hundreds of dead undersize whiting

[DICER]

the fact of the matter is that once fish are caught in the net the size exclusion limit drops dramatically, ending up with a smaller mesh. I'm not surprised to see such a large undersized whiting kill.

I'm sure there is work being done and there is much research and development but it looks like more could be done, judging by the current outcome, hey? Do you have a scientist aboard your vessel Waldo?

[waldo35]

james thanx 4 ur questions as to wether the fishing industry has controls in place toi deal with bycatch.
yes they do.
1 . turtle excluder devices; grids that have bars spaced 120 mm apart set in a 55 degree angle before the codend [ bag for hauling seafood on board] which allows turtles, marine life larger than the bar spacing, bycatch such as crab and bugs [ this is from dpi stuies] to escape the trawl thru a large opening in the net.
2.bycatch reduction devices. openings in the net that are specifically designed to allow fish to exit the trawl by swimming out of these opening. there are a myriad of these devices including the use of square mesh codends that facilitate the egress of small fish.
3 effort reduction. everytime a fishing boat is sold [qld east coast] with a license its allowable effort is reduced by 5%, if a license is sold thelicense loses 10 % of its allowable effort. there is a finite allowable effort so effort is continually being reduced.
4.effort reduction thru defined seasons. prawn fisheries are limited to seasonal effort. fishing is only allowed during a specified period which has been defined with import from all user groups. a vast majority of this work has come proactively from the fishing community.
thanx again james for ur open questions.
gorilla there is a diver whiting trawl industry licensed to work on the east coast. no not the prawn trawl industry but a specific legislated separate license. i would imagine this product comes from there.
dug. i saw diver whiting as the main component of the fish that was on the beach of which there is nosize restriction and mate they looked like adult fish to me. again wait for the epa toxicologist report b4 making ur mind up. as yet there is no empirical evidence that this fish came from trawlers and as many people seem to be pointing out there are many cases of 'fish kills' with no [not even circumstancial] evidence of trawler involvement

[waldo35]

dicer do i have a scientst on board......yep me. my fishing rational is to use short shots to determine
1,where the largest prawn is
2where the cleanest [ least amount of bycatch is] largest prawn is
clean prawn allows me to do longer shots cutting back on wear and tear on me, my crew , and my gear.
doing short shots[ try shots ] allows me to identify areas i can work to provide maximum returns for yield.
3. i am trialing a new bycatch device at the moment, a process that includes a definition of wot my bycatch/harvest ratio is.
thanx again for ur openmindedness and willingness to ask questions .

[DICER]

so tell me what is your trade off point?

[seatime]

Education is the key to many of these marine life conundrums.

It doesn't help with the media spin, their motivation is sensationalism to sell advertising. Believe nothing the media says until all the facts are in front of you.
Just look at the image of fisherpeople in general perpetrated by the media. If you believed their green spin we are Neanderthals rampaging around the oceans destroying everything in our path.

The media publishes the green view because doomsaying sells more advertising than wholesome, family orientated activities.
A good weapon to use against the media is to find mistakes in their stories and point them out to their competitors. Turn it around and put the dirt back on them. They need educating as much as the public. Some journo's could be taken out for free fishing (catch & release) trips. maybe.

We go fishing for sport, leisure, entertainment and to earn a living because we are at the top of the food chain. Plankton sits and watches as the world goes by, re; green lobby. There are a lot more pressing issues confronting society today than what the conversationalists would have us believe. I feel a little better now, tks.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

gorilla there is a diver whiting trawl industry licensed to work on the east coast. no not the prawn trawl industry but a specific legislated separate license. i would imagine this product comes from there.

Hi Waldo,
Had a bit of a look at the NSW regs and it seems the school whiting are specifically targeted under the prawn trawl licences. No mention of whiting as a target species in the ocean trawl section, and ocean trawl is not allowed north of Smokey Cape. With the extensive list of species targetted under the ocean trawl, makes you wonder how they can still have a significant bycatch problem.

So guess the trawl whiting at Iluka I saw came from the local prawn trawlers there since they were labelled local.

Link to prawn trawl info.
http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/comm..._trawl_fishery

Cheers
Jeff

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

And for anyone interested, here's the link to the QLD trawl fishery info.
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/12545.html#10

Seems like the only licenced whiting trawl is 5 operators near fraser Island. Whiting not mentioned as allowable bycatch on the other trawl licences, so will be intereting to see what the toxicologist report says.

Cheers
Jeff

[Benno75]

Waldo - I'm not unsympathetic to you or your industry. But you make the point that none of the trawler operators have been interview. Why not? They are receiving some pretty bad publicity over this. If they have a fair and reasonable argument it would be in their interest to balance the scales - wouldn't it?

Sustainability is is a complex issue. Its also a difficult one to quantify, but I guess at the heart of it thats what this discussion is really about. I tend to side with the rec fishers though(thats what I am) and also because there are fairly strict bag, posession and take home limits. It seems that there is a completely different set of rules with regards to the marine environment and sustainability when you apply them to the professionals.(Thats the rec fishers perspective)

I admit, as a kid I have been on trips(back in the day) where we caught and kept stupid amounts of fish - feed the whole street type stuff. I think that attitudes along these lines have changed considerably over the last 10 or more years. I think thats why rec fishers get so hot under the collar at the sight of such wasteful by-catches like we've seen off the sunny coast.

I don't think anyone wants to see you unemployed though Waldo - but I know personally that I'm struggling to fathom any kind of justification for the waste and destructoin thats been cause over the last couple of days. IJust imagine if this is indicative of 1 days work for a handfull of trawlers . . . Waldo, some of these professionals do need to tell their story. If it aint their fault, then who's is it cause the issue should be addressed.

I've got a 6mth old. I'd like to think he can teach his son to fish one day.

[Jeremy]

I'm struggling to fathom any kind of justification for the waste and destructoin thats been cause over the last couple of days.

The waste and destruction isn't limited to the last couple of days. This is commonplace. It is just because the trawlers were working near the shore and cleaned their nets near the shore, that the dead, unwanted bycatch was washed back onto the beach.

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

Waldo, the Queensland Seafood Industry Association has accepted responsibility for the fish kill. Here is the full stroy as reported by the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Fish kill fury

10.03.2006
By PETER GARDINER
A 16km stretch of Sunshine Coast beaches was turned into a graveyard of rotting fish carcasses yesterday after one of the worst- ever cases of local by-catch wash-up from trawlers operating close to shore.

Countless tonnes of dead whiting, trevally and other unwanted fish littered the shore from Buddina to Peregian after up to 12 prawning boats operated as close as one kilometre offshore.

Local beachgoers summed up the senseless slaughter yesterday in one word – disgusting.

Anger and disgust grew among residents from Marcoola through to Peregian as whole schools of prized whiting, which retails in local fish shops for $25. 95/kg, had their eyes picked out by seagulls. The trawlers were responsible for the foulest waste of fish stocks seen in local waters and The trawlers were chasing tiger prawns washed out to sea from local rivers in the big fresh and despite assurances by a trawler spokesman that fishing had stopped yesterday, three were visible close into shore off Marcoola.

The grotesque kills – much more extensive than significant fish wash-ups in late January along a similar stretch of beach – have sparked a call from recreational fishing lobby group Sunfish for three nautical mile exclusion zones.

“I believe that the commercial fishing industry has to take responsibility for their practices to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen again,” Mr Mulherin said.

“I have spoken to Mr Neil Green, the President of the industry association and am assured that the QSIA accepts that responsibility.

“If the industry is unable to prevent this type of occurrence I will need to review the fishing practices and make the necessary changes.” The Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries said the boats had been operating legally but east coast trawl manager Mark Lightowler said the public would not put up with a repeat occurrence.

“If the conditions are likely to lead to fish washing up then don’t trawl — or keep the by-catch on board and then dump it further out to sea,” he said.

He said a trawl management review may look at letting these trawlers keep some of the whiting take that is now reserved for commercial whiting boats.

The thickest of the fish carcass clusters were along a kilometre stretch of beach between Coolum’s north flagged area and Stumers Creek.

Here the practise of trawlers throwing unwanted fish overboard was revealed in all its ugliness.

“I didn’t know they were allowed in that close,” Yaroomba residents Des Arthurs said as his two children played metres away from the rotting fish.

“To me it’s wrong – I thought there was some sort of exclusion zone out into the ocean.

“Can you imagine what all the tourists up here at the moment think about this – I’m sure the council and the tourism people will be up in arms.”

“Everyone has to make a living but they have to look after the environment.”

Marcoola resident Rick Forbes added: “It’s a tourist turn-off and a disgrace – this is not the first time.

“When is someone in authority going to do something about this?”

Coolum resident George Hamilton who walks the beach daily said he was stunned by the waste.

“I’m surprised they are allowed to dump bycatch overboard and have it float to shore like this,” Mr Hamilton said.

“I’ve been coming here since 1962 and lived here for seven years and have never seen anything like this.”

“If they (the trawlers) aren’t allowed to keep these fish then why don’t they have to bring them to shore for sale or at least made into fertiliser or pet food?”

Trawler and seafood group representatives claimed the cost of seafood could soar if the boats were pushed offshore.

Independent Trawlers Association president Vicki Burnett said since 2001 the trawlers, by law, had to return any by-catch other than the prawns, crabs and bugs.

“The whiting killed are trawl whiting – they are not the same whiting people catch from the beach,” she said.

Ms Burnett said a campaign to stop trawlers coming in close to shore would decimate the smaller operators and the laws might have to change to ensure the by-catch did not have to be sacrificed.

QSIA chief executive officer Geoff Tilton admitted it was a large bycatch wash-up and one that was hard to explain given the devices fitted to nets to exclude most of these fish before the prawns were snared.

[serene_lady]

Are these trawler operators trying to make a point and saying that you may as well let us sell our by catch because were going to kill everything on the ocean floor anyway. It wont be long before our inshore areas have as much fish life left in them as the sahara desert, only difference is it will have water over it. Bob.

[Big_unit]

James,

I #thought that was a blowup shovelly u had in a headlock... #

Cheers,

Tony #

So it was you peering through the window...



James

[Big_unit]

At the end of the day I dont agree with Trawling. I would prefer to see it stopped or severely restricted, I realise this is both impractical and unethical. I would support any group except the Greens in a proper & ethical way to see Trawling minimised with a view to ensuring that fish stocks / habitats are conserved. My main objective is to see recreational fishing is sustainable and enjoyable for future generations. After all fishing is an Australian way of life and green zones are no way to ensure that we can maintain our way of life.

Cheers
James

[Benno75]

[quote author=serene_lady link=1141819676/30#40 date=1141955649]Are these trawler operators trying to make a point and saying that you may as well let us sell our by catch because were going to kill everything on the ocean floor anyway. #


I agree that the issue is not what happens to the by catch, the issue is that the by catch is caught in the first place.

So how do you address that?

Forcing trawl operators to dump their catch out to sea just sweeps the issue under the carpet. If you can't see it washed up on a beach, then you don't notice it happens.

Restricting their ability to sell it gives the trawl operators no option but to dump their by catch.

Allowing to sell it allows trawlers to target species which are curtrently classified as by catch(eg whiting) and it takes emphasis away from the industry investing in R&D into methods and equiment which reduces by catch.

Forcing trawlers further off shore does land the responsibility of the issue smack bang on the shoulders of the trawler bloke trying to make a living making his profession logistically more difficult and more costly.

So who's responsible - the industry, the government, the trawler operators.

If fish kills like we've just seen are unavoidable and standard operating procedure within the industry then reckon it dispicable, but how do you address it.

[jim_farrell]

Government/we gradually buy out licences. The common argument from pro's is that they struggle to make a living anyway. I don't care what the cost is. Fair compensation should be paid. Waldo, what is your licence worth, name a price. I'm not saying you guys are bad, just doing a job.
Someone needs to convince me that this is one or two bad eggs. Otherwise, it is obviously standard practise.If it is standard, it is a disgrace.

This argument can't be resoved. As with river trawling thread, pro's will be accused of changing their practise whenever a third party is on board.

Halve the amount of trawler licences.
This will halve by-catch.
This will increase marine populations.
Therefore increase $ per trip for pro's.
Less boats, easier to regulate.