Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 26

Thread: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

  1. #1

    Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Nothing could be worse than the arrogance of this department during Anna Bligh.
    However I am not seeing much change in the attitude under the Neuman government.

    I was at Hilliard’s creek next to the baseball park in Ormiston this afternoon having a conversation with 2 youngsters .
    I usually take time to talk to people fishing and enjoying nature. The one youngster was fishing and had a few small fish traps. His elder brother had a scooter and had been playing nearby

    Along come 2 fishery inspectors earning double overtime on a Sunday to check what is going on.
    One had a measure and as the 2 species that abound there are mullet and Tilapia they must have been hoping that they would find that someone had an undersized mullet or an illegal Tilapia.
    Fishery policy is a big win for the ferrel fish because if you catch a Tilapia you cannot return it, you cannot keep it and there is nowhere to dispose of it other than to dig up the parkland………… that’s if you brought a shovel along.
    The kids had trapped some Gudgeon ( probably around 40) which they were taking home for their aquarium.
    The inspector checked the number of Gudgeon allowed to be kept on his phone as he did not know what the legal limit was.
    He then told the one youngster he could only keep 20 so he dumped the others.
    I pointed out there were two of them so they should be allowed to keep 40 and was quickly told that this had nothing to do with me and to keep out of it.
    The kids packed their stuff and said they were going to get their mum to pick them up as there was no point to stay there any longer.
    In the inspectors defence they did say they could have fined the Kids $500 for having too many Gudgeon and not having name tags on the traps although they were with them.

    My first point is that these two Fishery guys were costing the tax payer probably $100 an hour to bugger up the afternoon of two kids who had got out into the environ and were not at home playing computers or getting up to mischief.
    I strongly support fisheries people that are out to catch the mongrels but don’t have much time for guys looking for a way to make Sunday last longer with this crap.

    The second big issue I have is the ridiculous laws in regard to Tilapia and Carp.
    Basic logic is that to control feral species you need to encourage people to hunt them.
    If you allow and encourage the population that traditionally eat these types of fish to catch and eat them I am certain we can make a dent in the population.
    The law as it stands Presently is if someone catches a Tillapia or carp they have to take it to a nearby bin and dispose of it or dig a hole up the bank and bury it.
    You cannot even take it home and throw it in the bin as the possession of a Tilapia carries a massive fine.
    Most areas don’t have bins along the shore and to dig holes into the bank of the foreshore of rivers has the potential not only to be a mess but environmentally is usually very unacceptable………….. guess what it is all too hard.
    Net result is that the Tilapia population has exploded.
    I see large breeders in so many streams and ponds.
    If you think this is an overstatement take a rundown to any creek with some polaroid glasses and look for the red fins.
    I realise the argument that they are mouth brooders and we don’t want the slightest possibility that a few baby fish may have survived in the mothers mouth through the journey home and get washed down the drain into the sewerage system to finally make it back to some river. Be Real this is not the threat.
    I find this argument so week as the present situation is that these fish are successfully breeding unchallenged in nearly every fresh to brackish water way in Brisbane.

    We as Australians do so much stuff well but unless fisheries wake up and forget the holier than thou attitude and address the bigger issues we will lose these important battles.

  2. #2

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Tilapia are better tasting that any native fresh water fish I have eaten. They are also one of the best sports fish for their size. They go very very hard, and have quite a timid bite (compared to natives), so are great sport to catch.

    You dont have to bury them or put them in a bin - just toss them on the bank above the water. Although not desireable in a park where people wont appreciate the pong if the local bird population takes to long to clean them up.

  3. #3

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    I want to know when something is going to be done about those other introduced vermin - the Trout....and while we are at it - how about those damned cattle and sheep ?
    Sorry - I just love how something is an introduced pest because we don't like it, whereas if something is useful, it is free to wreak as much ecological damage as it likes and we encourage it.

    You have a newcomer to an ecosystem that is out of control because it has no predators or it finds our modifications to the environment extremely encouraging ? - So hunt and eat them.(which I believe was one of your points pachedu)
    Whatever your views on what constitutes an "pest", anything left to go unchecked will become a problem now that we are responsible for management of the system - unless you wait a few thousand years for nature to sort it out and then what were once ferals become native animals.

  4. #4

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    I often walk in the arvos at North Pine Dam and there's regularly up to a dozen people catching tilapia to take home to eat. Fisheries officers have visited several times and used their discretion and not worried about booking people. They just check for SIPs and make sure no one is keeping their tilapia alive in a bucket or similar container. That was a while ago though and I must say I haven't seen a Fisheries officer there for at least 12 months.

  5. #5

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Same as you Mike. IMO, if the tilapias are not swimming around in a bucket, discretion will be used.
    As for encouraging fishing/eating them as a solution its a pipe dream.
    In NPD over one breeding season, tilapia will more than replace any numbers that have been removed from the water.
    Bear in mind that most of NPD is not accessible to shore based fishing and this is unlikely to be changed anytime soon.

  6. #6

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    I agree Luc, they breed so fast. I was told that in a lake on a private golf course near Cairns, 6 fish turned into 8 ton of fish in only 5 years. The only way we'll ever eradicate these pests is with some biologicle or genetic solution, (hopefully genetic).
    ~~~><))))*>

  7. #7

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    I would agree that somewhere like NPD it will be difficult to measure the impact due to the magnitude of water and number of fishermen.
    At one stage I was really interested in looking at a netting program for the dams where only the ferals would be kept with other indigenous fish counted, documented and released. My idea was to turn the Tilapia into fish meal for poultry and cattle feed.
    That idea went down like a concrete parachute.

    One of the major problems that I see is in all the small creeks and ponds where there are a limited number of large breeding fish.
    In the Redlands these larger specimens are all over the place. Come the floods these breeders and or their fry are washed into the larger catchments and rivers. I am unsure of the amount of fry that a single female fish will spawn in its life but I am sure this is substantial.
    These ponds and streams form breeding cells that are later distributed by the rain. Surely any fish taken out of the system must be beneficial even if the effect is not directly measurable. The Tilapia that I have seen in the creeks and ponds are generally 1 to 2 kg they are not small fish.
    I would also not doubt the capacity of the Asian population to fish them hard based on the way they hammer the prawns in the southern bay each year.
    Thank you all for the great discussion.

  8. #8

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Attached is a photo of tilapia nests that were exposed when the dam at NPD started to drop when you think of the circumference of the dam that will give you an estimate of the number of tilapia in the dam.
    There has just been another hatch as we are getting small tilapia around 1/2 inch long back in our shrimp traps.
    Good tucker for the bass.
    If the dam keeps on dropping and we have a cold winter there may be another big fish kill similar to several years ago.
    In the meantime they will continue to thrive.
    I think that the only thing preventing the QLD government following NSW's legislation on carp is the fear that tilapia could be translocated into the gulf rivers with a disastrous result for the gulf fishery.,
    They did get into the gunpowder river several years ago and fisheries poisoned the entire river to get rid of them.
    Cheers
    RayAttachment 106879

  9. #9

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    And that's the problem. Tilapia aren't in all of QLD's systems yet and allowing possesion of them adds value to the species which will increase the chances that people will relocate them to personal dams and their own local creeks etc for their benefit which will spread them further and possibly into sytems that aren't "infected" yet.
    We will never remove them from their current systems but we can delay for as long as possible their entry into others.
    Kids who Hunt and Fish, Don't Deal and Steal.

  10. #10

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Triple is correct. fisheries will tell you that they are trying to stop people targeting them for food.
    Dale

    I fish because the little voices in my head tell me to

  11. #11

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    I saw tilapia for sale in the local seafood store a few weeks ago.
    Wonder how they got around all the regs to do this. Haven't seen them since tho.
    Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

  12. #12

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    What the main threat is is not what people think.
    Tilapia are mouth brooders, they keep live eggs and fry in thier mouths.
    These eggs and fry can stay alive for many hours after the parent fish has died, enough time for people to take the fish home, clean them wash them down with water and disperse those viable eggs and fry into another waterway.

    That is why they are declared a no take fish.

    How many of you would be watching intently for viable eggs being flushed when you are concentrating on cleaning a fish?
    Jack.

  13. #13

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Quote Originally Posted by TheGurn View Post
    I saw tilapia for sale in the local seafood store a few weeks ago.
    Wonder how they got around all the regs to do this. Haven't seen them since tho.
    Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
    That is totally legal as long as the seller has a paper trail to prove they came by them legally.
    Dale

    I fish because the little voices in my head tell me to

  14. #14

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Take a close look around this fish's mouth, it shows tilapia don't have to be very big to be capable of breeding.


    juveniles in mouth2.jpgjuveniles in mouth3.jpg

  15. #15

    Re: Fisheries policy and Tilapia when will they learn

    Quote Originally Posted by aussiebasser View Post
    That is totally legal as long as the seller has a paper trail to prove they came by them legally.
    From what I've been told you can only possess them on a special permit and only sell them to another permit holder. (Which I'm assuming would be for scientific research etc)

    here is an old thread with more tilapia info -
    http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...-logic-in-this
    Kids who Hunt and Fish, Don't Deal and Steal.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Join us