Answer is, I have no idea! - last I heard he was busy hosting a TV show on bream competition fishing or somesuch?.
Having seen 1st hand the occasional load of crapola some media celebrities cop from posting at Websites occasionally - I am not surprised when they elect to just avoid the problem by not participating.
When you write/publish a book or magazine article, (or front a TV camera) it isn't "interactive" - you don't have to stare down the hecklers etc.. you just do your best and present your best possible "product/work" to the public, and if they like it they buy it, if not they walk on...but the internet is different.
On the internet at forums, you get 99 people who want help (which you'd like to be able to do) - and inevitably one wise guy wants to belittle you (bring you down / made you look small) in order to make himslef look bigger..
Theres NOTHING to be gained - so SOME fishing media celebrities just choose to not post / participate at websites...
Funny thing is - at fishing / boating shows, seldom do the wiseguys have a go in public - face to face (if they have an issue with something you once wrote or said on TV or a book / magazine article!).
There is something about the anonymity of the internet - that turns mild mannered Clark Kent types into instant Supermen, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.
It is (in my opinion at least) a shame - because a LOT of the next generation of anglers (Kids) could be taught by experts at such forums as this, if it weren't for the very small but vocal minority, that spoil it for the rest!
Fishing celebritys, are NOT used to having their work "moderated" for example - they write about fishing for a living and the only person the have to answer to, is their editor/publisher - who is PAYING them for their article, hence they take criticism pretty well - because they are after all, getting paid!.
To write about fishing on the Internet (for free) and then get moderated (or worse have a thread locked so you can't defend yourself) is NOT a good thing for such celebritys.
There are a LOT of good reasons you seldom see the successfull Fishing celebritys posting on the internet....just too many risks for them and not much gain.
They do after all have to make a living at the end of the day!
The internet - in that respect has largely failed to live up to it's early promise in as far as paying for web site content..in the way of articles etc from the pro's.
Every amateur these days can publish any standard of pictures, and text or even video footage of sometimes dubious quality to the internet for free.
How is any professional going to "sell a product" to an internet site owner / host, if there are 1000 people a day offering such stuff for free?.
That, sadly, means we often don't see the same standards of fishing journalism on the net as we do in say magazines or on the TV.
I well recall Starlo once suggesting to me (after a dissapointing response to his participation on a forum) that the internet, the way it was going, would one day end up just like CB (Citizen band) Radio did 20 years ago!.
CB radio for anyone to young to remember, started out being a usefull tool for offroad enthusiasts and farmers etc to have in their vehicle in case they became stranded, lost, bogged, injured badly etc for effecting rescue.
BUT because parents saw it as a form of entertainment for kids - (meaning the radio would baby sit their kids) every kid soon had one and the amont of inane & stupid or bad behaviour traffic meant that it was no longer any use as a rescue tool for which it was originally designed - because it couldn't be relied upon any more since it was totally congested with dibolical dribble i.e. had become a kids plaything!.
I believe (but would be happy to be proved wrong) that probably my ol 'partner in crime' believes the internet has largely become like CB radio in the past and as a result, chooses largely not to participate.
Thats my take on it anyway for what it's worth. Tis a pity IMHO because he has a tremendous ability to communicate and contribute!.
we released just about all of them except one or two we kept to eat!
Starlo claimed they were in the 6 - 8 kilo bracket - they were big for fly caught - but certainly BIGGER pinkys have been taken on traditional tackle!.
Some of the bruisers taken from our south coast get scarey big and I think a few from North coast Tassie also would even give ours a scare...Tammar river springs to mind!
But - for sheer abundance and ease to catch - not much beats these abrolhos pinkies.
They, like the sambo's, get used to following the lobster boats every day from trap to trap, eating the previous days discarded bait - you could catch a boatfull in a few hours if you were of such a mind. That said we elected to release 'em all bar a couple for the table.
Starlo's words were something to the effect that 'Victorian snapper fishers of Port Phillip Bay would be crying real tears if they could just see us throwing these size pinkies back one after another...".
Sadly, Pinkies were once a LOT more abundant than they are now,and MOST of that decline is down to a couple things.
Legal sizes set below spawning age.. most pinkies don't spawn until they reach 39 - 41 cm depending on where you are, and the number of eggs they have just about doubles every year thereafter.
Keeping "plate size" - eg 28cm pinkies - as a legal sized fish is sheer lunacy!
The 'legal size limits' were in many cases originally set based on what was considered a good plate sized fish to eat (with no thought toward conserving the stocks by allowing them to at least spawn once before becomming legal sized)!
Trawling bycatch another reason, and
Overfishing by rec and pro alike yet anoter reason for decline!
We are paying the price for that now.
You know, the pro wet liners moved in on the Abrolhos en mass after the film footage of that snapper fishing went to air...and today the snapper are actually getting hard to fnd out there at times...
People, of all persuasions, just can't help themselves sadly!
And they aren't even THAT good eating IMHO...
There are a LOT of fish I'd choose to eat before a pinkie, but they sure are fun to catch just the same!
I've heard many people comment that pink snapper are neighbours fish. To me they aren't too bad, but certainly not that high up on the priority list and if theres a feed in the bag I'd certainly release them too.
Thats what made the wetline thread rather interesting. Can't say i've fished the Abrohlos, but heard stories of the amount of fish they pull out of there, just because they can. Sad state of affairs really.
Yea - not so much the Lobster boys filling up with fish to bringhome to supplement the deckies income. Not saying it doesn't happen - just not to the extent claimed I don't think.
More the wet liners, who move in and kill the pig on the fish.
When you want to find fish offshore - what do you do?
Find a bommie and burley the heck out of it!
OK imagine you find a coral archipellago like the Abrolhos
Normally it can support xyz number of fish in it's eco system
But then add 200 cray boats all using say....1 tonne of bait a day!
Suddenly - you got the biggest fish attraction Fad in the whole goddamn indian ocean attracting fish (and sharks) ad everything else in the ocean from hundreds of kilometers away...
That happens for 4 months a year!
Why do you think, the skipper of the charter boat on it's maiden voyage got eaten by a great white when he stopped there on the boats maiden voyage up the coast lasy season in March?
3 days after the opening of cray season...400 tonnes of raw fish tipped into the ocean..would YOU swim at a spot the locals name "the bitey hole"?
Couldmake for an interesting coroners inquest...more than likely "accidentaldeath"..bt more creectly probably "death wish" if he had KNOWN the REAL risks by having ALl the facts!.
Bu the lobster boys - Ok they take a freezer home at end of the season, and yes it's got a lot of fish in it, BUT..
They could gather those JUST from the fish that get winched up in the lobster traps..trust me, the deckies on a share of the catch don't need a few extra $ for the end of the season in fish fillets - they have already made a packet off the catch.
The real damage is done I would suggest by wetliners out there.
Having said that, consider this. Lobster guys now mostly import a lot of their bait so fish arent caught at th islands for bait - in years gone bye they used to be...yet the place is considered fish rich...still.
So - if theyarent decimating it for bait like they used to and ARE wetlining it nd keeping a freezer full for the lobster crews...then what else can threaten it?
Can anyone say 60 bed resort?????
Yep, 20 beds for staff and 40 for guests...
Each guest LEGALLY allowed to take 20 kilos of fillets a DAY unfder the posession rules...
Gee - I make that 40 x 20 = 800 kilo's of fillets a day or about 2.4 tonnes of whole fish a DAAAY x 365 days a year - on TOP of what the lobster boys and wetliners are taking!
Oh yeah - the developer (Barry Humpfreys from Humpfreys Land Developements Geraldton) tells me he has told Fisheies in his submission - he won't build the resort unless they grant him 3 charter licenses for the Abrolhos!
No experience or history in the industry at all - every one else has to BUY a licnese from those already issued but the govt are going to GIVE this guy 3 licenses, so he can buy boats and employ skippers to take his clients fishing the way he wants it done (whatever that may be?).
Soo - what about those people who already HAVE boats and Licenses that Fisheries wont allow to stay on the islands?????
Some seriously "possibly corrupt" back hander deals being done here I suspect, just between you me and the gatepost!
I understand the 20kg possession limit to be just that .A possession limit not a daily bag limit.
These punters would face the normal per person Dhui and Baldy as well as other species limits that apply to all . I would imagine you would certainly have to exceed your bag limits to accumulate 20kgs in one day and I also understand that there is a 10kg per day limit that also applies.
Some clarification please.
You are only allowed to have on you 20kg of fish at any one time unless your at your place of residence. So those at the Abrolhos would have to abide by normal bag limits each day until they had up to 20kg fish. Then after that they are not permitted to take any more, unless they eat 2kg then they can catch another 2kg to replace it.
Well picked up - poorly worded by me, admittedly but there ARE a lot of day visit fly in fly out people (Spearo's for example) who do bring home a posession limit of fillets..I know, I've been on the same plane as them.
If your on an offshore island for more than 48 hours it becomes your place of residence! Any "interception by a Fisheries officer has to be between the water and your camp/hut/donga/resort room whatever.
In addition - for Island stays over 48 hours fillet length, (30cm) no longer applies (because at your place of residence on the island you can prepare your food into any form you choose!
The new rules fellas IMHO are really completely bloody whacky, eg - a nor wester is a legal sized fish at 28cm but you have to get a fillet off it 30 cm in length???
Not to mention (For the Lobster crews) that they have wetline licenses so the 20 kilo limit doesnt apply - they could in fact "consign" to themselves any amount they like under their wetline licenses! Hence theres NOTHING at all illegal about them bringing a freezer full of fillets home if they wish of any size and no need for skin and scales to be attached etc etc etc.
Complicated isn't it? You'd need to be a philladelphia lawyer to be able to abide by the rules to the exact letter of the law IMHO - which is what I wrote to the Department after they enacted the new rules.
"If your on an offshore island for more than 48 hours it becomes your place of residence"
Ahhh thats right forgot about that little point!!
Yeah the rules are pretty crazy and damn confusing. Why they are going to let people who are on holiday classify their "camp" as residence I will never know, yet if you are on a charter for a week out there you must abide by the normal rules which I dont think are strict enough as is. IMHO 20kg of fillets is well and truly more than any one person needs. That is something they really need to look at and fix up but whether they do or not is another thing
I found out the hard way...bout that. I only bought home 10 kilo's after 2 weeks out at the islands (i.e Half my limit). I did everything the new rules said...fillets 30cm or over, individually wrapped, labelled etc etc.
I actually did it as an 'excercise' to see just how realistic, the new rules were.
When I collected the esky off the carrier boat at the Gero wharf about 11 Pm....on a thursday night....the Fisheries guys Jumped all over it like they'd just rugby tackled Pam Anderson bukk nekkid...
They were so excited because the esky was one of those huge orange plastic ones we took all our drinks and ice over in..
Only - on the way back it was empty of ice and drinks and full of all our camping gear / fishing gear etc etc... not one fillet in it..
That kinda made em look like gooses in front of all the people standing round - waiting to see the bust...after unloading their crays.
So - then I let em look in the little esky with 10 kilo's fillets all done properly.
They laid em all out one after another, (yeah frozen fillets on Hot asphalt after a 42 degree day!!!). Thats really helpfull when you have to get them all the way back to Perth, now half defrosted!!.
They measured EVERY single one!!! (Despite the measurements clearly being written on for them!).
Then they selectd one that had frozen - laying bent over another thick fillet......and measured it on their ruler - not pushing it flat at all, and proclaimed it 1 cm under length!
Well color me dumb - but any fish yeilds 2 fillets normally, so how can the left side of the fish be OK for length but the right side isn't?????????????????
They issued a infringement notice.
I got home and looked up the rules....guess what - no minimum fillet length after a 48 hour stay on an island!!!!.
I wrote to fisheries, with a quote from the Handsard (Parliament notes) where Minister for Fisheries, Kim Chance introduced the new legislation - with the quote about the no fillet length applying to island stays of more than 48 hours duration!.
I suggested they had 2 choices.
1. Fisheries Minister Chance must immediately resign from the ministry/parliament for deliberately misleading parliament (under the westminster system)
or
2. They needed to withdraw their infrigement notice and apologise for their officer acting outside the powers conferred on him under the Fisheries act...
I still have the 2 page letter of apology! ;o)
You see, these new rules have some really really silly parts in them that are to all intents and purposes - un enforceable.
The mark of good legislation is that we must be able to enforce it.
Take the keep left rule that the stupid Victorian Commisioner copper dude introduced... Has ANYONE ever been booked for driving in the right lane?
Been doing it 30 years - I'm suddenly gonna change, coz a bloke from Victoria can't hack the traffic here????
Whats the point if legislation that no one in their right mind is going to try and enforce???
People will just ignore it!
Lets say - your at Steep point.
You catch a 60 kilo spanish mackeral.
Immediately you fillet it - you just broke the law! You have more than 20 kilo fillets posession limit!
You must cut half the fillets off (making sure the bit you keep is over 30 cm long tho) - and throw it back in the ocean!
Then you must not fish for the rest of the week, while your mates are all lined up on the cliffs each day fishing away happily!
The new laws actually MAKE criminals out of honest fishermen.
That is the saddest part.
The new laws are dumb and they suck. They just make fishing "too hard" for people to bother and thats their intent at the end of the day - much easier if a few pros just rape the lot! ;o)
Fisheries dept have lost their way....their staff are all demoralised, and they have just about given up I reckon!
SHizz
Posts: 1556
Date Joined: 07/08/05
So when is your partner in
So when is your partner in crime signing up on here? Very nice pinky, even better on fly!
Fly
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 04/02/06
Thats a good question
Answer is, I have no idea! - last I heard he was busy hosting a TV show on bream competition fishing or somesuch?.
Having seen 1st hand the occasional load of crapola some media celebrities cop from posting at Websites occasionally - I am not surprised when they elect to just avoid the problem by not participating.
When you write/publish a book or magazine article, (or front a TV camera) it isn't "interactive" - you don't have to stare down the hecklers etc.. you just do your best and present your best possible "product/work" to the public, and if they like it they buy it, if not they walk on...but the internet is different.
On the internet at forums, you get 99 people who want help (which you'd like to be able to do) - and inevitably one wise guy wants to belittle you (bring you down / made you look small) in order to make himslef look bigger..
Theres NOTHING to be gained - so SOME fishing media celebrities just choose to not post / participate at websites...
Funny thing is - at fishing / boating shows, seldom do the wiseguys have a go in public - face to face (if they have an issue with something you once wrote or said on TV or a book / magazine article!).
There is something about the anonymity of the internet - that turns mild mannered Clark Kent types into instant Supermen, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.
It is (in my opinion at least) a shame - because a LOT of the next generation of anglers (Kids) could be taught by experts at such forums as this, if it weren't for the very small but vocal minority, that spoil it for the rest!
Fishing celebritys, are NOT used to having their work "moderated" for example - they write about fishing for a living and the only person the have to answer to, is their editor/publisher - who is PAYING them for their article, hence they take criticism pretty well - because they are after all, getting paid!.
To write about fishing on the Internet (for free) and then get moderated (or worse have a thread locked so you can't defend yourself) is NOT a good thing for such celebritys.
There are a LOT of good reasons you seldom see the successfull Fishing celebritys posting on the internet....just too many risks for them and not much gain.
They do after all have to make a living at the end of the day!
The internet - in that respect has largely failed to live up to it's early promise in as far as paying for web site content..in the way of articles etc from the pro's.
Every amateur these days can publish any standard of pictures, and text or even video footage of sometimes dubious quality to the internet for free.
How is any professional going to "sell a product" to an internet site owner / host, if there are 1000 people a day offering such stuff for free?.
That, sadly, means we often don't see the same standards of fishing journalism on the net as we do in say magazines or on the TV.
I well recall Starlo once suggesting to me (after a dissapointing response to his participation on a forum) that the internet, the way it was going, would one day end up just like CB (Citizen band) Radio did 20 years ago!.
CB radio for anyone to young to remember, started out being a usefull tool for offroad enthusiasts and farmers etc to have in their vehicle in case they became stranded, lost, bogged, injured badly etc for effecting rescue.
BUT because parents saw it as a form of entertainment for kids - (meaning the radio would baby sit their kids) every kid soon had one and the amont of inane & stupid or bad behaviour traffic meant that it was no longer any use as a rescue tool for which it was originally designed - because it couldn't be relied upon any more since it was totally congested with dibolical dribble i.e. had become a kids plaything!.
I believe (but would be happy to be proved wrong) that probably my ol 'partner in crime' believes the internet has largely become like CB radio in the past and as a result, chooses largely not to participate.
Thats my take on it anyway for what it's worth. Tis a pity IMHO because he has a tremendous ability to communicate and contribute!.
Cheers!
SHizz
Posts: 1556
Date Joined: 07/08/05
I see your point, and i
I see your point, and i suppose he is a busy man, but getting back to it looks like a good sized snapper, did you manage to weigh it at all?
Fly
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 04/02/06
Not from memory
we released just about all of them except one or two we kept to eat!
Starlo claimed they were in the 6 - 8 kilo bracket - they were big for fly caught - but certainly BIGGER pinkys have been taken on traditional tackle!.
Some of the bruisers taken from our south coast get scarey big and I think a few from North coast Tassie also would even give ours a scare...Tammar river springs to mind!
But - for sheer abundance and ease to catch - not much beats these abrolhos pinkies.
They, like the sambo's, get used to following the lobster boats every day from trap to trap, eating the previous days discarded bait - you could catch a boatfull in a few hours if you were of such a mind. That said we elected to release 'em all bar a couple for the table.
Starlo's words were something to the effect that 'Victorian snapper fishers of Port Phillip Bay would be crying real tears if they could just see us throwing these size pinkies back one after another...".
Sadly, Pinkies were once a LOT more abundant than they are now,and MOST of that decline is down to a couple things.
Legal sizes set below spawning age.. most pinkies don't spawn until they reach 39 - 41 cm depending on where you are, and the number of eggs they have just about doubles every year thereafter.
Keeping "plate size" - eg 28cm pinkies - as a legal sized fish is sheer lunacy!
The 'legal size limits' were in many cases originally set based on what was considered a good plate sized fish to eat (with no thought toward conserving the stocks by allowing them to at least spawn once before becomming legal sized)!
Trawling bycatch another reason, and
Overfishing by rec and pro alike yet anoter reason for decline!
We are paying the price for that now.
You know, the pro wet liners moved in on the Abrolhos en mass after the film footage of that snapper fishing went to air...and today the snapper are actually getting hard to fnd out there at times...
People, of all persuasions, just can't help themselves sadly!
And they aren't even THAT good eating IMHO...
There are a LOT of fish I'd choose to eat before a pinkie, but they sure are fun to catch just the same!
Cheers!
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15647
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Agree
I've heard many people comment that pink snapper are neighbours fish. To me they aren't too bad, but certainly not that high up on the priority list and if theres a feed in the bag I'd certainly release them too.
Thats what made the wetline thread rather interesting. Can't say i've fished the Abrohlos, but heard stories of the amount of fish they pull out of there, just because they can. Sad state of affairs really.
Site Admin - Just ask if you need assistance
Fly
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 04/02/06
Plenty more wrong out there IMHO
Yea - not so much the Lobster boys filling up with fish to bringhome to supplement the deckies income. Not saying it doesn't happen - just not to the extent claimed I don't think.
More the wet liners, who move in and kill the pig on the fish.
When you want to find fish offshore - what do you do?
Find a bommie and burley the heck out of it!
OK imagine you find a coral archipellago like the Abrolhos
Normally it can support xyz number of fish in it's eco system
But then add 200 cray boats all using say....1 tonne of bait a day!
Suddenly - you got the biggest fish attraction Fad in the whole goddamn indian ocean attracting fish (and sharks) ad everything else in the ocean from hundreds of kilometers away...
That happens for 4 months a year!
Why do you think, the skipper of the charter boat on it's maiden voyage got eaten by a great white when he stopped there on the boats maiden voyage up the coast lasy season in March?
3 days after the opening of cray season...400 tonnes of raw fish tipped into the ocean..would YOU swim at a spot the locals name "the bitey hole"?
Couldmake for an interesting coroners inquest...more than likely "accidentaldeath"..bt more creectly probably "death wish" if he had KNOWN the REAL risks by having ALl the facts!.
Bu the lobster boys - Ok they take a freezer home at end of the season, and yes it's got a lot of fish in it, BUT..
They could gather those JUST from the fish that get winched up in the lobster traps..trust me, the deckies on a share of the catch don't need a few extra $ for the end of the season in fish fillets - they have already made a packet off the catch.
The real damage is done I would suggest by wetliners out there.
Having said that, consider this. Lobster guys now mostly import a lot of their bait so fish arent caught at th islands for bait - in years gone bye they used to be...yet the place is considered fish rich...still.
So - if theyarent decimating it for bait like they used to and ARE wetlining it nd keeping a freezer full for the lobster crews...then what else can threaten it?
Can anyone say 60 bed resort?????
Yep, 20 beds for staff and 40 for guests...
Each guest LEGALLY allowed to take 20 kilos of fillets a DAY unfder the posession rules...
Gee - I make that 40 x 20 = 800 kilo's of fillets a day or about 2.4 tonnes of whole fish a DAAAY x 365 days a year - on TOP of what the lobster boys and wetliners are taking!
Oh yeah - the developer (Barry Humpfreys from Humpfreys Land Developements Geraldton) tells me he has told Fisheies in his submission - he won't build the resort unless they grant him 3 charter licenses for the Abrolhos!
No experience or history in the industry at all - every one else has to BUY a licnese from those already issued but the govt are going to GIVE this guy 3 licenses, so he can buy boats and employ skippers to take his clients fishing the way he wants it done (whatever that may be?).
Soo - what about those people who already HAVE boats and Licenses that Fisheries wont allow to stay on the islands?????
Some seriously "possibly corrupt" back hander deals being done here I suspect, just between you me and the gatepost!
http://www.hld.com.au/content.asp?documentid=54
Go ahead - knock yourselves out!
How many avergae Joe Fishermen will be able to afford to visit / stay here?????
Aanyone think like me that the place will be taken over by the "beautiful people"?
Another paradise sold out by govt!
Cheers!
Baglimitboy
Posts: 39
Date Joined: 11/02/06
20kg possession limit
I understand the 20kg possession limit to be just that .A possession limit not a daily bag limit.
These punters would face the normal per person Dhui and Baldy as well as other species limits that apply to all . I would imagine you would certainly have to exceed your bag limits to accumulate 20kgs in one day and I also understand that there is a 10kg per day limit that also applies.
Some clarification please.
Gully
Posts: 963
Date Joined: 04/10/05
Possession Limits
Yeah thats how I read it,
You are only allowed to have on you 20kg of fish at any one time unless your at your place of residence. So those at the Abrolhos would have to abide by normal bag limits each day until they had up to 20kg fish. Then after that they are not permitted to take any more, unless they eat 2kg then they can catch another 2kg to replace it.
Fly
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 04/02/06
Exactly
Well picked up - poorly worded by me, admittedly but there ARE a lot of day visit fly in fly out people (Spearo's for example) who do bring home a posession limit of fillets..I know, I've been on the same plane as them.
If your on an offshore island for more than 48 hours it becomes your place of residence! Any "interception by a Fisheries officer has to be between the water and your camp/hut/donga/resort room whatever.
In addition - for Island stays over 48 hours fillet length, (30cm) no longer applies (because at your place of residence on the island you can prepare your food into any form you choose!
The new rules fellas IMHO are really completely bloody whacky, eg - a nor wester is a legal sized fish at 28cm but you have to get a fillet off it 30 cm in length???
Not to mention (For the Lobster crews) that they have wetline licenses so the 20 kilo limit doesnt apply - they could in fact "consign" to themselves any amount they like under their wetline licenses! Hence theres NOTHING at all illegal about them bringing a freezer full of fillets home if they wish of any size and no need for skin and scales to be attached etc etc etc.
Complicated isn't it? You'd need to be a philladelphia lawyer to be able to abide by the rules to the exact letter of the law IMHO - which is what I wrote to the Department after they enacted the new rules.
Cheers!
Gully
Posts: 963
Date Joined: 04/10/05
Nice curve ball
"If your on an offshore island for more than 48 hours it becomes your place of residence"
Ahhh thats right forgot about that little point!!
Yeah the rules are pretty crazy and damn confusing. Why they are going to let people who are on holiday classify their "camp" as residence I will never know, yet if you are on a charter for a week out there you must abide by the normal rules which I dont think are strict enough as is. IMHO 20kg of fillets is well and truly more than any one person needs. That is something they really need to look at and fix up but whether they do or not is another thing
Fly
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 04/02/06
Yes
Curve ball indeed!.
I found out the hard way...bout that. I only bought home 10 kilo's after 2 weeks out at the islands (i.e Half my limit). I did everything the new rules said...fillets 30cm or over, individually wrapped, labelled etc etc.
I actually did it as an 'excercise' to see just how realistic, the new rules were.
When I collected the esky off the carrier boat at the Gero wharf about 11 Pm....on a thursday night....the Fisheries guys Jumped all over it like they'd just rugby tackled Pam Anderson bukk nekkid...
They were so excited because the esky was one of those huge orange plastic ones we took all our drinks and ice over in..
Only - on the way back it was empty of ice and drinks and full of all our camping gear / fishing gear etc etc... not one fillet in it..
That kinda made em look like gooses in front of all the people standing round - waiting to see the bust...after unloading their crays.
So - then I let em look in the little esky with 10 kilo's fillets all done properly.
They laid em all out one after another, (yeah frozen fillets on Hot asphalt after a 42 degree day!!!). Thats really helpfull when you have to get them all the way back to Perth, now half defrosted!!.
They measured EVERY single one!!! (Despite the measurements clearly being written on for them!).
Then they selectd one that had frozen - laying bent over another thick fillet......and measured it on their ruler - not pushing it flat at all, and proclaimed it 1 cm under length!
Well color me dumb - but any fish yeilds 2 fillets normally, so how can the left side of the fish be OK for length but the right side isn't?????????????????
They issued a infringement notice.
I got home and looked up the rules....guess what - no minimum fillet length after a 48 hour stay on an island!!!!.
I wrote to fisheries, with a quote from the Handsard (Parliament notes) where Minister for Fisheries, Kim Chance introduced the new legislation - with the quote about the no fillet length applying to island stays of more than 48 hours duration!.
I suggested they had 2 choices.
1. Fisheries Minister Chance must immediately resign from the ministry/parliament for deliberately misleading parliament (under the westminster system)
or
2. They needed to withdraw their infrigement notice and apologise for their officer acting outside the powers conferred on him under the Fisheries act...
I still have the 2 page letter of apology! ;o)
You see, these new rules have some really really silly parts in them that are to all intents and purposes - un enforceable.
The mark of good legislation is that we must be able to enforce it.
Take the keep left rule that the stupid Victorian Commisioner copper dude introduced... Has ANYONE ever been booked for driving in the right lane?
Been doing it 30 years - I'm suddenly gonna change, coz a bloke from Victoria can't hack the traffic here????
Whats the point if legislation that no one in their right mind is going to try and enforce???
People will just ignore it!
Lets say - your at Steep point.
You catch a 60 kilo spanish mackeral.
Immediately you fillet it - you just broke the law! You have more than 20 kilo fillets posession limit!
You must cut half the fillets off (making sure the bit you keep is over 30 cm long tho) - and throw it back in the ocean!
Then you must not fish for the rest of the week, while your mates are all lined up on the cliffs each day fishing away happily!
The new laws actually MAKE criminals out of honest fishermen.
That is the saddest part.
The new laws are dumb and they suck. They just make fishing "too hard" for people to bother and thats their intent at the end of the day - much easier if a few pros just rape the lot! ;o)
Fisheries dept have lost their way....their staff are all demoralised, and they have just about given up I reckon!
Cheers!