When was the last time you were stopped by a Fisheries officer in QLD?

[Out2launch]

How many Fisheries Officers are there in QLD ??

[malby]

I have seen them at Twin Bridges in Fernvale and they were very helpful in helping us Freshwater novices understand a few rules and regs. No checking anything as we had not gone out yet. Apart from that I have seen either them or water police (not sure which) checking around the middle of Bribie Passage. Also have seen lots of small planes flying overhead around the passage which I'm told are connected to the Nat Parks/fisheries/waterpolice or some authority out there. Mates have said they have seen the planes fly by and then not long after a boat has come by and pinged people.

[malby]

I should add that I 'have' been properly checked whilst fishing at Iluka twice now. Once at the middle wall and once well up river at north arm. Both times they were very helpful and just doing their job which is great to see. I only go down to the Clarence once every year or maybe twice at best and 2 hits in the last 5 yrs whereas up in Brissy over the last 10 years only one actual encounter with fisheries as described above at Fernvale??!! Maybe their all down the southside and Goldy??

[Mr Squiggles]

Was at Moogerah not so long ago & they showed up & checked a lot of camps. There were some pretty annoyed wally's around with their unregistered boats, no PWC licence etc. Over the years I've been left alone for some strange reason although in the late 90's a young walloper at the Scarbie ramp did a check on my 6m Sportfish & was going to ping me for a broken oar (the blade had come away from the handle). I explained to him that trying to row a boat that size would be beyond my capability & luckily the old Sarg. with him agreed.

[randell]

A few figures, saw this in the Bundaberg News Mail this morning....
http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/two...aberg/1768660/

randell

[8astripey]

last month 3 times in the one day. once at the river heads boat ramp in the morning, second time on fraser coast third time cruising back from fraser and by the same crew that did me going over. dedicated would be the word.

[Out2launch]

11 new recruits sounds great for the government but it still all doesn't tell me how many Fishos are there in QLD total ??

[Mr Squiggles]

It also won't cover for officers who leave the Dept. whether retirement or otherwise.

[dluxv6]

well got checked twice in a halfhour on the Gold Coast Seawall today

New officers in Fishwatch Hilux doin the rounds,were paying particular attention to asian fisho's takin everything they catch.
Least he didn't have a issue with my trevally i caught (50cm) woohoo, christened my new rock rod
Cheers Drew

[aus2045]

I should add that I 'have' been properly checked whilst fishing at Iluka twice now. Once at the middle wall and once well up river at north arm. Both times they were very helpful and just doing their job which is great to see. I only go down to the Clarence once every year or maybe twice at best and 2 hits in the last 5 yrs whereas up in Brissy over the last 10 years only one actual encounter with fisheries as described above at Fernvale??!! Maybe their all down the southside and Goldy??

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the general fishery in NSW seems to be in a much better shape than that experienced in Qld waters.

[oldjoe]

Can't believe it, Sat am, most miserable day ever and we where the only car and trailer in the Power Boat club ramp carpark...saw 3 other boats all morning and had fisheries boat check us on the water down around Couchin Ck and again on the ramp when we got back....obviously nothing undersized or oversized, waaay tooo much fresh.
We nearly flattened the battery with the bilge pump getting rid of rainwater

[Linedropper]

Thanks all for voting and responding. I was waiting for relatively large number of votes so the result could give us a pretty accurate idea of how bad things are. The result from the poll surprised me a bit.

After 150 votes almost 3/4 of us (74.66%) haven't been inspected by QLD Fisheries in over 12 months or we have never been inspected at all. Pretty poor coverage by Fisheries and obviously they are underfunded and/or under staffed badly.

Fisheries Qld keep putting up their stories on Ausfish every now and then saying how they have just prosecuted someone for doing something illegal. Seems to me they just get lucky every now and then and if they could spend more time out there at the coal face educating and writing up tickets then maybe we would all have half a chance of having a decent fishery here in the future. As it is now the mongrels flaunting the law will continue to do so as they have a very slim chance of getting caught.

[jackson4300]

Last friday fisheries pulled up beside me for a quick check on the brisbane river and then headed down the river away from the mouth, wouldnt have though there would be many people fishing down there?
About a month ago had them do a quick check at Somerset, pulled out boats out at the same time and they came over and had a chat.

[four_button_arnie]

I have never been stopped by Fisheries, ever, out of Gladstone, once in NSW fishing for Murray cod, Fisheries are always welcome on my boat ANYTIME! I would prefer to be constantly stopped, if this was the case others who are not doing the right thing would be getting pinged! It would also be beneficial to take any scientific evidence for current projects that where operating, I would support that 100%!
Pitty there is so few of them to do such as mammoth job.

I was stopped by our local water police whilst out on the reef for a safety gear check, our local guys are out quite a bit, ensuring green zone compliance, safety etc. In regards to zoning I believe all they do is take photos and GPS positions then hand the information over to fisheries, im pretty sure.

Josh

[netmaker]

it's about that time of year now when they start hitting nudgee ramp and the bay islands checking on prawners. reckon they love that work. they can check more than 50 boats and travel virtually nowhere to do it. a few years back i had the cops check me 2 days in a row. day 1 was all good but day 2 my lifejackets were too faded and i got a warning. must have been very full moon the night before. now i have 2 extra jackets up front out of the sun. they won't save my skin but they will save my pocket. i get great delight now every time the cops pull me over because i can see they are already rubbing their hands together when they look at the faded ones i keep close at hand.