POLL - Fishery Survey - Help Them or Not

[gunna]

I put a fishing report up the other day and mentioned that Fisheries were at the ramp doing a survey. I was cleaning my catch so I didn't have a choice over whether I revealed my catch. He just measured and recorded the catch.

I joked about undersize fish - he pointed out that it wasn't that sort of a check. It was a survey of rec fishos. When I asked why he was fairly vague but did say that the recs always complain about the trawlers, the trawlers always complain about the recs. So they are trying to see who has the better claim!!

I was surprised that just about every boat that came in said they had no fish. Dunno if they were being deceitful - or didn't catch anything. When I posted my report and mentioned fisheries one of our members promptly posted

"i always tell them i catch nothing no mate nothing today"

Which got me thinking. We know that Fisheries could not possibly have proper data for the snapper fishery and we complain about their subsequent decision making. They want data for the estuary fisho. Do we trust them ?? Should we tell them our day's catch. Particularly when we only have a couple fish - surely that tells them something. Are we better off if they have the correct data or should we tell them nothing.

Interested in your thoughts.

[Noelm]

OK, lets just think for a second, they are doing a survey on (say) Snapper, after checking the catch of 500 anglers, there was only 10 Snapper caught, (because everyone lied) so, what does that indicate straight away, Snapper are very scarce, so lets put a ban on them! anyone agree with that?

[FNQCairns]

NO too early!! wait first until the Libs trump labor so we first get to see some management and proper science from Fishery's, a leopard doent change it's spots ...they today can still be judged no higher than their past corrupt and anti Angler behavior...no better indicator available for all future behavior.

[Chris Ryan]

Noel, there are two sides to the coin as you know.

1) Tell the bastard nothing. Give em nothing - research suffers, assumptions made are negative towards the fishery re: catch numbers and bans etc occur

2) Tell them the truth - research works and results are better, however government data can be and is shared and Environment types see the fish being caught out of what areas and zoning potentially impacts.

I'm a glass is half full bloke so I say help them and let them know the truth. The zoning issues are not fisheries related so no matter what is said, I prefer to have fisheries say "very healthy and all good" so we use that as arguments against closures.

Just my opinion.

[peterbo3]

Chris,
Ya know full well that ANY statistic can be rotated, manipulated & spun to suit the agenda of the statistic holder. And in most cases that is:

dodgyanna@georgestreet.gov.qld

[shanejohnson]

They use these stats with other stats to create more marine parks, more restrictions; tell them nothing

[rando]

I disagree Chris.
The departments charter is to manage the fishery for the maximum benefit of the commercial sector.
When, and only when, they start managing for the benefit of recreational fishers do we give them access to info.
I am not saying manage for rec fishers benefit only.
I am saying rec fishers are the largest stake holders in the fishery.
When "Fisheries" show consistantly they have the best interests of the major stake holders as their top priority, then by all means give them as much backing as possable.IMO

rando

[Gazza]

With a faulty model of "BIOMASS" based on RecFisho tonnage....i say "no"

Reasoning ..G.I.G.O...garbage-in-GARBAGE-OUT

[Chaz]

What's really sad about the number of No votes is that they probably came from the same people who bitch about bad science being used to make decisions about fishery management.

Chaz

[liltuffy]

Do you all honestly believe that a change in premier and cabinet also involves a change in every staff member of every department and shift in attitude and research ???
I was a public servant for 17 years and saw many governments come and go - did it matter a pig's grunt who was in power - NO, the wheels still turned in the same general direction no matter who was at the helm.

Sure "Can Do Campbell" will change things for us and I hope that the green tinged Labour party are polled in to political obscurity for an eternity BUT do we collectively cross our arms and shrug our shoulders at some poor public servant out to legitimately gather some data his supervisor has tasked him to do??, I think not.

Without accurate statistics we stand little hope of taking a credible stance against these tools - but I may just be too naive and stupid.

My two cents worth

Craig

[Gazza]

Without accurate statistics we stand little hope of taking a credible stance against these tools - but I may just be too naive and stupid.
My two cents worth
Craig

GR8 post mate.....agreed , too naive & stupid

MY counter suggestion to HELP determine "biomass" modelling...a.k.a. "year class"

Fisheries go on some trawlers , BRD's closed !! , ....seems like 5~7 metres...NOT deeper , NOT OFTEN ....& stop often to C&R the undersized & data-gather

and provide themselves "projected year-class" BIOMASS data...in real world info.

[johncar]

It seems a bit pointless in a way to check catches at boat ramps as it's only a small part of the big picture when measuring total mass of Rec fish.

How can they possibly know how many of us go out and how often, how many in the boat?
Yes there are a handfull of really keen fishos who are out in all weather and every chance they get. There are others who get out once a year.

I don't know about you guys but although I have been keener in times gone by, I am about a once a monther or there abouts and on those trips I would most always make my bag limit on my target fish without too much problem or at least get a decent feed. I would still consider myself keener than the average boat owner as I know heaps who never use their boats.
Now my family would have two fish meals a week and I would still give some to my parents and so on. So I think that the current regs are OK for me. The once a year guy may not have enough fish for the year though.
I don't know what the guys who go out every week do with their fish and it's a bit of a worry. They are either bad fishermen or they just have big families to feed, and hopefully doing a responible thing.

I haven't been surveyed but I hope that they ask for all the information and not just "what did you catch today"
I would be happy to give honest answers because I think it is better than them being fed BS from the Commercial operators and making silly guesstimates based on ill conceived presumtions.
Most days out on the ocean I hardly see another boat all day so it's hard for me to accept that I having any negative impact and I would be happy to have any Fisheries guys on board. I've nothing to hide.

There seems to be more research and fact finding being done now so I hope that it will find it's way to the truth and give the powers that be the amunition they need to address the practices of some commercial operators and in particular the mass harm done by trawl nets..

[Camhawk88]

Great poll Gunna. Interesting also to see that as I type it is 15 to 20 in favour of reporting/assisting.
For the record i voted yes as well. While there is no doubt data can and is manipulated, also remember that if you are asked your catch and you say nothing caught then that is data- and can be used to suit their purposes if there is an agenda.
I understand the trust issues as we have been burnt before however we can hardly complain about their being not enough data on rec effort if we dont help out- we cant have it both ways. Also worth considering that the data collected today may be very important 20, 30 or 50 years down the track. No one knows what will happen then but this historical data may be invaluable in helping the rec fishos cause- you never know.

[wags on the water]

I for one will share my info with them - not where but what I have caught. If you want Fisheries to do their own research, then won't that be them also being a rec fishos? Someone needs to gather info so let's provide them with the facts and not let them assume.

Cheers,
Wags

[Si]

yes, of course. my taxes pay for these things and i would rather see a decision or better management change based on a large sample size than a non-representative limited one that is perhaps skewed by conspiracy theorists that wont give up the data.

In saying that i was surprised that the officer stated that they (dpi) had never really determined the effort or take of rec fishos. what have they been doing for the last ten years????