Fisheries at North Mole?
Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen any fisheries officer at North Mole at all? All my years of fishing I haven't seen one. Then again I haven't frequented it as much as the regulars. Reason I'm bringing this up was that I haven't fish at the moles for a long time and was there last night. Had a few tailor runs, but all of them are around 27 to 30cm ish. One that my friend took home was just past the 30 cm mark and a few of the smaller ones released back with one measuring even 29.5cm.
I noticed that some people fishing around me (and I've noticed this in the past few years) just brought up whatever they get and in the fish went into pail, without any measurement of any sort. The sizes look around 30ish cm too so there was a good chance that some of them are undersized. Heck, one fisherman even had a surprising crayfish caught on ganged hooks and that was quite a nice catch I must admit. The cray went into the pail too without being measured (but it looked like a good sized cray), and did he have a license? Beats me.
With North Mole being such a hotspot, I am thinking that the fisheries should patrol that area more. I was just doing some random maths and say a convervative average of 2 tailors are being taken a night. 30-40ish fishermen a night * 2 = 60-80ish tailors and half of that undersized maybe? Also the 2 tailors taken is really a conversative number with some bagging just everything they get. Of course this is just recreational fishing, but question is, is this actually sustainable in the long run? I remember 3-4years back when the tailors average at 30-35cm ish. Of course last night was just a one off fishing sesh after a while and the sizes were pretty disappointing I must say though they are still good fight on light gear.
What are you thoughts on this?
scotto
Posts: 2472
Date Joined: 21/04/08
fisher what?
who are these fisheries people you speak of?!?
you know in all my years of fishing, i have only seen the fisheries guys twice. once to check cray sizes at the boat ramp, and once they pulled me over at rotto, but only to check my safety gear!
this kind of shit happens most nights at all the usual spots. i spoke to a mate just this morning, who went down to the ammo jetty last night for some scalies, and reported the exact same thing. heaps of undersized tailor being caught, and all being put into the various buckets being carried by (can i say it without sounding racist.....) asians. and, i have seen and reported it many times before and nothing happens. i have a word to the offenders, and they either "claim" they dont understand, or just plain dont give a shit.
wtf people?!?!
where are these fisheries guys when they are needed? i keep hearing the rumour "fisheries have more power than the cops these days.....", but i rarely hear of fines, etc! shit, i've fished for the best part of 25 years, and seen them twice.
as i said before, they know the hotspots (moles, jettys, etc), why dont they get down there more often and start doing what they are paid to do -
PROTECT THE FUTURE OF OUR FISHERY.
sorry if i seem a bit rash, but i needed to speak my opinion.
Silk200611
Posts: 286
Date Joined: 08/02/09
SAME IN THE SWAN
Call me Brad as that's my name..
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15653
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Out of interest
How many of you understand the fishwatch system and also know about whats involved in the prosecution/fining of an individual for undersize fish?
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scotto
Posts: 2472
Date Joined: 21/04/08
depends what you mean by
depends what you mean by "understand the fishwatch system".
i know there is fishwatch, but dont know of their "system".
no i dont know how involved it is to prosecute/ fine, etc, but surely it cant be that hard. they are BREAKING THE LAW. if i drive too fast and get caught, i get a ticket, usually on the spot. why is this different?
schecky
Posts: 1645
Date Joined: 25/08/08
always have number on my
always have number on my phone just in case
formerly fishoreub
Silk200611
Posts: 286
Date Joined: 08/02/09
Why dont you explain it
Why dont you explain it then...
Way i read your post is that the law is worth F##K all.
Well what about education then that will help more then the doing nothing
Call me Brad as that's my name..
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15653
Date Joined: 29/11/05
??
Don't know how you read that, but its certainly not intended that way.
The law is bloody complicated and its not just simple as; you have undersize fish your booked. You have to read them rights, get them to understand those rights and then interview them with a series of questions (20) and write it all down so that it can be used in court if it goes that far. If the process isn't followed then it will get laughed out of court by a lawyer and the prosecution is worthless and a lot of valuable resources have been wasted. You think about how time consuming this process is.. This is made harder when all of a sudden people get very defensive and some even use the 'I don't speak english' trick (as an example, no disrespect to anyone)
Then you consider all the sections where people can do illegal activities, marroning, freshwater, saltwater, crayfish etc etc. You have a decent amount of people but have to spread them thin to cover all the sections in vast areas of the state. Not to say that booking people for undersize fish isn't important, but as a cost recovery mode, its negative expenditure. As you say, education is the way foward.
Here are a few good examples of prosecutions posted up last year of guys that are doing significant damage that were busted: (this is not to say that those people that are taking undersize fish aren't doing damage either)
http://fishwrecked.com/node/8470
http://fishwrecked.com/node/7038
http://fishwrecked.com/node/8724
As for fishwatch, its hard for officers to just drop everything they're doing, especially if on surveilance or in the middle of a prosecution. Most of the time the offenders have already gone, or people report it when they get home because they don't have their phone or the fishwatch number. Trying to determine what is a valid report is very difficult. I won't go into the process cause I probably shouldn't, but theres plenty of variables which make it not as simple as everyone would think. Mind you, they are taken seriously and investigated, but a lot of the time the offender has left which reduces the chance of an offender being caught elsewhere.
These are just my own opinions, by the way.
Cheers,
Adam
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hlokk
Posts: 4292
Date Joined: 04/04/08
But does it need to be so
But does it need to be so complicated? Why cant it be like a speeding fine, on the spot, you were caught with undersize fish, heres the fine and when you need to pay it. Unless you contest a speeding fine you dont go to court, you dont need to fill out questionaires or have an interview. For bigger scale catches, perhaps go to court (burden of proof and all that), but if people could get fined $50 on the spot, the fisheries officers would only need to turn up a spot, spend half an hour, check heaps of people, then on their way.
--------------
Always interested in someone to go fishing with
big john
Posts: 8765
Date Joined: 20/07/06
I'm all for that
Particularly in well patronised places.
Put clear signs up in multiple languages. Cost a bit but you'd recoup the costs probably on the first night its policed.
Ignorance is no excuse.
John
I head a little FURTHER NORTH each year,
Leave the cities behind, out of sight of mind,
.......
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Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
I have never seen the
I have never seen the Fishererys yet,but i am only a young bloke at nearly 42,,maybe the older guys have seen them ?
I am told they are doing a great job and are understaffed as well.
Maybe they need help,,lets form a group and tip out buckets of undersize fish at hotspots or make some citzens arrests ?
Colin 3 > long standing and highly respect member of the prestigous Colin's club.
Eldwin
Posts: 72
Date Joined: 01/01/09
Well I've met the fisheries
Well I've met the fisheries once the first year I was here in Aus while crabbing down in Mandurah. Haven't seen them anywhere else, but I'd understand it due to the amount of spots having to be monitored. (We discussed about this in another thread a couple of weeks ago)
But I think for hot spots such as North Mole, and shall I say extremely hot spot, something has to be done as quite a number of undersized fish are being taken each night. And yes I've seen all sorts of people doing it not just asian, but I'll have to agree that 80-90% of them are Asians. (And yes, I'm an Asian too and I'm sicken by this
The very last time we discussed about putting up signs of bag limits, sizes and fines at hotspots at hot spots, but I do think it is long due for North Mole. Everytime you hear the everyday Metro fishermen talking about tailor, 8 out of 10 times it'd be North Mole. If nothing's done soon, probably in few years time people will start taking even 25cms as they are common with 30 a rarity?
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
This is a bit like fuel prices
everyone knows it's a crime but nothing ever happens. You should see the pillaging of Abs that has been going on down here. I parked next to a White Tarago at the Vasse General Store a couple of Sundays ago - an Adidas bag full of abs on the floor in the back and only 2 guys in the vehicle. I commented that they were way over the limit and got some b...s... that some belonged to friends in other vehicles. When i pointed out that it would be no exscuse if Fisheries stopped them i was told where i could go. They took off when i was in getting the papers - should have got their rego first and tried to contact Fisheries. I now have 1800 815 507 written on my sun visor.
Silk200611
Posts: 286
Date Joined: 08/02/09
1800 815 507
Is this the fisheries hotline??
if so i will put in my mobile on speed dial
Call me Brad as that's my name..
Eldwin
Posts: 72
Date Joined: 01/01/09
It's for FishWatch.
It's for FishWatch.
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15653
Date Joined: 29/11/05
details
If your going to ring fishwatch, take details. Amount of people, what car they were driving, rego if possible, suspected illegal activity, date, time and location.
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tomg
Posts: 1
Date Joined: 13/02/09
Same as crab poaching in
Same as crab poaching in Cockburn sound. In mid to late January of this year the crabs were coming right in to the shallows around the yatch club jetty. Of coarse word got around and in no time illegal crabbing was taking place.
As this is a local haunt for myself I advised these particular groups of the current bans in the hope they would stop fishing and return there catch. Out of the three or four groups I told only one group listened and told me they were not aware of the ban and thanked me for the info.
I was also hoping fisheries would be down at least on one of those nights but that did not occur.
From then on I put the fishwatch number in the mobile.
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Hlokk: But does it need to
Hlokk: But does it need to be so complicated? Why cant it be like a speeding fine, on the spot, you were caught with undersize fish, heres the fine and when you need to pay it.
but if people could get fined $50 on the spot, the fisheries officers would only need to turn up a spot, spend half an hour, check heaps of people, then on their way.
I think your onto it Hlokk. Anything up to certain species and quanitity, heres the fine, if you wish to contest it in court. Thanks for comin.
Every undersize fish after that is another $25.
Fisheries focus their resource on big things and the checks happen at ramps.
North mole has predominantly bread and butter type fish. If the fine system was targeted at many of these species then maybe it would serve as a deterrant.
Your not being arrested but heres a fine.
If you go beyond a point where you have entered an amateur commercial wannabe then you remain the right to be silent.
Very few people risk the undersize crayfish for some reason.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15653
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Also
You also have to think of where most of the funding comes from, which receives the most amount of compliance as a result...
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Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
I hear Chopper Reads in
I hear Chopper Reads in town,,lets put some money into a fund and have him walk around "educating " folks
He would not have to do anything just advise people that the fish are undersize,bet they empty the buckets real quick.
Best idea would be to run some television ads educating folks on the crab ban,tailor sizes,,snapper bans etc,,,,,,,i guess funds would be a problem,,
BTW >What happened to these liason officers ? i think they were volanteers from the public,,you never hear about them these days,,,,,,,,,,
Colin 3 > long standing and highly respect member of the prestigous Colin's club.
dumper
Posts: 1027
Date Joined: 03/04/08
pfff
I rang fishwatch once about pricks taking undersized crabs in cockburn sound only to get an answering service. I left my details and it took them a week to call me back. I got a phone call another week later to follow up on the previous call. might as well have been a call centre in mumbai.
How serious is the government in protecting our fishing stocks, if they cant even have the man power to man the phones, let alone getting troops on the ground and being pro-active
god save the tailor
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
When all is said and done
When all is said and done the situation is this.
A lot of the public are happy to take undersize and over the bag limits with no stress about being caught or any thought about any consequences.
Say something to them and they will laugh at you and turn it around so your the bad guy hassling them.
And i can't see it changing in the near future either,,,,
All we can do is ring the above number i guess and hope for some results or visit your local fisherys office and get to know the guys and become a squeaky hinge that needs plenty of oil to quiten it down (action being taken )
Colin 3 > long standing and highly respect member of the prestigous Colin's club.
Eldwin
Posts: 72
Date Joined: 01/01/09
Spot on Shorty. I was
Spot on Shorty. I was wondering if it helps if we put in a petition of some sort to really have hot spots being seriously monitored.
Don't really want to lose the tailors. Such a great fighting fish at its size for shore-based fishing. Hook one of those 35ish+ and your glow stick will go crazy in the water in the dark...
roberta
Posts: 2773
Date Joined: 08/07/08
I've said it on a other post
but it really amazed Bob & I went to Jurien In Jan 09 and the Fisheries Office is closed, "Please ring this number etc" Who is watching the illegal activities of amatuers and professionals?
We've had crabs come into the inner harbour at Woodmans Point Public and the Clubs launch retrieve jettys, we saw them bloody big boys indeed. Bosun is keeping a watch for illegal crabbing from CPBA jetties but can't do anything with the Public Ramp. He has Fishwatch on speed dial. The breakwater (concrete) and the groyne at Woodpoint is packed also on good fishing nights/days. We saw 40 people (Bob counted with Binoculors) and they were from the Land of the Long White Cloud. God only knows what they caught that night.
SPEWIE LEWIE
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kane
Posts: 1752
Date Joined: 07/12/08
Yep never been checked by fisheries in WA yet!
But back in SA you couldnt retrieve your boat without being checked by - A) fisheries and by B) the police wanting you to blow in the bag. Extremely lucky not to see them waiting at the ramps over there.
Goooooone Fishin!
Gooooone Fishin!