STOP Commercial netting in the Great Sandy Marine Park !

[kc]

Some right and wrong in your response Scott. Yellow zones in the GBR allow bait netting. Incidental catch, typically whiting, flathead and bream are caught and sold off the back of this anomoly.
That said the GGS zoning is complimentary zoning abutting a federal marine park with federal rules. GSS is state Government marine park and can, and does, have different rules to a federal marine park. A lot of detail around this point in the old TFPQ submission which pointed this out and strongly lobbied for a different colour to yellow..

You are right that the bulk of the fishery is sold straight to southern markets, not so much because it is a higher price, but because it is easier and the pros can sell the whole lot to a single buyer rather than have to sell it in small lots. Correct me if I am wrong but there is not a fish market in Hervey Bay where locals and local restaurants can purchase fish at auction??
Supermarkets are appalling in terms of local product, just as they are with meat and fruit and veg, and yet, consumers choose convenience and price over quality which has sent many butchers, green grocers and wet fish shops to the wall over the years. The "fresh fish for everyone" line is BS. It is fresh fish for Sydney, coming from Hervey Bay in perhaps unsustainable numbers.
Part of the reason for a suggestion that a certain % be mandated for local supply. That said do Hervey bay residents "own" the fishery or do the people in Australia in general? Clearly the Sydney fishery could never support the total Sydney demand.
The restaurant industry has been a bit slow on the uptake but should and can lead the way in driving food based tourism and a big part of this is providence of raw product. It is becoming a really big deal and ultimately this will drive better fishery management, better care of product and add value, both to the pros and to the value governments place on the fishery. Net free zones, as policy, is about politics, not about best fisheries outcomes. Like I said, no right or wrong answers and having spent years on this in my last life, I certainly don't have them, but do think workable compromise is possible.

[Scott Mitchell]

Some right and wrong in your response Scott. Yellow zones in the GBR allow bait netting. Incidental catch, typically whiting, flathead and bream are caught and sold off the back of this anomoly.
That said the GGS zoning is complimentary zoning abutting a federal marine park with federal rules. GSS is state Government marine park and can, and does, have different rules to a federal marine park. A lot of detail around this point in the old TFPQ submission which pointed this out and strongly lobbied for a different colour to yellow..

You are right that the bulk of the fishery is sold straight to southern markets, not so much because it is a higher price, but because it is easier and the pros can sell the whole lot to a single buyer rather than have to sell it in small lots. Correct me if I am wrong but there is not a fish market in Hervey Bay where locals and local restaurants can purchase fish at auction??
Supermarkets are appalling in terms of local product, just as they are with meat and fruit and veg, and yet, consumers choose convenience and price over quality which has sent many butchers, green grocers and wet fish shops to the wall over the years. The "fresh fish for everyone" line is BS. It is fresh fish for Sydney, coming from Hervey Bay in perhaps unsustainable numbers.
Part of the reason for a suggestion that a certain % be mandated for local supply. That said do Hervey bay residents "own" the fishery or do the people in Australia in general? Clearly the Sydney fishery could never support the total Sydney demand.
The restaurant industry has been a bit slow on the uptake but should and can lead the way in driving food based tourism and a big part of this is providence of raw product. It is becoming a really big deal and ultimately this will drive better fishery management, better care of product and add value, both to the pros and to the value governments place on the fishery. Net free zones, as policy, is about politics, not about best fisheries outcomes. Like I said, no right or wrong answers and having spent years on this in my last life, I certainly don't have them, but do think workable compromise is possible.

KC - There is a fish market/processing shop at the marina - Urangan Fisheries - but I do not believe they auction there ?...

The rest will now come down to public support and numbers ...

Regards Scotto

[kc]

Or drive this towards a workable compromise rather than an adversarial proposal. I can tell you local Pros don't like blow ins either. If you guys come up with a workable compromise you are more likely to get an outcome you can all live with. That said, Labor will be "casting for votes" and anywhere it thinks it can get them, it will try, regardless of the rights and wrongs. All I would caution is that there are 2 sides to this and it is less likely to be partisan if you reach an agreement with commercial fishos you can both live with.

[Noelm]

Yep, it's the only way, an uneasy, untrustworthy "alliance" is a far better option than attempting to ban everything you don't like, it's been tried for years to ban this and ban that, where a workable compromise might just tip the scales.

[chris69]

Ahh - now I understand ....

This is not purely about declining fish stocks - although any one with some history on the water in the Great Sandy Straits ( Or inshore areas of Queensland for that matter ! ) will suggest they have witnessed declining fish numbers over time. I still remember what the world class golden trevally fishery looked like on the flats South of Moon Point only 10 years ago - Now hardly worth spending the time drifting across as they are like a desert !

This is more about which sector will return the highest economic yield for the local communities / resource sharing. You only need to look to our North at the NEW Net Free ZONES to see what can happen with increased recreational fishing tourism once the nets are removed - and there has not been any "fresh local fish " shortages in those areas since the nets came out either.

It was a poor political decision that created the Great Sandy Marine Park 10 years ago - And it will take "political will" to now "correct it" under the full term review...

Lets see what the wider recreational fishing sector wants ...

Regards Scotto

Scott you say the moon point is dead like a desert well ,its the rec fishers that's killed it, everyone bragging and showing off on social media and gun fishers writeing articals on how and were to catch them that's how it has become a desert,you might kick the netters up there but you know the White Spot is heading your way and that is a lot worse than the netters.

As you no the pumicestone passage has been net free for a very long time now and nothing has change here the increased population is the bigger killer of fish stock here.

[SatNav]

1. Recreational fishing pressure and catch has absolutely exploded many times over during the past 30 years and in some confines the recreational people are worse than commercial people. If one does not know who is blacking fish in a community then one is not in the right circle.

2. Increased populations and environmental outflows have affected some species entirely in some areas, the commercial people then move on, the recreational people play the blame game.

3."Local fresh fish" signs I see at local fish shops get a bit of a chuckle as one knows dam well it simply did not come from the local area.

4. Then of course there is the bait issue!

[Almako]

In my opinion if we only sold fish locally then commercials guys wouldn't need to catch so much of it.
Stop sending fish overseas and stop selling houses to overseas investors.
Yes I am narrow minded but what does it matter no one listens anyway.

[kc]

Maybe not so much narrow minded as visionary. Precident exists in food based tourism that limits supply of particular iconic species to the area of capture, or at the least country of capture ( Halibut in the USA for example). With so much interest in food tourism and , particularly Chinese guests want "our seafood" it would be amazingly visionary if seafood exports from Australia were banned. Just imagine if the only place tourists could eat Australian seafood was in Australian. Abalone, Southern Rock Lobster, Coral Trout to name just 3 species where export markets have made these species all but gone from the domestic market. In China they pay $10 each for Coffin Bay Oysters, I have seen a single coral trout on menu of $1200 Aus, and, Almoko, you are right, IF seafood was not feeding an insatiable export demand, there would be far less pressure on fish stocks in general (due to our relatively small population and large EEZ), even if restaurant demand increased 1000%. Pick any number of species, Southern Blue fin Tuna, Orange Roughy. Blue Eye....food based tourism , coupled with our wine industry is real and a future opportunity which could both enhance our countries future and protect our fishery. So no, not narrow minded at all.

[Scott Mitchell]

Scott you say the moon point is dead like a desert well ,its the rec fishers that's killed it, everyone bragging and showing off on social media and gun fishers writeing articals on how and were to catch them that's how it has become a desert,you might kick the netters up there but you know the White Spot is heading your way and that is a lot worse than the netters.

As you no the pumicestone passage has been net free for a very long time now and nothing has change here the increased population is the bigger killer of fish stock here.

Chris - weekly netting is what has effected the flats South of moon point - not catch & release sportfishers !

You only need to look at the rec havens in NSW and what is already happening in the Fitzroy to see what happens once the nets are removed. I do agree that rec fishing management will also need to be reviewed going forward - which has also been clearly identified through out the Green Paper & now White Paper reviews if we have any prospect of returning our inshore fishers to 60% of where they used to be ...

Scotto

[sjp2]

yup remember the trevally tailing the flats below little woody about 15 yrs ago ,nothing now even though its a green zone.

[Scott Mitchell]

The actually flats on the Northern side of Little Woody are not a Green Zone ( just the deeper reef area to the South ) - but have been netted almost to death .....

Sign the petition and share far & wide if you want to see commercial netting STOPPED in the Great Sandy Marine Park - which goes up as far as Baffle Creek and down to Tin Can Bay .....

Regards Scotto

[Scott Mitchell]

NOTE ! With the Zoning Plan for the Great Sandy Marine Park set to expire on 1 September 2017 the Minister has today approved a two phase process for the Zoning Plan review.


The first phase involves the renewal of the "current Zoning Plan" prior to September to ensure the continuation of the existing rules. The second phase triggers the review and consultative process in helping to shape the future directions for the marine park.


Phase 1 of the renewal process has commenced as at the 5th of May 2017 !


WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW - Please sign and share this petition far & wide - if you want to see unrestricted numbers of commercial fishers STOPPED from Netting the GSMP !


NOTE - The Great Sandy Designated Area incorporates areas of conservation park zones in :-


* Baffle Creek & tributaries


* The Elliott River & tributaries


* The Burrum River & tributaries


* The Mary River & tributaries


* The Great Sandy Strait and Tin Can Bay Inlet


This anomaly overturns EVERYTHING a TRUE Yellow Conservation Zones is there to protect !


Sign this PETITION NOW @ https://www.change.org/p/dr-steven-m...dy-marine-park


To request Dr Steven Miles - Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef and the Palaszczuk State Government to commit to ending destructive commercial netting operations in the Great Sandy Marine Park and adjacent waterways under the current full term 10 year review to restore fish stocks and help protect the Queensland urban coast’s largest dugong population.....


Scotto

[SatNav]

1. The hypocritical side of the recreational brigade is apparently shining through brightly following the removal of commercial licences in the Fitzroy system. One would hope that every recreational fisher that is caught with or using tilapia for bait (specifically Barramundi) are hit with the full $60,000 fine.

[chris69]

What gets me Scott is that the netters have been there many many decades before you arrived in hervey bay, so whats changed from them netting back then to now?.

They stopped netting mackerel in hervey bay a long time ago so were's all the mackerel now there not turning up in moreton bay like they use too you would think that when you stop the netting there would be more.

[kc]

Good question Chris. What changed? Why did pros start targeting Goldens and Permit? Why do pros in the Brisbane river, after catching a massive haul of Threadies, post an “up yours” to recs on face book. Why did locals pros stop caring about the health of the fishery and just start worrying about the health of their bank balance? Money? An insatiable demand from Southern markets? Better transport allowing easier access to markets, both domestic and international? There is no one answer. The modern system allows it, in fact,almost encourages it. Commercial fishers moved from being “farmers” to being “exploiters of opportunity”, even though, many of them, would still rather be farmers. I take a view, as a person with a unique foot in both camps, that there is abetter way, and, it has to be a regulated “better way”. Self-determination and “codes of practice” just don’t work, any more than bag limits only working on thehonest rec fishos. Set some rules which allow pros to make a decent living,recs to enjoy what they do and fishing “tourism” to flourish. Maybe these 3 things are totally incompatible, but, deep down, I’m an optimist.