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Thread: Prawns APlenty

  1. #16

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    Quote Originally Posted by indy
    Mal M

    Lets just say i have fished the pine river for a lot of years and have seen the same trawlers flogging it and they do catch alot of by catch that they are throwing back dead with a flock of birds behind picking up the scraps that is evedince enough for me

    cheers pete

    So im just wondering what you have used for bait over the many years you have fished the pine, surely you must be heart broken every time you buy some frozen bait?

  2. #17

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    I did this same exercise 5 years ago on the Logan River.
    Only I spent on average 1 - 2 nights a week for over a month.
    I found almost the same as Webby is describing.
    The by-catch was very minimal most of the time.
    In terms of table fish caught - you could count them on one hand for the entire month.
    There was one or two nights when the herring were in large numbers - I'd estimate 20 - 30kg caught and thrown back per night but it made it impossible to sort prawns when they were that thick so the skipper moved to another area to get away from them.
    On average, every time the net contents was dropped on the sorting tray there would be a total of 3 to 6 bait species – gar, pike, mullet.
    On average the catch was 40 - 60kg of mixed prawns per night - it was considered by the skipper to be about average catch.
    Some nights were as low as 20kg and other just over 100kg.
    On average they were getting $6 a kg for their catch at that time – primarily sold as bait.
    I was not on the boat during the banana prawn season but it was suggested this is the time of year they make good money – if the prawns turn up.
    The reason for these comments is to suggest that, from my personal experience, what Webby encountered was pretty typical in terms of by catch.

    Dave ><>

  3. #18

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    Iam sure you should have a decky's ticket while on board a working pro's boat??????????????? Do you.

  4. #19

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    a deckys ticket?? please explain?

  5. #20

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    You have to have a deck hand licence to work on a licenced commercial fishing boat. Guests & on lookers are not allowed unless the laws has changed lately. This does not include charter boats.

  6. #21

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    Quote Originally Posted by Jaffo
    You have to have a deck hand licence to work on a licenced commercial fishing boat. Guests & on lookers are not allowed unless the laws has changed lately. This does not include charter boats.
    blah [smiley=thumbdown.gif] , get off ur high horse mate. Nobody cares ya loser.

  7. #22

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    I care......................carefull what you call people

  8. #23

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    nice stuff brian,
    love the pics! #gotta watch those bull routs.
    cheers dale

  9. #24
    THE_Giant_guppie
    Guest

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    actually it an assistant fishermans licenceand no u dont need one to be on a comercial fishing boat unless ur being paid as a deck hand lol

  10. #25
    CHRIS_aka_GWH
    Guest

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    one would expect by-catch to be minimal & small in a system that's been trawled almost daily for half a century

    larval prawn become identifiable in a form resembling adults within weeks of spawning & can mature in as fast as 6months (up to 2 yrs) and spawn twice yearly producing over half a million individuals given ideal conditions -

    Few table fish can match that (some baitfish can - yep - you guessed it herring).

    Thus table fish do not posess the reproductive potential to replenish those lost to trawl by-catch, so they do not appear in the nets - if YOU want them, fish where the trawlers don't go.

    Exclusion devices have been proven effective at best UP TO 90% (given the correct device is used - 73% in this study http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/far/12589.html) & there is little data on the survival rate of the exhausted fish that the grids exclude. (*industry research figures).

    Given that, I would think, if there were lots of table size fish about down there, you should be seeing more in the nets (one for every ten that gets out). I wonder if they ever run a straight codend next to an excluded one to test if they are saving much at all apart from the impression of their "harvesting".

    chris


  11. #26

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    I don't like it >. Rivers are places for small fish to grow. I enjoy a good feed of prawns just like everyone else. Trawlers should be only allowed in the bay or ocean. Yeah they may have cut down on bycatch, but what percentage of bycatch actually survives? What about the damage that dragging nets over the estuary floors?

  12. #27

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    Some of you people are so righteous
    Lets get thing straight from the start, i'm no trawler lover and would like to see a few more disappear.
    The whole reason for this trip and i have a few more coming up, was to actually see how it all works and in particularly the by-catch compared to prawn catch.
    The fellow i went with wasnt trying to hood wink me in the areas/depth or any other means to make it look as if their doing the right practice.
    As a matter of fact i was invited, and many other skippers objected about me going on this trip.
    yes there are good and bad in both commerical and rec's.
    They are restricted in there hours 6pm sunday to 6pm friday, amd they trawl certain sections of the river at certain times of the year, as sep to june are vertuially the only months they work, then its find another job till the next season starts.
    This fellas has been doing it for a very long time since childhood, and he doesnt live in any mansion or drive flash cars.
    Right the business end of the operation.
    There is a pic attached of the net and skids.
    Once the boom is lowered it runs on the two skids either side, and the net is actually above the bottom, in some 12 lifts there was no debris off the bottom in the net.
    Which showed me they are not draggin the bottom at all, which filled in one of my blank questions.
    Secondly the Bycatch Reduction Device towards the end of the tunnel net section, extrudes anything of size, and not once during the trip did we catch anything bigger then a herring, although a few shovel noses where still in the reduction device upon raising.
    And as quick as the load is dumped most live by catch is quickly thrown back over.
    Some one said 19 buckets was much, but when you multiply that by 10lts you have a few prawns, and this was a reasonable quite trip.
    During alll lifts and i would calculate by the end, we would have caught no more then 1 bucket of by-catch.
    the predominant species was herring as they are down there in their thousands, but other speices were poddies, small divers/ hardiheads/and the so called vermin species catties/toadies/bullrouts etc.
    If anyone has bother to sound the bottom of the river, their is plently of sandstone towards the drop offs, but 99% is muddy silt, very little sea weed or other plant matter came to the surface.
    The only real sand is further out the river mouth, and with the dredging going full steam now to deepen the new container terminal, there wont even be muc of that left soon.
    He stated one of the biggest eco destroying events happening to the river at present is the new container extensions.
    So there you go short and brief, so if you want to pick the eyes out of it go for it.
    Im still no trawler lover, but a fair few questions were answered, as to what the bay trawlers are doing god knows.
    I still have a couple more trips, just for interest the river trawlers only produce 5% of the trawl catch for moreton bay.
    regards

  13. #28

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    I have to agree with Webby....

    I have been on river trawler that works Brissy river, and the by catch is minimal (was mainly jelly fish, herring, bullrout, catfish, odd diver and 1 flatty - I made sure it got back asap)


  14. #29

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    Thanks Webby... an interesting read!! We see them - but who knows what's really going on and how well they do or dont do. I for one appreciated the perspective regardless of my own opinions Thanks again!!


  15. #30

    Re: Prawns APlenty

    I would have to agree with Jeremy's comments above. For one thing I can tell you it's definetly a lot less productive than in the North Sea (if they showed you the real thing that is).

    I went fishing for crabben (small tasty prawns) on the coast of Germany. This was with 4 guys and a trolley that we pulled out across the mud flats. On this trolley we off loaded four drag nets and man pulled them for 2 hours in a gutter. We pulled in ~120 kilo or more of crabben/prawns and then we sorted on the spot for the bigger ones to yield out 40-50 kilo. A bit of by-catch, flounder, crabs and cockles. No joke. So easy (except for the haul back)

    When you think of the fuel, the boat and the labor etc... in Qld, why would you bother for a total of 15+4 buckets????? Has over fishing occurred?

    Were they really showing you how they do it?

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