i just hope they use protection while they f?><.ing us!

How come Australia is blessed with so many pathetic Dickheads who make these catastrophic decisions that will completely destroy our very special fishery. Here in the West these miss in-formed fools are trying to double tax us and limit the amount of fish we can catch while the Mentally Challenged fools in Canberra are going to open up our fishing grounds to commercial fishermen with their murdering, take all, devastating nets.
When are these mentally challenged incompetent clowns going to wake up. This type of Net fishing has devastated fish stocks and their habitats on the Eastern and Southern seaboards so why ???? allow these murderers to kill off our fish stocks here in WA and completely destroy the ocean habitat. Every where else around the world Governments are cutting back on this type of net fishing because in most places the fish stocks are virtually non existent.
All net fishing should be band within 500 nautical miles off the Australian coast!!!!!!!
It is time to overhall the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, maybe sack the lot of them and start again with some people who care about our very special fishery here in Western Australia. Maybe it is time to draw the line in the sand and tell them they no longer have jurisdiction over WA anymore !!!

This is so obviously hypocritical, corrupt and diabolical. Governments the world over are becoming more and more arrogant and acting like their slaves (which we are) are so stupid they can't even see the corruption of acts like this.
This is beyond words really. Tax the slaves to oblivion and let the corporate mercs pillage and plunder.

Here is the ARTICLE WHICH WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER

WA fishermen and environmentalists have condemned a Federal fishing proposal that could open up more than 10,000sqkm of pristine ocean floor to damaging trawlers.

Australian Fisheries Management Authority boundary changes are set to allow bottom trawlers into 4100sqkm off the Gascoyne coast and 6000sqkm off the Kimberley.

But fishermen say trawling will devastate ecosystems and could damage stocks of bottom-dwelling species such as pink, goldband and ruby snapper.

The proposed changes are a flashpoint in the battle between State and Federal fisheries authorities to manage commercial fishing off WA.

Under current rules, any waters shallower than 200m within 370km of shore are off-limits to trawlers and are managed by the WA Government.

But a proposed redrawing of the 200m depth line would allow trawling into the two swaths off WA. The region off the Gascoyne has never been trawled and the Kimberley area is recovering from trawling with a two-year exclusion.

Kimberley Professional Fishermen’s Association secretary Bob Masters accused the AFMA of wanting a slice of the fishery because it was one of the few regions where stocks had not collapsed.

He said bottom trawl fishing was “just vandalism” and the trawl boundary should be much further out to sea.

High-intensity trawling could catch a whole year’s fishing allocation in a few months while destroying corals, plants and other seabed habitats vital for fish to survive.

That could lead to a boom-and-bust cycle for consumers and might force WA distributors to import fish at certain times if the allocation was used up too quickly.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert urged Federal Fisheries Minister Tony Burke and Environment Minister Peter Garrett to renew the temporary trawler ban off the Kimberley before it was too late.

She said they should defer any decision on the trawler boundary until the Federal Government had finished its marine planning for WA, which calls for huge marine parks.

WA Wilderness Society marine coordinator Jill StJohn said WA fishermen had taken on restrictions to ensure stocks were harvested sustainably.

“These guys have nursed this fishery back from damage done by Commonwealth licensed foreign trawlers by a non-destructive method,” she said.

WA Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said the plan would have a significant effect on State-licensed fishermen and the Government would do all it could to protect the commercial and environmental interests of WA fisheries.

MICHAEL HOPKIN and JODIE THOMSON

i think its bull#$%^ they make us pay this %^&*@# licence @#$% n ban fishing for a while , n then hey lets trawl the $%^& out of the ocean YAY lol

Edited by Andy Mac 12/08/09 (Please self moderate with language guys)

"They make us pay to fish then they prpose these new rules , to open up seabed trawling . This will devistate our pristine ocean and reef , Im pretty sad about this aye"

Dhuboy..cant trawl over reefs bud..deckies would be busy.

Net fishing should be banned all together its just cheating.
Sounds like normal Govt decision really. i.e friggin stupid....

ah the vagaries, of politics at both State and Commonwealth levels, just utterly unbelievable, the last paragraph of that article, is full of hypocrisy.

Jim.

We are governed by dickheads,their only interest is in fast $dollars and no thought of the future,every one with half a brain knows that trawlers are indiscriminate and destroy the Eco system but they catch heaps of fish at a time so its worth the while of the trawlers doing it,Political parties of all kinds will sell this country out for money,I bet they all have their sticky fingers in some place to get rewards and kick backs from the ones who make the big Dollars,Highlander wrote a piece about going so many miles off the English coats with a trawler and the catch they got,The Russians sent hug factory ships into the North Sea some years ago and the fish stocks just about collapsed,The Chinese and Japanese have all but destroyed the fishing grounds around their coast that's why they want to come here,and our bloody government are so incompetent and gutless they will let them,My bitch for the day,and yes the boat show is a disappointment,jersey

Um look through out history , your dead right on they look at the BUCKS insted of the Future useless dumb prickss , Government personal are all DOGGS

Its probably why people have no faith in decisions made. I wonder how long it will be before we have to buy their licences back too?

With all the media exposure the Commonwealth takes with one hand and hands it out with the other.

Jersey, I would like to point out a couple of things for you, the Russians never put huge factory trawlers into the North Sea, what actually happened, was the Russians anchored large factory ships off the Scottish Coast at places like the Moray Firth, Ullapool and Stornoway on the West Coast, these factory boats, used to process all the herring that was transferred to these boats,which was caught by Scottish boats, that type of transfer and selling the herring was known as "klondyking" and had nothing to do with the Klondyke, it is a phrase, used by Scottish Pelagic Fishermen to this day.Now all the prices and contracts were all agreed, well before the herring catching begun. The Russians do however, trawl at Rockall in depths around 4000 feet, as do some of the Scottish Fleet. Yes the herring stocks almost collapsed, but the Scottish Herring fishermen stopped fishing for five years completely. However after that, the fishery was reopened but under very,very strict quota systems and it does work, mind you, there is know where, the amount of herring boats, that there used to be. The main reason that the North Sea Catching almost collapsed, was because there were far too many fishing boats working the North Sea, by comparison its a small area and the amount of fishing effort, that was put into the North Sea became untenable, so the European Union, introduced a policy, known as The Common Fisheries Policy, where all member EU countries had to abide by all policies in the agreement. One of the most hypocritical things, fishermen had to do, was dump good fish over the side,that were dead, because they had no quota, to allow them to land the fish into the market. The other thing, that got fishermen annoyed, was how they are persecuted and prosecuted, it is unbelievable, they are treated like common criminals. They have to keep log books of what is caught, where and when and the Spaniards in particular get away with cathing undersize fish and selling them into their fish markets. Needless to say the Common Fisheries Policy in the European Union was very unpopular, was scrapped earlier this year, while a new CFP is written, in conjunction and consultation of fisheremen of the countries involved. If this proposal gets the go ahead, these boats will have to comply with very strict rules and policies and I would think, there would be a Fisheries Observer put aboard each boat, to make sure that they comply with the rules etc. For those who remember, the Japanese, that used to Longline off the Australian Coastline, one of the understandings was, there had to be an observer on board at all times, otherwise that boat was not allowed to fish. The other thing which has to be considered, is the "free trade agreement" with whatever country, that wants to fish the deep waters off the coast and remember, it has to be viable, for these companies to fish here, if not they will leave and go elsewhere,as companies can not afford their boats to trawl for unmarketable fish or nothing. I do support fishermen and trawlers, there industry has been in existence for many years and hopefully will for many years to come, its them, that put food on the tables around the world and it is, "the most dangerous job in the world". Jim.

Our successive governments seem; with each step; to be less in tune.
If you look at some of the steps taken recently or attempted you have to wonder at the rational.
(have a look at the news over the last week)
I suppose it's time to become a tender vessel to "The sea shepherd"
.... hoist the jolly roger ol chasp and after em.......tally ho

Those that give up FREEDOM for security,
Deserve, Neither freedom or security.....
Written by some ol fart flying kites in storms...

PS we may have won the first step on these license's with Normy and his mates,
Which remids me of the "Newcastle Song" for those old enough; and for those not old enough then jump on your Puter and look it up, "rack off normie you and yer mates, I know what yer after but I'll put yer straight....."lolololol This could become our campaign theme song......

A very insightful description of what the English and those attached to them have allowed,I am not sure if it was detrimental to the local people,and markets or benefit ,but if someone made a she ite load of money,then it must be alright,no matter how or by whom,or the longer term effects were to the eco system, the money was made.The question I would like to ask if trawel fishing,is a good way to fish, and can only have been done since the concept of motorized boats as I do not think much of a net could be pulled by a sail craft or oarsmen,so I think that it can be rationalized that the use of trawlers to scourer the sea bed and catch huge volumes of fish is only about 150 years old,Steam boats included.into I also know that trawling is indiscriminate and not only catches the target fish but also by catch, Exmouth were targeted species,Prawns,were caught and in the past discarded,particularly And if my memory is correct their was one off Mandurah some years ago,I m not sure of the targeted species,or a case off the Tasmanian coast where a trawler put a net around a huge or at least,a very large school of Orange Roughies,so large in fact,the trawler was in danger of capsize so they were forced to cut the nets,bloody shame the fish in the net were invariably dead,but no doubt that net fishing is effective,after all,a trawler goes along,finds the right ground or schools of fish,drops a net with a mouth of large to bigger but not huge,then tows it along,so all the fish that do not get through the actual net holes,are then forced to the end of the net,then other fish and water pressure stops them from swimming out,then the net is hauled up,dangled from the derricks and then opened to allow the fish to be sorted on the deck,those that are wanted,go into the hold the others,(by catch) are thrown back over the side.as we mostly are aware of fish Barometric and scale damage,not to mention the sun in the eyes of the fish in daylight,yes I think trawling is a great way to fish in a sustainable,environmental way. We cannot escape the fact that fishing pressure in most of the worlds oceans with the advance of larger boats,(factory Ships)and electronics,are a factor in the decline of many fish stock.I think the reason the Spanish,Russian and Japanese fishing fleets fish in other nations waters is due to the lack of fish in their own,so maybe under the Free trade concept and being thoroughly decent chaps about it we should allow all and sundry to operate around our coast,after all the UK has done soooo well,jersey

Jersey, Maybe you are unfamiliar, with sailing trawlers, they were mainly around the SW of England,in my ancestors time it was drifters, that were powered by sail, when there was no wind, they just drifted along on the current.

Talking of eco systems, the bottom of the North Sea, is just littered with all things man made, war time relics to parts of oil rigs,including oil pipe lines which some, sit on the sea bed, but in recent times, the pipeline is buried, "using huge" undersea trenching machines. I have also seen footage where some breeds of fish are actually drawn to the warmth of the pipe, the fish being coley and the boats trawl alongside the pipeline. The other pile of rubbish that sits on the bottom of every ocean and sea of the world, is the now infamous shipping container, containing, who knows what!! If the miscellaneous, manmade discards, are dumped into every ocean and sea in the world, what condition are all the eco systems of the marine world like? so its just not, the trawlermen that destroy marine habitat.

 Jim.

about the drift type of trawler, I still do not think it would have been as efficient as motor powered vessels,as the fish would have been at the same speed as the current or drift,I worked on a fishing boat out of Jersey CI in 1976 targeting mackerel,and other school type fish,it was the skipper who told me of the Russian fishing practices as he had to leave his local UK grounds due to the decline in catch ratio,he reckons he also took into account the variable weather pattern as that summer 1976 was very hot by normal standards,Last time I heard from him he was back working out of Dover,on a catch quoter and pulled a load of Tope as he had passed his allowance he dumped them,but from his house he can see the Froggies trawling with impunity inside English waters,so he says.any ways Jim,I still do not agree with any net fishing method as they are to indiscriminate ,but this is my view and I will stand to be corrected,I think it was King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta giving equal rights to all the people commoners and the higher class,I see from your site name Highlander you are possible a Scotsman,a proud race of people who had the good sence to keep the Sassonax out Have a good one Mate jersey

Listened to the country hour on ABC today,the trawling proposals were brought up.In the Gascoyne area there is grave concern for pink snapper stocks in the future if it goes ahead when there have been major efforts made to bring the levels back up to a respectable numbers.
The Federal Govt proposals somehow had been leaked,just as well or it would have gone through without the State gov's knowledge or the ability to do something about it.

The state government bought out or restricted the use of both trawl and set nets in this area I believe,however it seems that two Bunbury boats have got around it by using the Federal government license and are trawling,maybe some of the South west members will know or have information on this?

You will find that there are two shark boats working from Bunbury,they are licenced to fish from just north of Myalup down to just east of Windy harbour.There is another 1 possibly two working from Geographe bay south and another 2 further south at Hamelin Bay and Dead Finish between Cape Leuwin and Augusta.
They use set demersal nets with a minimum mesh of 7 1/8 inch and a max of 7 1/2in.The two Bunbury boats have the biggest number of units,1=7.5 km and the other 6.5km.the one from Augusta has around 5 and the rest about 3 depending on the time of the year they chose to fish.
They are fishing under WA licences not Federal as they are inside the continental shelf[200 metres]

I thought they were fishing under a Federal license,still a hell of a lot of net 7.5 kilometers,do you know if they get much or any by catch or do they target mainly shark?

Bycatch is around 20-25%.mainly queenies,buffs,dusky morwongs,boar fish,salmon in season[allowed to bring a tonne a day in for the local market],the odd dhuey and surprisingly very few pink snapper.

There are also 2 more boats working from Fremantle[not allowed to set south of Lancelin]and to my knowledge another two working from Geraldton.The southern fishery goes from Windy Harbour to the South Australian border,don't know how many or where the boats work from but I do know that is where the majority of the total catch of gummy and whiskery sharks come from.

Since I was involved in it the fishing times allowed have been cut by half,gear to be used reduced,have to have a satellite transponder and areas closed completely not just the Mandurah to Lancelin and all this in just the last 4 years

There are a few Great Whites of f Perth atm,do you think we could borrow a net or two ,Just joking I know the sharks are protected jersey

is there any shark boats working from Esperance Carnarvonite??

Jim.

With the amount of gummy and whiskery shark that comes to the markets I would say yes but how many I haven't got a clue.

There are a couple of Shark Fishermen working to the east of Albany, a lot of Dhuies and Blue Groper and other good quality by-catch... only thing is that because it is net caught it is not in as good a condition as line caught fish...
From what I have seen, sometimes the by-catch is worth a lot more than the intended catch..............

The problem with nets,all type of nets are indiscriminate and there is always a by catch,and due to the actual process of what happens to anything caught by this means targeted or not it is stuffed,apart from the target species,other creatures get caught,Turtles,Dolphin,Maybe,sometimes the odd Whale,sea birds,but as Rick points out Dhuies and Blue grouper,and( From what I have seen, sometimes the by-catch is worth a lot more than the intended catch)Ricks quote,I admit that I am totally bias against nets due to the nature of how they catch,for example,I used to go dragging a net for prawns in the Swan River many years ago,the target,prawns,but we also got small cobbler,whiting,flounder (rarely) crabs,blowies,and jelly fish,by the time we had sorted these by catch products out,invariably they were not well or dead,those net were about 2.5 meters wide,multiply that by 7.5 kilometers,ok, admitted, the net was small to hold prawns,and possibly small fish can swim through the mesh of bigger stationary nets,but trawlers scope up everything,the smaller fish at the start might get away but as the bottom sock fill with bigger fish the small ones get stuck between?,I do not like traps either,hook and line apart from the Baratruama factor is least likely to catch - damage to total eco system,my view,I will listen to any opposite view to change,but I say No to any more increase too the trawlers off WA jersey

I have read evidence of the Sea Sheppard hunting down japanese ships with long line of up to 100 km long :| , i know its not trawling , but that is one fkn big fishing line. It has an estimated 60,000 hoks on it or something silly like that not good news lol

Do what the hell they like,and yes I agree its as bad as nets,but at the moment I was thinking more around the Federal Government Of Aussie possible allowing trawlers into WA waters I would be real Pissed off if it is boats from other countries,as they have totally F*****d their waters and will happily do the same to ours,I find that both State and Federal pollies are far to found of selling Aussie short, the State gov ,bloody China,a lot of Queensland ,Hotels excreta,Japan.I wonder how much of Australia is still Australian,we may well remember the ANZACS April 25th each year as they would be disgusted to see what has happened to the country the fought,suffered and died for,as bunch of shallow,self interested political parties who are not suitable to polish the boots of our veterans of all conflicts. These are not fishing related but I am unable to understand why we seem hell bent on destroying our once great nation.had to delete last thoughts jersey

The GOV just keep on Fkn us.

Rick and Carnarvonite,
Thanks for answering my question re boats working around Esperance.
Jim.