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Thread: Check your gear or you could net a fine

  1. #1

    Check your gear or you could net a fine

    A Stradbroke Island fisher was recently handed more than $2000 worth of fines for using commercial fishing gear without a licence.

    Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officer James Hohenhaus said this should be a reminder to residents that they need to comply with the recreational fishing rules, or they will be caught.

    "Officers were recently on a routine patrol of Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island when they observed a commercial fishing net protruding from a vehicle parked on the side of the road," said Mr Hohenhaus.

    “Officers then conducted a search of the vehicle’s registration and confirmed the owner did not hold a commercial fishing licence.

    “Subsequently, officers attended the owner’s residence and seized a total of four commercial fishing nets.

    "The recreational fisher was issued with two on-the-spot infringement notices totalling $2200 for the possession and use of commercial fishing gear."

    Mr Hohenhaus said the restrictions on fishing gear were important to protect fish stocks from overfishing and ensure the sustainability of Queensland’s waterways.

    "QBFP officers regularly patrol remote and less frequented areas to ensure fishers are complying with the rules," he said.

    "When fishing in tidal waters, recreational fishers are permitted to use seine or bait nets and cast nets.

    "A recreational seine or bait net must be no longer than 16 m in length and have a mesh size no greater than 28 mm. The drop in the net must be no more than 3 m, and it must not have a pocket or be fixed when used.

    "A recreational cast net must be no more than 3.7 m in length and have a mesh size no greater than 28 mm.

    "Breaching these laws is a serious offence and can attract a maximum fine of $33,000.

    "We encourage people to report unlawful or suspicious fishing activities by calling Fishwatch on 1800 017 116."

    For more information on Queensland’s recreational fishing rules visit www.fisheries.qld.gov.au or call 13 25 23.

    Follow Fisheries Queensland on Facebook and Twitter (@FisheriesQld).

  2. #2

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Being prosecuted for having such equipment at home does seem like an infringement of personal liberties. What happened to the concept of a man's home being his castle?

    One could imagine people buying old commercial fishing gear to be used to decorate a bar at home or something similar. The average person in the street would not expect their home to be invaded by government officials looking for, of all things, fishing nets.

    Not marijuana plants, not a drug lab, not a printing press with forgers' plates on it, not child porn, not noxious weeds, not illegal guns, not diseased animals, not illegal knocking shops, not stolen goods, no...

    No, none of those....but fishing nets. Deary, deary me!

    Gee, I wish that the Premier would give the fisheries guys some money for petrol so that they could go out on the ocean and catch the offenders in action. Simply owning something that could possibly be used to perpetrate a crime seems like an unfair way to be lumbered, and equally lazy policing, imho.

    Does this mean that if I own five crab pots even though I only ever take four out in the boat, that I may be reported by a neighbour jealous of my good looks, and lumbered for having an excess number of crab pots? Deary, dearly me!

    I also own literally packets and packets of fish hooks. Does this mean that I am to be charged for having the potential to use more than the allowable number on my fishing line? Where will it end? Are we becoming a Police state?

    .

  3. #3

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Note they say "Possession and Use"
    The guy may have admitted to using them???

  4. #4

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Maybe he was planning to run the net around Dunwich and clean all the rubbish out
    ? Although he may need more than just a large net ..... I did hear there was a big cleaning project happening there!
    Living the dream, Barry

  5. #5

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Fisheries in Vic have broarder powers than police and can conduct searches without a warrant. They can also confiscate cars and boats.

    Officers also have discretion as to fines, court appearances and warnings. Fisheries officers makes calls as to whether something like commercial nets would be used for good or bad reasons. It seems that its much the same in Qld and the officers have made a call that the nets were for a bad reason. I guess the guy could appeal to the court if he had the nets for an innocent reason, he obviously didn't convince the fisheries boys.

  6. #6

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    charlie
    you can't have a commercial net in your possesion unless you have a liscence plan and simple old mate
    you can't have a gun in your possesion unless you have a liscence
    don't be a drama queen it is the law
    ps never seen anyone need 100 to 200mtrs of net x 4 for decocorations unless your clive palmer and doing up your dinosaures for easter

  7. #7

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Quote Originally Posted by kock81 View Post
    it is the law


    That does not mean that it is right.

    I am hoping that the fisheries officers had to get authorisation from at least a magistrate to enter someone's home looking for illegal fishing gear.

    What's to stop a fisheries officer or cop from pulling you over on the road and inspecting your boat and giving you a ticket because you are not carrying life jackets even though you protest that you intended to get some new ones at the tackle shop next to the ramp before you launch?

    A line has to be drawn somewhere and, imho, a man's home remains his castle and should not be able to be entered easily by any authorities. We are used to reasonably uncorrupt officialdom in this country and I reckon that we should keep it that way by insisting on certain standards of privacy and sovereignty of one's home.

    .

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by charleville View Post

    What's to stop a fisheries officer or cop from pulling you over on the road and inspecting your boat and giving you a ticket because you are not carrying life jackets even though you protest that you intended to get some new ones at the tackle shop next to the ramp before you launch?


    .

    Because its not illegal to tow a boat without safety gear...

  9. #9

    Smile Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    charlie
    i love your passion and tenacity about one's right to protect your castle you've got no aurguments from me and i think most of the lads and ladys on this site feel the same
    however
    i have never seen commercial nets stored in a house unless for the wrong reasons.
    so getting a search warrant would have not been required because they are in the yard and cooperating is better than a search warrant being issued by the local majestrate and then being found being naughty
    the boys and girls in fisheries blue are not silly enough to go off half cocked and break the law themselves
    after all they are earning thier living trying to stay one step ahead of some of the best thinkers around
    us fishermen and women
    ps like my dad has always said if you've got nothing hide you've got nothing to worry about or get better at it next time

  10. #10

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Thanks Charlie....I fully understand the "intention" of your post....
    Maybe they should crush they're Boats/Utes

  11. #11

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Quote Originally Posted by kock81 View Post
    ps never seen anyone need 100 to 200mtrs of net x 4 for decocorations unless your clive palmer and doing up your dinosaures for easter
    haha...cracked me up that did!

  12. #12

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    i think it is a shame the fine was so low. the reason these scum play these games is because the penalties are so low and the potential profits are high. as has been mentioned in many previous threads, it is highly unlikely this was a lucky find. he was probably dobbed in because he sold seafood or blabbed to someone he shouldn't have. i for one am happy that fisheries can invade my home and check that my gear is legal. they have a tough enough job making cases as it is and making it harder will only encourage more grubs to break the law, which in turn reduces the available catch for everyone else. it also devalues fishing licences and the livelihoods of commercial fishos. there are no laws restricting the amount of recreational fishing gear you keep at your home, only the amount on your boat. commercial fishing gear is entirely different.
    fishing's as simple as 3 P's - patience, perserverance and PLASTIC!

  13. #13

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    16 meters....

    So the net that the new aussies string across the creek alongside the Cleveland bowls club is probably legal.

    Rod

    .
    My dictionary defines green as ‘unripe, immature, undeveloped'. Perfect description.

    Most political parties are seen as interested in what the voters think, the Greens are seen as thinking the community should be interested in what they think.

  14. #14

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    So the cops pull over a tradie in a ute and fine him for a unsecured load cause that esky may just fly out the back. So he gets a old trawler net and rigs it up to the back of his ute to secure his load. Fisheries pulls him up and cause he has no commercial licence they fine him for having a commercial net.

    A bloke can't win.
    Can someone, anyone please like my facebook page? I need at least 30 likes.... Please

    http://www.facebook.com/suncoastcivilwater

  15. #15

    Re: Check your gear or you could net a fine

    Kock81 you seem to have the reasoning of a officer yourself that being everyone is guilty you better prove otherwise or I'll throw the book at you and if you want to prove it you'll have to spend up on lawyers drive half way around australia to where the offense occurred take time off work shit no i'd just plead guilty pay the fine for something that your not guilty of and come out in front been there done that, the sooner the government let's people fight there charges in their own local area the better but that will never happen because people would be going to trial everywhere and clog up the system and the government can't offord that, as far as people owning commercial nets that don't use them I know of plenty that being friends of family that have been in the industry and can't bring themselves to throw out nan and pa's net's because of sentiment but shit their breaking the law let's fine them because ma and pa died.
    If these guys were using the nets then coodos to fisheries but that statement that you've never seen anybody own a illegal net except for the wrong reasons is a load of shit, for crist sake I threw out about ten nets and gave back to fisheries a net licence that I never used, it's like my neighbor who's a cop who said to me one time that all people that get home invaded are drug dealers friggen bullshit till it happens to them and the shoes on the other foot.

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