A crying shame

Was in Southlands yesterday and wandered past the so called fresh fish shop located in the centre. (Doesn't smell too fresh to me!)

Sitting there on ice was, astoundingly, a locally caught Black Bream......all 2.1kg of it ........for sale at $45.  Whilst I am not an ardent bream fisho I was stunned to see such a majestic fish.  I've caught them to a smudge under that size but have always considered the 2kg mark to be truly a specimen and have always carefully returned such fish as prime breeding stock to the waters from which they came and could not believe a pro would have netted and not returned such a fish.

How old would a fish of this size be, over 50 years surely? 


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If the recent raping of the

Wed, 2017-08-23 09:10

If the recent raping of the Yellowfin Whiting fishery in the Peel Inlet has taught anything it's that the pro netters there are only concerned with stuffing their pockets. One can only assume that the Bream netters down south have the same attitude.

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 It is a shame but id say

Wed, 2017-08-23 09:12

 It is a shame but id say that bream has served its purpose in the ecosystem. Id be more worried about the fact that the net that one came from probs hundreds of small bream died that didn't have the chance to breed that's the real problem. That thing woud taste like mud anyway.

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Hey Jackfrost

Wed, 2017-08-23 09:25

 ...if there was one thing I learned from thirty years of being a commercial fishermean, small netting outfits NEVER get to stuff their pockets. Very much a hand to mouth existence. 

Let the flaming begin.

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Exactly mate and that's why

Wed, 2017-08-23 10:18

Exactly mate and that's why they will rape the fishery as hard as they can. By stuff their pockets I mean try and stuff as much money in there as they can to make up their outlay in their licence etc.

If it's not commercially viable and is harming our fishery one really has to question why the Govt doesn't buy back all these licences especially with their current focus on tourism.

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The pros net Stokes inlet

Wed, 2017-08-23 09:43

The pros net Stokes inlet down here in Esperance for bream, have done for years and its in a National Park. According to them they don't hardly turn a profit but they still keep doing it year in year out.

Really stuffs it up for the rec fishos who want to target a decent bream but all that's vaialble is the small ones that get left behind.

Couple of years back I tried to get them banned, set up a FB page, contacted politicians, fisheries/RecfishWest etc but to no avail

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I won't argue against the removal of netting licences

Wed, 2017-08-23 11:10

 HOWEVER. You must agree that adequate compensation be paid for the removal of those licences. And I don't mean just a years' gross income or whatever they seem to fix it to. You are arbritrarily removing a person's livelihood, for the advantage--well, percieved advantage, anyway, ---of the recreational sector. There has been a very  poor history of this in Australia, when noisy recco's get some political leverage, usually due to upcoming elections, and use it  to shove the commercials out of a small, long established and quite sustainable fishery. When the fishery doesn't improve to some Utopian level they were envisaging it would, they are silent but grumpy, wondering who they can blame next. And the 90% of the population who don't fish ( or at least catch fish) , wonder why they are buying imported crap if they want fish .  There have been some shocking cases of outright lying by the reccreational sector when it comes to making claims of the value of the sector to the economy--witness the Vctorian Port Phillip bay fiasco of a few years back.

How did a nation surrounded by water end up being a net importer of seafood? And why were local fishermen only getting just over $5/kg for prime pink snapper just last week, when the price in the retail outlets was, weel, somewhat not reflective of that

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From what I remember didn't

Wed, 2017-08-23 11:22

From what I remember didn't they offer a voluntary buy back for crab licencesin the Swan but also disallow those licences to be transferred beyond the current licence holder.

That strikes a pretty good balance to my mind.

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Leschnault Estuary

Wed, 2017-08-23 13:37

Many years ago they offered the pros money to surrender their licences to fish the Leschnault estuary to appease the wishes of rec fishers so they could have it all to themselves and have bigger and better catches of fish and crabs.

The Fisheries hoped that a few pros wouldn't surrender their licences so that they could keep tabs on whether the catch rate improved after the reduction in pro numbers but all the pros sold out leaving no way to monitor stock levels other than trusting rec surveys to give an honest answer. From what I can gather fish stocks didn't improve at all after the pros removal so leaves the question of why was the cash offered in the first place other than collecting votes for a government election.

As for the big bream, it was most probably dead when pulled from the water and what would it serve to drop it back in the water.

Ranmar has it right when he states the price paid to fishermen is nearly bugger all compared to what one pays over the counter, the best I have been paid for line caught dhufish is $17kg about 15 years back and it was selling for around $85kg for fillets, go back 30 years and we got $10-$12kg for the same fish and yet fillets sold for $35-$40kg. Another of his points is that who will supply quality fish to those who wish to buy locally caught fish and have no means either physically or by lack of means or experience to catch their own

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 Sorry John but in my opinion

Wed, 2017-08-23 21:28

 Sorry John but in my opinion after a few years of no netting in the leschanault the fish did come back. The amount of guys that pop for yellow fin whiting would attest to that. Also the fact that our netting on Wednesday nights got better on average as well , just sayin.

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I'm still trying to get my

Wed, 2017-08-23 23:18

I'm still trying to get my head around how the removal of pros removed the ability to monitor stock levels but we can be assured that the removal of pros had no effect on stock levels. I believe that's called an oxymoron.

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Commercial are obliged to

Thu, 2017-08-24 10:02

Commercial are obliged to submit accurate and comprehensive catch records where recreational do not at all

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Commercial are obliged to

Thu, 2017-08-24 10:02

Commercial are obliged to submit accurate and comprehensive catch records where recreational do not at all

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That's correct, I got that

Thu, 2017-08-24 11:42

That's correct, I got that part. Still doesn't explain how one can make a statement about stock levels after removal of the pros after saying removal of the pros is the only way to gauge stock levels.

What about the bycatch? Are the pro's obliged to submit accurate and comprehensive catch records on all the dead baby crabs, dead cobbler etc?

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Regular Visitors

Thu, 2017-08-24 16:59

Fisheries research officers are regular passengers on commercial fishing vessels recording, tagging and taking specimens and recording everything that comes on board and what goes back.
We used to have someone from shark research on about every 10th trip when fishing for shark out of Hedland, mostly for tagging and injecting dye into sandbar whalers to monitor their growth rates and distribution. Good fun carrying a 2 metre shark, getting your hook back, measuring, tagging and injecting it before putting it back in to the water then giving it a score out of ten on how well it swam off

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yes

Sat, 2017-08-26 21:55

yes

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One think I don't understand

Wed, 2017-08-23 13:27

One think I don't understand is why WA with a much lower population than most other states, seems to have larger minimum sizes and a miniscule 2 fish limit for the metro area. Other states that are more populated have it way better than us. Doesn't make sense that in that state of play, even the commercial guys aren't making money. Is there that many fewer fish on the west coast???

That's not even starting on our exorbitant license fees!

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We will always need to have

Wed, 2017-08-23 13:36

We will always need to have professional fishermen.

There are a lot of people who don't fish and there needs to be people who will catch fish for those that don't.

Now I don't want to start up a them and us debate I think that what the total fishing scene needs is transparency with just who is catching what and in what quantity and is the take sustainable in as much is it going to provide fishing both professional and recreational into the for see able future. Yes I know about the annual fisheries report and read it.

We trust the government body who over see the regulation of our fisheries resources to keep a critical eye on the various bio masses and bring in controls as needed based on scientific evaluation and is peer reviewed. This information should then be disseminated to all those who fish.

An example of the success of this action is the reduction of the take of herring by both professional and recreational fishers, whilst there may be some grumbling and isolated areas where the herring numbers may not appear to need a reduction in catch numbers overall the science has shown they need mild management controls brought in. Good job.

Now, to all and sundry in the Mandurah and adjacent yellow fin whiting fishery the numbers of this bio mass have plummeted to such a level that all those who have an interest in this particular species of fish are alarmed at the crash in stock, this observation has alarm bells ringing yet the people entrusted to protect this fishery have sat on their hands and done nothing visible to show that the matter is being attended to.

The authority we trust to look after our fishery has failed, IMO opinion in this particular case and as such have lost the trust of those look to them for taking action to protect the viability of this fishery.
Bad job.

Rant over

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Family and friends

Wed, 2017-08-23 13:37

 Lots of family and friends are pro fishos down south, netters in the inlets and its a bloody tough game. Not a lot of return unless you have a good day with an open bar to the ocean and in  the most, tough southern conditions. I feel for them as much as any rec fisho seeing both sides of the coin. 

I guess some people arent fishermen like us, but still want to eat it. My grans 105 today and loves a fresh fillet of fish, if dad cant provide it, then it will come from a store and if bream is on the menu, then so be it as long as its legal to do so.

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Congradulations Gran

Wed, 2017-08-23 13:48

Wow that is a great achievement it's got to be that omega 3 oil from the fish that is giving her a great life.

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yes congrats to your gran

Sat, 2017-08-26 19:57

yes congrats to your gran adam ...105 is a very good age !!

the commercial guys in the bunbury system where paid around the $90 000 mark to stop fishing in the estuary .they retained the licences and fish outside now for crabs etc , a lot of their crabs now come from the outside of turkey point up north along the coast to Mandurah with set crab traps ...so they got paid to move out in reality and the crabs are just taken before they come into the estuary

however id also say it is likely imo there is some other reason why the crabs have not returned to the estuary as they where in the pre 90s .sediment changes or seagreass destruction ?? ph levels changed ??/ crasb there now are not as thick as years ago .. maybe in time we will know why

hezzy

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