts correct from the person they spoke to before going to air." You are smarter then that i would hope........

[trymyluck]

Bondy to a degree is right on the fuel rebate the beach netters would not get it for their trucks unless they have a 4.5gvm which none do and up until a few years ago wouldn't of on their boats either unless they ran deisal as the unleaded rebate was only introduced through pressure from qsia to government which finally decided to wake up and help the struggling fisherman as it stands now the rebate is the same now with fuel at $1.50 as it was when fuel was 50 cents add a dwindling fishery and I don't think you'll find too many fisherman boasting about a good profit margin.

As far as netting the lagoon I used to beach launch that area a lot going back over 25 years and remember them netting it long ago and leaving plenty of by catch on the shore, but it can be a good source of sea gar and hardy heads aswell as edible fish like whiting and flathead, I know most hate netters with a passion but just because someone can't catch a feed it's a bit tough pro bashing guys that have netted that lagoon longer than most of the guys fishing off the shore of the lagoon have even been alive.

Samson, I make no bones about it, I dislike some of the practices that commercial fisherman use. Personally I have witnessed pro's join nets together to ensure that the took the whole school of bream of a beach in nsw, use front end loaders to bury tonnes of mullet on beaches because there was no market for them once they had removed the roe. Shut down the bream fishery in Wallis Lake after they again join nets together to enclose a set of oyster leases and then proceed to use lights and hammers and any other means they can to scare any fish out into the nets. Forget about the argument about supplying the Australian market with fresh fish. Tell us what they have done (Professional Fisherman) to enhance the fishery other then rip the guts out of when it just starts to recover. There has to be some sort of balance to the system and it may mean that there are more restriction on rec fisherman as well but if tough decisions need to be made for the benefit of fish stocks then so be it.

[Apollo]

Apollo, I too was a commerical fisherman working commonwealth waters outside Qld and NSW State waters, which my licence is endorsed Also worked for Raptis when based in Karumba, been out on the SeaMounts working for Rolley before he bank rolled everyone.

No diesel fuel subsidy applied in NSW when I was skippering the boats, diesel is hell of a lot cheaper than today's prices. Governments tend to plow more money in subsidies helpijg farmers than commercial fishers irrespective of factors, economics and terms of trade. . I only state the latter from the news reports in the media over time. I'm sure the journo would have his or hers facts correct from the person they spoke to before going to air.

Not all commerical operators work year round, its season to season and whether dependent and some do draw money from the Commonwealth to support themselves, it aint much but every dollar helps

I hear you was a deckie, so are you now an an accountant or an Actuarial? I'm not having go at you or anyone , just having a conversation.

Have a great day, Bondy

Bondy

Again, I suggest you check the facts. The same fuel rebate rules apply to commercial fisherman and farmers and I quote from the ATO:

Activities you can claim for

Once you are registered, you can claim fuel tax credits for fuel you use in:

• vehicles with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) greater than 4.5 tonne travelling on a public road - diesel vehicles you acquired before 1 July 2006 can equal 4.5 tonne GVM
• specified activities eligible since 1 July 2006 in
  
  • agriculture
  • forestry
  • fishing
  • mining
  • marine and rail transport
  • nursing and medical services
  • electricity generation
  • non-fuel uses
  • burner applications
• all other activities, machinery, plant or equipment eligible since 1 July 2008 that were not previously eligible, including the following activities
  
  • construction
  • manufacturing
  • wholesale/retail
  • property management
  • landscaping.

[Apollo]

Bondy

There is plenty of information on the ATO website and associated legislation for you to check the facts yourself and again I suggest you do.

I never said ALL commercial fisherman, but rather A LOT of commercial fisherman make a fulltime living out of their chosen business. Again, you can go back and check what I wrote. This is based on current interactions with actually current commercial fishermen. There is a few on this site and you are welcome to check with them too.

I am afraid you have heard wrong - never a commercial deckie (and not much of a rec one as has been confirmed above by trymyluck!) except for one trip in Vic to help someone out, but yes an accountant working in a specialised area.

I am not doubting your info may once have been correct, but it hasn't been that way for some time and gives readers the wrong information.

I am also keeping out of the rec v commercial debate as I agree with Phill that the main issue here is the discarded bycatch.

All the best

[Moonlighter]

This is becoming a debate amongst a couple of people and somewhat off the original point. So I'll throw a couple of lines in the pond that might get us back a bit closer to the issue.

Firstly, to those who are advocating for the subject area to be made into a yellow marine park zone on the basis that yellow zones exclude commercial fishing, I simply say this: be very, very careful what you ask for, as you migh get something much worse than what you want!

Getting into bed with the extreme greenies in order to do a number on the pros is a very dangerous thing, if you ask me. Yellow zones have a very bad habit of turning into green zones at the next available opportunity, and then they are totally closed to the sort of family fishing we all want to be able to continue to do.

Secondly, there is work underway at this very moment in the Fisheries Department to address the inshore pro net fishery in SEQ area and one of the outcomes could well be very positive in dealing with this exact issue. Mark would be aware of it, because it was a LNP policy position that the new Government has high on the new Ministers to-do list. So before banging on about issues, doing just a bit of research would have revealed this.

Perhaps one of the more vocal posters on here could go forth and find out what's happening with this review of inshore pro netting. I know the answer, but think it might just be a bit more educative if someone else does some legwork and posts the results....

I am sure that Mark will raise this matter and it will be informative for the new Minister to see the impact on inshore netting in this case, and see what he and his advisers can come up with from a policy position to help.

ML

[bg1000]

No ones going to like this but here goes.
On the bycatch, I think it is a bit hypocrytical to start writing letters to ministers, when undersized fish are killed in cast nets and baits nets by recreational fishers. Also, undersized fish are killed by being foul hooked in the gills and guts. I guess what I'm really trying to say is theres two sides to everystory and were not all perfect.

Good video here on bycatch. I would much rather see management go in this direction rather than more closures. Closures are simply a blanket fix which tend to favour one stakeholder group over another. It just simply reminds me of the situation in the coral where the greens have shut everyone out. It's not management and it's not fair.

Closing such an area to professional fishing is not management its simply favouring one group over another. At present there is mullet in both my local iga and woolies and also in two fish and chips shops that i went into last week. So the fish is getting out into the non fishing community who rely on professional fishers in order to access this resource.

Watch the video, it's worth seeing that there are pros out there striving for sustainable fisheries.



What I can't understand is that as recreational fishers we already have the choice to fish in an area that is not professionally fished.
Off the top of my head all the following areas close to the lagoon that are not netted are as follows. I'm sure there are others.

1. Double Island Point headland (yellow zone)
2. An area of beach between double island point and rainbow beach (yellow zone)
3. 70 odd kilometers of beach on fraser island (yellow zone)
4. Noosa river mouth south to coolum
5. Harpers Street Boat ramp to the noosa river mouth (fisheries regulation)
6. Lake Weyba
7. From about eudlo creek to the mouth of maroochy river (fisheries regulation)
8. Mooloolah river (fisheries regulation)
9. Curramundi Lake
10. The Pumicestine Passage
11. Weekend closures for rthe entire Sandy straits and Moreton Bay

There is already plenty of closed area to net fishing. As recreational fishers we have been given plenty of area.
As to the area that is open we need to look toward better management in reducing such things as bycatch. A perfect example is the tunnel netting video that is getting around at the moment. There are plenty of professinoal fishers who are improving there practises. They are far more reliant on fish stocks than any recreational fisher.

[Da-Jew-Man]

Big1000,
A couple of points:
1. The nets showing bream escaping are different to those used for mullet. So what about all the ""bycatch"" when netting for mullet.
2. Mullet packed into ice boxes. COME ON.
Have seen over years and years mullet left in the sun and transported back to the co-op in the backs of utes,bins etc WITH NO ICE.
3. Over the last few years every school of mullet that comes up the coast seems to be hit as soon as they come out of the rivers. Mobile phones,planes, Jet skis etc make it easy to find the school and run the net around them.
Sustainability,thats the word.Personally I beleive if we don't protect the food chain then there will be less fish for the future.
And that is for all Rec fishers,Pros and the consumer.

[Beatsworkin2]

Netters should stay away from this lagoon many hours spent there with my kids wot agreat place a swim a fish some things just out of respect big or small should be left alone

[Si]

What i cant understand is that people actually like mullet (to eat).

anyway......