Changes to crayfish rules
Submitted by hlokk on Mon, 2017-10-16 14:52
Well, after the debacle with Bret Carter, I'm surprised by the rule changes that fisheries went with sensible changes.
As a diver your now have 5 minutes to sort your catch on board (but can't take berried or tar spot up)
Setose females can now be taken (not berriesd or tarspot)
No female maximum size limit (from last year)
Simplification of pot rules
You can keep cray tails with shell on at your residence
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/licences/rec_licence_rock_lobster.pdf
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hlokk
Posts: 4290
Date Joined: 04/04/08
www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/
www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/licences/rec_licence_rock_lobster.pdf
sea-kem
Posts: 14861
Date Joined: 30/11/09
So to get this totally clear
So to get this totally clear we can take setose females (hairs on the endopodites)? But obviously not berried or tar spot? Why would they have changed that?
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Alan James
Posts: 2208
Date Joined: 30/06/09
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I suspect the reason for allowing recreational fisherman to take setose lobster is that Fisheries have recognised that it can be very difficult for divers to identify setose lobster under water. The 5 minutes the Fisheries allow divers to return prohibited lobster to the water once the diver returns to the boat is not new. Fisheries always allowed this. What Fisheries claim (of recent time) was that they did not allow divers to use this 5 minutes to return to the water lobster in excess of the 8 they were permitted to take per day.
stricko
Posts: 222
Date Joined: 10/05/10
Is it legal to bring more
Is it legal to bring more than you or your boatlimit back to your vessel to have the 5 minutes to sort them as that is what the argument has been about this the start simple yes or no from fisheries would be great.
Alan James
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Date Joined: 30/06/09
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The answer is NO.
gruntre69
Posts: 533
Date Joined: 15/10/16
One thing that seems to be
One thing that seems to be overlooked is that just because the fisheries change what they write in their guide, this does not 100% reflect legistlation. I would be interested to know if any legislation has been actually changed. This stuff has to go through parliment and this takes time.
How they choose to police the legislation, they have some room to move. The only thing that really has change as far as I can tell is the change of the classification of the Setose crays. I don't believe for one minute they have done this to do divers any favours. They will have their motive but you can be sure as shit the ease of divers or recreational potters to work out setose or not will not be it. More likely the numbers of crays are high enough to allow the setose take without a big change on the overall fishery and this of course has a much bigger impact on the commercial catch if they are governed by this same change.
I don't know that much about it but I don't trust this government department one bit...
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sea-kem
Posts: 14861
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Funny you mention that as a
Funny you mention that as a fisheries officer once told me that exact same thing about legislation being passed. The minister can make a ruling and fisheries will usually run with that but if they wanted to play hard ball then you'd better hope any changes had been legislated. I'm interested to know how you can find out when they actually make these law changes? Is there a parliament website agenda or something to that effect?
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Alan James
Posts: 2208
Date Joined: 30/06/09
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It is not always necessary for the changes to be passed as legislation. For example the Fisheries Management Act and the Fisheries Management Rules make no specific reference to setose lobster (as I understand it). They refer only to 'protected species' which are then later defined in the Guidelines.
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
The reason setose are now
The reason setose are now allowed to be taken is that the stock levels are such that the numbers of setose are no longer restricting breeding stock.
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meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Weren't the pros given permission to take
I thought the pros were given permission to take setose crays a while back, after a study fisheries may have decided that the bio mass can stand the taking of setose crays without damage to the floor level of the breading stock
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
They were for a short period
They were for a short period in late winter (Aug/Sept from memory)
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
timboon
Posts: 2924
Date Joined: 14/11/10
You've hit the nail on the
You've hit the nail on the head Grun....