Ahhh good to see some passion.....
The problem is guys is that when you say ban all the nets I am assuming that you mean just your little area. When you say that the nets wipe out an entire spawning school you are talking about your little area...
The reason I am making this assumption is that you must be looking at just your little area and that you are blinded to the bigger picture, I am also amused to hear that when you ban nets the fishing in the area is awesome and life is forever better, it never rains, your outboard never breaks down and oh well life is just great.
Way back when the dugong sanctuaries where introduced up in the hinchinbrook area there was much joy and elation that netting was banned from the channel and that the fishing would be better. Damn they were right the numbers of fish caught in the hinchinbrook tag and release tournament increased dramatically for I think for three years in a row. But low and behold the numbers after that dropped off to at one point to just below or the same level as to when netting was allowed. Now I know these guys new how to fish I watched and I was in awe of them at times.
Next area I would like to talk about is Karumba, now at Karumba you can still catch a decent feed of fish at times. It is also interesting to see how many fish is caught at Karumba by amateur fisherman, I used to see on average 4 wheely bin of skeletons a day at one caravan park (there are three at Karumba) now 4 bins x 3 parks = 12 bins. Those bins each had more then 100 kg in them so that is close to a ton of waste give or take, I do know a thing or two about the ratio of waste to product, from that 1T with an average of 50% recovery there was an average of 1.5 to 1.8 tones of fish per day coming out of the local area. There were also days when there was nothing caught. Now there is a no netting zone around Karumba about 8 miles in all directions, funny enough this is not the best area to fish in (to many amateurs) everyone wants to go north or west to I would have to say one of the most heavily netted areas in queensland. I also learnt a thing or two off the pros over there too they new their stuff too...
I have seen the damage the amateurs can do I have also seen the damage that the commercial sector can do if not regulated and monitored. I can say that the fisheries in queensland is one of the most regulated fisheries there are. My issue and then the one gets me really going is that when you say to ban all nets you are only looking after your little area but the flow on effects are far and wide and affect many other inshore net fisheries that are quite sustainable and are able to target a species of fish with little buy catch with little or no waste.
I also need to agree with a comment that was written before and that is that the commercial sector supplies fish to the part of the community that does not fish. This part of the community that does not fish also has a right to put up their hand to have their fair share of the resource for which the commercial sector harvests for them. Now I know this is an old argument but it is the truth.
I have also stated before is that I truly believe that there is a future for both sectors if the fishery is managed well and the management of the fishery is well funded. A measure of a well managed fishery is that you have a viable commercial sector and healthy amateur sector. It will also mean that there will be pain on both sides and not everyone will get what they want.
It will also mean that if you want more of the resource sooner or later it will mean that you will have to pay, after all the only sector of the fishery that is expanding is the amateur sectors. Combine this expansion with reducing areas to fish in and also far less areas for the commercial sector to operate and you will see far more hostility before it gets better.
Anyway each sector has its problems, the sector that says that it hasn't got any problems has its head buried that far up ones #%¥€ it is not funny. And again whilst we are arguing with each other the only groups that win are the greens.