Billion Dollar Crisis in Queensland

[Lucky_Phill]

A recreational activity that 1 in 4 Queenslanders participate in at least once a year is under threat of closure.

An industry that supports thousands of jobs directly and thousands more indirectly is in danger of being shut down, based on the reluctance of the State Government to fund the necessary programs to keep it viable. Not only does Recreational Fishing contribute over One Billion Dollars to the Queensland economy each year, the health and well-being benefits cannot be measured, but are well established and recognised by all health professionals.

Governments in Queensland ( all ), have underfunded the department, Fisheries Queensland, for way too many years, with the affect lending itself to that department being hamstrung in its efforts to manage the fishery in a sustainable way. They do not have the tools to successfully manage the marine fishery and therefore, it is in danger of becoming extinct in a few short years.

Fisheries Queensland are putting band-aids on a cancer, as that is all the funding allows.

The sad part is, about $4,000,000 garnered from recreational vessel registration each year and initially designed to be spent within that industry, has been shifted sideways into “ general revenue “ and lost to the industry. That amount of money is all it takes to fund wild stocking and deployment of artificial reefs that have a proven track record of rebuilding bio-mass in the marine environment. Shame on the Government for stealing these funds from mum’s and dad’s who like nothing more than to take their kids and grand kids fishing once in a while.

LP

[docaster]

What a load of bullshit, f..g communist government. Imo there are more fish then in the 70's. This is just a ploy to shut down being able to feed yourself. These pricks want us to eat artificial meat and bugs. It's all coming from the wef. And yet we have the massive trawlers raping the seas. Oh but that's ok because the globilists own them.
Never vote the major parties, and put bloody labour last

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Lovey80]

Is QLD Fisheries underfunded? IMO yes. But would extra funding be used to physically improve the fishery or would it just go straight to the FQ Scientists to prove their current biases towards ever increasing restrictions to keep themselves in a job.

I’d love an extra $4m a year to be spent on reefs, stocking and boat ramp facilities.

[Dignity]

It seems regardless of who is in power this is a general ploy used, incoming money being pushed into General Revenue meaning those funds being used to fund govt black holes instead of what the funds were intended for. It needs legislation changes for this to occur, anyone in opposition would win hand's down if they had that as a policy but unfortunately it won't happen.

[chris69]

Is QLD Fisheries underfunded? IMO yes. But would extra funding be used to physically improve the fishery or would it just go straight to the FQ Scientists to prove their current biases towards ever increasing restrictions to keep themselves in a job.

I’d love an extra $4m a year to be spent on reefs, stocking and boat ramp facilities.

We would not get many boat ramps or reefs or fish to stock with 4million may be 40million in one year might help ,it costs a lot to breed fish those new reefs domes and structures are very costly to build when old car bodies and boats would be cheaper but someones always got a reason not to use them,the old oyster shells seem very cheap,its a case of too many people not enough fish.

[tunaticer]

This chestnut arrives before every election and nothing ever changes.....tired of the inactivity.

[chris69]

What a load of bullshit, f..g communist government. Imo there are more fish then in the 70's. This is just a ploy to shut down being able to feed yourself. These pricks want us to eat artificial meat and bugs. It's all coming from the wef. And yet we have the massive trawlers raping the seas. Oh but that's ok because the globilists own them.
Never vote the major parties, and put bloody labour last

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Moreton bay had a huge trawler fleet and now these olny a few and its been decades since they have gone and the bay has not got any more fish in it now for them going you would think less trawlers more prawns more fish that that's dose not seem to be the case,new shipping container terminal one less tailor breeding site where they used to spawn in the mangroves were the new terminal is now,one new air port one creek system filled, coral dredging for the concrete slab your boat sites on comes from some were like moreton bay, floods have take there toll in the last decade and bigger boats and better gps and sounders and lets share all our fishing information in the multitude of social media platforms and monthly editions of reading material there's less fish now every were than there was in the 70s we just did not know how to catch them back then as much as we do today.

[gunna]

Meanwhile in NSW.

https://www.fishingworld.com.au/news...flathead-boost

Some good work is done with monies raised from fishing licences. Not necessarily condoning licences up here. But it shows a Govt that recognises and works a bit harder for rec fishos. I think they understand the value of the rec fisho to the coastal towns.

[chris69]

Were supposed to be paying for pontoons and boat ramp up keep with our boat rego ,i would pay a little extra rego for a bag of oyster shells to help make reefs.

[NAGG]

Meanwhile in NSW.

https://www.fishingworld.com.au/news...flathead-boost

Some good work is done with monies raised from fishing licences. Not necessarily condoning licences up here. But it shows a Govt that recognises and works a bit harder for rec fishos. I think they understand the value of the rec fisho to the coastal towns.

I've always been an advocate for fishing licences where the funds are used for fishing programs

The NSW system was excellent though over time more funding was diverted into paying salaries for compliance officers - but that said it's been a pretty program over the past 20 odd years.

The Qld SIP is another good example .

Using some of the funding from registrations will always be open to abuse for government ...... it's just part of consolidated revenue .

Chris

[upstart]

I've always been an advocate for fishing licences where the funds are used for fishing programs

The NSW system was excellent though over time more funding was diverted into paying salaries for compliance officers - but that said it's been a pretty program over the past 20 odd years.

The Qld SIP is another good example .

Using some of the funding from registrations will always be open to abuse for government ...... it's just part of consolidated revenue .

Chris

Typical government (especially Labor) ideology. Invent a law. Charge a fee/fine. Employ 'compliance officers' who join a union and then vote for their masters at the next election.

[NAGG]

Typical government (especially Labor) ideology. Invent a law. Charge a fee/fine. Employ 'compliance officers' who join a union and then vote for their masters at the next election.

Helps with the unemployment rate too

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sc...1ec12a99b86be3


Chris

[Lovey80]

Yep that’s Labor ideology as well. Just have everyone working in the public service and they’d be real happy. Let’s try a draft.

”Creating Employment’s a straightforward craft, when we’re at war and there’s a draft-

if every worker was staffed in the Army and Fleet, we’d have full employment and nothing to eat”

[Lucky_Phill]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Firstly, the timing has nothing to with an election, this is a State issue, not Federal.

We also need to acknowledge, there are way to many levels of Government in Australia and this leads to inaction across many industries and departments.

I drew your attention to the $4,000,000 just to bring to a head the action of a State Government and although it is a small amount, if it could be directly applied to marine AND freshwater fisheries, every year, it would have a significant impact.
There are " managers " within FQ, just waiting for projects to be funded. So we are not talking about dollars being wasted on humans, but being directly used to facilitate wild stocking and artificial reefs. Let's also not forget we had millions sitting in the " Marine Infrastructure Fund" and where that went years ago is a mystery. In recent years, 2018 – 2020, the MIIP, Marine Infrastructure Investment Program ( make of that department what you will, but let’s just call it for what it is…….. nepotism ), invested $30 mill on all sorts of things from Breakwater Walls to Boat Ramps, included in that funding was remuneration to “ over- see “ these projects.

As a general rule, FQ want 10% of the funding available for a specific project to “ manage “ that project, even though they are employed by FQ ( State Govt ) fulltime to “ manage “ projects. Make of that what you will ! The thing is, we need infrastructure both on land and in the marine environment, and the later is not receiving it. No point in having 5 star boat ramps if the fishery is 3^rd world.

FQ tell us “ wild stocking “ is not viable, obviously meaning the program would not return an investment at election time. Natural recruitment of most marine species is about 1%, wild stocking recruitment would be about 1%. Yes, 99% of stocked fry would not make it to breeding stock, but it is identical to the natural stocking events. Snapper for instance, produce about 1 million – 3 million eggs per fish per breeding season. One percent would equate to 30,000 Snapper reaching breeding age, per Snapper. The current train of thought is to increase size limits and decrease bag limits on recreational fishers, unfortunately, this is not working, as the “ fishing effort “ is increasing exponentially.

The mortality rate through naturally occurring breeding is subject to many factors, including depletion of habitat infrastructure. Rebuilding marine infrastructure would in fact, increase the recruitment rate, then add the wild stocking and there is no doubt the bio-mass would head north.

In consideration of wild stocking, releasing fry / fingerlings of a minimum size to overcome the mortality rate at “ egg to fry “ stages would again, increase recruitment and of course, bio-mass. There is no argument that Trawler by-catch plays a part in mortality rates of juvenile fish, and this is a subject for another time, but if you stock rebuilt marine habitat with a sustainably sized juvenile, that process extrapolates bio-mass and in turn, rewards the monetary investment many times over. Simply put, Wild Stocking is viable. Bluntly put, wild stocking is necessary, along with the habitat to support a program aimed at assisting nature to rebuild stocks, because what we are doing now is not working as FQ only have a fast depleting packet of band-aids to address the cancer.

To add to the confusion, the screen shots below are from Govt websites via MSQ.

LP

[Kev_McC]

[QUOTE=docaster;1697273]What a load of bullshit, f..g communist government. Imo there are more fish then in the 70's. This is just a ploy to shut down being able to feed yourself. These pricks want us to eat artificial meat and bugs. It's all coming from the wef. And yet we have the massive trawlers raping the seas. Oh but that's ok because the globilists own them.
Never vote the major parties, and put bloody labour last

Queensland Fisheries was gutted by the LNP govt under Campbell Newman mate, is that the communist you’re referring to?

Honestly, these conspiracy theories give WAY too much credit to governments. There’s no way any of them could orchestrate a fraction of it.