Anglers In the North Miss OUT Again ! Sunfish Media Release

[Scott Mitchell]

http://www.sunfishqld.com.au/pdf/Med...llow_zones.pdf

Marine Parks (Great Sandy) Zoning Plan 2006
Part 7 Restrictions applying to activities carried out in marine park
Reprint 1E effective 2 December 2011 Page 59

Part 7 Restrictions applying to activities carried out in Marine Park
81 Bait netting
(1) A person may carry out bait netting in the marine park using only—
(a) for a recreational fisher under the Fisheries Regulation—a cast, scoop or seine net complying with chapter 4, part 1, division 4 of that regulation; or
(b) for a commercial fisher—a cast net or mesh net complying with the Fisheries Regulation, chapter 9, part 5
(2) A commercial fisher who is bait netting in the conservation park zone (other than an area within the Great Sandy area) must not—
(a) take a relevant fish while bait netting; or
(b) possess a relevant fish taken in contravention of paragraph (a).
(3) For subsection (2)(a), a commercial fisher does not take a relevant fish while bait netting if—
(a) the fish is taken unintentionally; and
(b) the fisher does not allow the net containing the fish to be out of the water other than to immediately remove the fish from the net; and
(c) the fisher immediately releases the fish into water deep enough to allow the fish to escape.
(4) In this section—
commercial fisher means a commercial fisher under the Fisheries Regulation.
possess, a relevant fish, means—
(a) to have custody or control of the fish; or
(b) to have an ability or right to readily obtain custody or control of the fish.
relevant fish means a fish of any of the following species—
(a) bream of the genus Acanthopagrus or Rhabdosargus;
(b) flathead of the genus Platycephalus;
(c) whiting of the genus Sillago.

I just have to continually ask " How did marine parks allow commercial netting to be carried out/allowed in ALL the Great Sandy Marine park YELLOW conservation zones in the 1st place when legislating it ? "

Making it the ONLY one on the PLANET to my knowledge

And how do we fix it now ......

Regards Scotto

[Mark Robinson MP]

Scotto. If Bligh is re-elected there is more bad news to come. Her Environment minister, Vicky Darling, gave it away that they plan more Green zones as 'complementary' zoning - starting with the Gulf - in inshore Qld waters. They will then add complementary zones in inshore waters to the 1 million km2 of the coral sea marine reserve in FNQ, NQ and CQ. Then in the near future Qld Labor-Greens will bring in complementary zones when the federal Labor-Green alliance imposes the Temperate East reserve from the Southern tip of GBR to Tweed. Support for anything but LNP risks the return of the Bligh govt or a hung parliament mess. Only the LNP can form a govt that will stop international Green groups forcing complementary zoning in inshore waters.

[Apollo]

Mark

Without commenting on the current government, I would like to know what an LNP government WILL do about situations such as mentioned above by Scott? Will this anomally be changed?

I live in the Great Sandy Straights area, so it directly affects me.

Cheers
Steve

[Scott Mitchell]

Mark - So how about you & your team step up with a commitment to buy out ALL of the commercial effort that would be effected by being excluded/removed from the current Yellow conservation zones & surrounding rivers i.e. Mary, Susan, Burrum etc

There is no question that this region would become a rec fishing Mecca & attract enormous angling tourism numbers from around the country & overseas. We would see stronger local population growth, employment & infrastructure i.e. Urangan marina springs to mind at 130+ million , The newly proposed Marybough marina etc, restaurants, cafe's, charter operators, caravan parks, supermarkets, fuel stations, marina, boat & trailer retailers, tackle stores, camping retailers, developers may even be able to sell their current unit & town house stocks

Come up with the funding & commit to this & your supporters will follow .......

Time to step up Mark - Scotto

[PinHead]

Mark - So how about you & your team step up with a commitment to buy out ALL of the commercial effort that would be effected by being excluded/removed from the current Yellow conservation zones & surrounding rivers i.e. Mary, Susan, Burrum etc

There is no question that this region would become a rec fishing Mecca & attract enormous angling tourism numbers from around the country & overseas. We would see stronger local population growth, employment & infrastructure i.e. Urangan marina springs to mind at 130+ million , The newly proposed Marybough marina etc, restaurants, cafe's, charter operators, caravan parks, supermarkets, fuel stations, marina, boat & trailer retailers, tackle stores, camping retailers, developers may even be able to sell their current unit & town house stocks

Come up with the funding & commit to this & your supporters will follow .......

Time to step up Mark - Scotto

Forget the tourism bit Scoot..no one travels in this country..the tourism operators want an arm and a leg for a basic bed and room. When these greedy people lower their prices then tourism may flourish..until then forget it.

[Beast1965]

I believe in our policy statement that the number one point is to declare Net Free or Recreational Only Fishing Areas around large cities and towns on the coast and smaller communities if they want one. I believe that the policy is talking about trawling and commercial netting for commercial quantities of fish. We need to remember that we are trying to make recreational fishing sustainable therefore we need to sometime practise restraint in the number of fish we take to ensure that we have future fish stocks so we can enjoy our sport.

[Scott Mitchell]

I believe in our policy statement that the number one point is to declare Net Free or Recreational Only Fishing Areas around large cities and towns on the coast and smaller communities if they want one. I believe that the policy is talking about trawling and commercial netting for commercial quantities of fish. We need to remember that we are trying to make recreational fishing sustainable therefore we need to sometime practise restraint in the number of fish we take to ensure that we have future fish stocks so we can enjoy our sport.

So can you confirm that if there was a show of numbers that commercial fishing would be removed from ALL of the current yellow conservation zones within the Great Sandy marina Park & surrounding rivers .......

I recently see Mr Wallace made a firm decision based on a vote of 439 participants from across the state.

I also believe there was recently a petition to ban netting in Trinity Inlet with over 3000 votes - so I take it that it will be made net free shortly as well ?

Thanks Scotto

[Macks forever]

I believe in our policy statement that the number one point is to declare Net Free or Recreational Only Fishing Areas around large cities and towns on the coast and smaller communities if they want one. I believe that the policy is talking about trawling and commercial netting for commercial quantities of fish. We need to remember that we are trying to make recreational fishing sustainable therefore we need to sometime practise restraint in the number of fish we take to ensure that we have future fish stocks so we can enjoy our sport.

I don't believe this answers the question Brandt. You maybe be missing the point, or even the big picture.
This is already a yellow zone. The decision has been made. The community already said yes. BUT the nets are still there. Apparently this is the only such situation in existence. So the simple question is:
Does the Katter Party, or you personally, believe that unrestricted netting should have been allowed in the Great Sandy Yellow Zone and will you ensure that they are removed?
(and I don't mind if you answer differently for your personal view and the party - it would actually show honesty and individuality if you did).

[Macks forever]

Same question to Mark. And to any other politician that is willing to talk.

[mayer60]

hi scott....let me say it is bewildering that this yellow zone is open but i find it hard to see your argument involving getting rid of the commercial fishing effort..
you speculate that there will be a huge increase in population and an enormous angling tourism..
If say 10 thousand people decide to live here because the commercial effort is gone and they fish twice a week ( which they might because that is why they came here), and they catch 10 fish average..that calculates to 200 thousand fish per week..
Would that be defeating the purpose or am I missing something

[Scott Mitchell]

Mayer60 - You are assuming that everything the rec anglers catch will be taken - A LOT of the popular species targeted in Hervey Bay are sportfish & released by the majority of the angler’s chasing them. There are some fantastic examples of catch & release fisheries around the world where rec angling is managed in this way i.e. Florida, Bahamas, Christmas Island ( Kiribati ) etc

*Species such as Golden trevally, permit and bonefish should ALL be declared recreational ONLY

Rec anglers are also heavily regulated with size & bag limits - if these are shown to not be satisfactory/sustainable - then they should be reviewed.

Comparing rec angling pressure with commercial netting - day in - day out is just a no-brainer & there are a number of fantastic examples in NSW ,Victoria & NT that could be used as base models to illustrate the benefits of removing commercial effort in favour of creating recreational angling havens

Pinhead - seriously

Regards Scotto

[bg1000]

" I believe in our policy statement that the number one point is to declare Net Free or Recreational Only Fishing Areas around large cities and towns on the coast and smaller communities if they want one'.

Beastie I can't understand where you are coming from. These net free areas already exsist. I mean go to page 74 of the 2008 fishing regulation. There is over three pages of areas that are closed to net fishing. Not even considering the amount of yellow zoning that exsists in the GBRMP and the Moreton Bay Marine Park. I am wondering how your party can justify further closures to commercial fishing. I thought this was a community resource? That every Australian would have the right to access fresh local seafood over imports, I guess your party belives otherwise. I'm sure if you put it to the community I am sure we know which they would prefer.

I think we must look at all the areas the governement has created which provide recreational only fishing zones, I'm talking yellow zones plus additional closed areas. The whole of the bribie passage, the mooloolah river, large areas of the noosa river and maroochy river just to name some in your area. Everywhere along the entire Queensland coastline already has such areas. These areas have been created so that if any recreational fisher has a problem with commercial fishing then they can access these recreational only zones. (I realise that bait may be taken within some yellow zones). Also, nearly all estuarine systems are closed to commercial activity for the weekend.

Why is it that many within the recreational communtiy don't see that this resource belongs to everyone in Australia, regardless of how much effort one puts into catching fish/ or how much they choose to spend on fishing gear and boats. Queensland fisheries reports already indicate that the recreational take of inshore fin fish far exceeds that of the commercial take on many many of the key species. Including bream, whiting, flathead and tailor. Yet recreational fishers still seem to think that the pro fishing is unsustainable even though the statistics indicate otherwise. The reports show that recreational fisherman take more bream, whting, flathead and tailor than pro fisherman, but it is the pro fisherman that is persecuted by rec fisherman for providing fish to the public. Its seems that many would like to see the entire resource allocated to recreational fishing only. No one seems to appreciate that Queensland has some of the most extensive marine zonings in the world.

Should recreational fisherman really have the exclusive right to access this seafood resource? Or does it belong to everyone in Australia, regardless of whether they choose to catch it themselves or buy a fresh piece of local mullet
from a fish and chip store.

I also hope when we are looking at total net bans that we are including cast nets and bait nets. I'm mean we wouldn't want to be hypercritical.

[Scott Mitchell]

Should recreational fisherman really have the exclusive right to access this seafood resource? Or does it belong to everyone in Australia, regardless of whether they choose to catch it themselves or buy a fresh piece of local mullet from a fish and chip store.

I also hope when we are looking at total net bans that we are including cast nets and bait nets. I'm mean we wouldn't want to be hypercritical.

I believe that the NT government removed more than half of the commercial barra netters in the state - and the total commercial catch never went down. The remaining operators just became more viable & achieved better market share & prices ...

There’s no question that there is a need for sustainable commercial fishing - just not in our gazetted marine parks

Regards Scotto

[PinHead]

yes seriously Scott..you make mention of enormous tourist numbers from around the country and overseas..the tourism industry is struggling..even locals go overseas because it is cheaper than holidaying locally.
I would not be counting on those tourists in your debate on the subject.

the basic idea is okay but tourism is dead in this country..way too expensive to holiday here now.

[Dan5]

yes seriously Scott..you make mention of enormous tourist numbers from around the country and overseas..the tourism industry is struggling..even locals go overseas because it is cheaper than holidaying locally.
I would not be counting on those tourists in your debate on the subject.

the basic idea is okay but tourism is dead in this country..way too expensive to holiday here now.

I don't think it is dead as such,alot of people are now on do it yourself/caravan/camper trips.......The amount of people coming here (N.T) in vans or with caravans is just about doubling every year.

All budgets aswell........from a 90's model Cruiser/Patrol towing an older van right through to latest model vehicle and camper vans worth easily 6 figures..........Tourisim in Australia has changed direction away from traditional resort's to a do it yourself approach IMO.