Sorry Andy, we have been through this all BEFORE, and here we go again

 {STOP THE NETTING }  im not going to post it, but that is just ME 

       jeff

I support a ban on netting in popular recreational areas.

Every winter, in Karratha, the prawn trawlers work non stop in Nickol Bay.  Nickol Bay, is the local boat ramp for Karratha residents, and when the weather is good you will see lots of boats, even small tinnies launching to go out and catch a few crabs.  These trawlers go through and severely pillage the crab stocks, killing females with eggs and taking tons of crabs. 

I reckon the pros should not be allowed, say, withing 30kms of a heavily populated town, such as Karratha.  Their trawlers are big enough to go further afield, where the local bloke in his tinnie can only stay in the shelter of the bay.  Is that not a fair compromise??

The Trawlers are not allowed the bay in until May and they are chasing Prawns. Yes there is bycatch, but they have been in there for 6 weeks now and the catches of crabs have not dropped that much (from personal experience anyway). The 100 tinnies a weekend taking 40 each adds up as well. Its not ideal, but a shitload better than it used to be in Nickol Bay. Maybe 4 Corners should do a report on it and get it all banned.

its a hard topic to suggest banning all trawlers as many people make there living from them and also many people buy there catch but I agree fark the trawlers of its ridiculous imo 3 quarters of the damage done to the world fish stocks comes from commercial over fishing.

Out of interest, why should we stop netting when it is these guys livelihood and have done it for decades just so we can go get a fish on the weekend.  What says we should have more rights than them?  I do understand the fight with them taking heaps of fish etc etc, but that is how they make a living and if the demand in the market for fresh fish isn't filled, then they get it from elsewhere and we start importing more shitty O/S fish and we lose another market.

Personally I don't think it needs to be stopped.  That is how many of my family friends from the south have survived over the years, if you're not a farmer, you're a fisherman and if you're not a fisherman, well then there wasn't much else left.  I love gill netting, I'm out there atleast once a week, set the net, play with the dog for an hour or two, have a coupla beers, get my bait and head home.  I enjoy it almost as much as wetting a line.

One of my mates often goes out to the Karratha prawn trawlers and gets some fresh prawns off them.  The pros were telling a story how they got 19 tons of squid in one session??

I was having a beer at the Tavern and talking to a prawn deckie, he admitted they get a few barra in the nets too.  No wonder it is getting hard to score a barra in the local creeks.

 Good on ya Adam for looking at the big picture. the commercial industry has copped a belting in the last 5 years with many people losing jobs, businesses, lively hoods (i know cause im one of them) due to the increasing closures and bans put in place by the fisheries. For all those people ranting about banning this and banning that remember at the end of the line there is real out there people losing the life they know. 5 years ago there was 670 commercial boat on the WA coast i think the number is down too about 280 now -

work that out at 3 families per boat.

Cheers Boomer 

are the absolute rapists of the ocean, nothing is spared and anything that does find its way off the sorting table is flushed onto sharks, dolphins and tuna, most edible fish in the shot get put on the table for dinner to save food allowance for deckies, rubbish/old oil from oil changes goes out the bilge over the side, if you want prawns should have to get them yourself! stop the trawlers

its a tough call, IMO theres businesses out there trying to make a living out of the fishing industry with what ever methods, several years back we were at Exy and there where several pro boats from albany with large fish cages which were set out near the islands and constantly catching Reds in big numbers and the locals around town certainly didnt agree with it and made it well know of their views ,  as do the pro boats out of carnarvon fishing through Gnaraloo area for three days straight, day and night. My stepson best mate has just finished working a shark boat out of Perth and Jurien area which netted lots of sharks but he told us of the bycatch (demersals) which all had to be thrown back dead , and some of the times they where with in twenty mile of the metro coast which us ametures get the blame for over fishing,  IMO the pro fishers need to be controlled and programmed where and when they can set there nets and give certain areas a re growth time and in heavily populated areas the pro ishing should be banned or kept at bigger no fish zones or the other option is to start phasing out the licences and not allowing them to be transferred,

The gulf at Exy is a good example of a well managed area for the prawning but the area is a natural breeding and prawn area and the cycle is constantly having big catches but our local areas fish stock are struggling due to alot of factors and needs better control

Stilly, the boats do all maintenance while in port, why fix something thats not broken in the middle of a work session. The v12 Cat we used had a 140 litre sump , giving us a month roughly between changes. All the waste oil is put back in to the drums it came out of and in to a tank on the dock for the purpose of recycling. There is a massive fine for ANYONE caught dumping oil over the side, all they need is a small sample from the ocean and a quick check on all the boats in the area  and who ever dumped it is history.

Just dhu it, there hasn't been any fish trapping on the west coast south of the Monte's for at least 20 years that I know of. There are 3 wet liners who work from Carnarvon for most of the year with another 3-4 with snapper or mackie concessions coming in around now for their season. The 3 locals chase goldband snapper which are usually about 60+nm from shore here, once in a while they will come in and chase reds etc but don't because of getting pinged by amatuers as soon as they are sighted, all perfectly legal. There hasn't been demesal netting or long lining for sharks north of Steep Point for as long as I can remember, going back to when I first fished here in the mid seventies.

For the whingers down south, all the records of catches made by the demersal netters are carefully documented and researched, so Fisheries research is well aware of exactly what is being caught , when and where. They even come out on the boats on a regular basis to gather any extra info they need with out any warning to the skipper so they have to be on the ball.

All this petition is about is someone has a bee in his bonnet that the metro area has no netting so why should he have to put up with them. As others have stated, who is going to supply quality fish to those who have to buy their fish and not have the means or ability to catch it themselve. Remember you are no tallowed to sell or barter the fish you catch so it has to come from the pro's , like it or not.

The bulk of their fishing is from Naturaliste reef south with Geographe bay getting a hit or two during the winter months when the south coast is too dangerous to work, and most of that time is reduced now due to season closures that weren't brought in to force untill a few years back after I got out of it..

Like Ads and Jeffo, I love sticking the net out for a feed of whiting or mullet and as long as you check your net regularly , removing the fish whlie they are still alive can see no damage to stocks in any way.

Carnarvonite , we were in Exy may i think 2006-07 and the two boat which were set up in the marina had all the gear on board must to the disgust of the locals , the next day they were working only about 3- 4 miles west of the Murions ( north island) and we had seen the floats set up in the water and we questioned in town the next day about the cray fishing around Exy and were informed   they werent for crays they had set fish traps for reds and their disaproval of it , the shark netting is out of Perth through to Jurien bay and they just stopped last month

Though I'm a rec-fisher I identify the need for a  viable Comercial fishing industry to provide fresh locally caught fish for those people who don't fish. Having said that there's pros and con on both side of the argument but if there's a problem at Windy Harbour where this petition originated from it needs to be sorted out by the Fisheries Department down there, without Pollies getting involved because this petition is going to presented to parliament. From there it is going to be handballed back to the Fisheries Department to make a report to Parliament as due process. At the end of the day after all the process's are adhered to what will be achieved? Not a lot I think without Fisheries Dept.support. As for Gill nets verses wet lining the same arguments can be levelled at both methods of catching fish. The nets are indiscriminate about species being caught but so is wet lining where a lot of ray's and other unwanted fish are caught which would not necessarily happen with the nets. A good argument that could be used against gill nets is that the lead weights on the bottom of the net drag across the ocean floor causing damage to habitat and to support that argument a Comm. fisherman in Bunbury got fined a year or so back for selling shell fish which he didn't have a license to do. He was not trawlling but set netting but then on the other side of the ledger with wet lining a lot of bait is used which means it's not only a cost that has to be borne by the pro. and eventually the consumer but another source has to be used " mostly Ocy." that you don't need with nets. My understanding when Jon Ford  as Fisheries Minister introduced a 50% reduction of catch on the com. sector it was mentioned that he would tell them on what day's they can fish and WHERE THEY CAN FISH and you would think that if the need arises that would be exercised.

i was engineer on a prawn boat out of carnarvon i left after the first three week stint disgusted by the operation of the boat!!!! oil was done once every 9ish days 14hrs a day minimum, if travel after last shot was longer hours, oil wasnt drummed but dumped in bilge, common practise was over the side along with rubbish bags in toe just the experience i got from canarvon!

would, but i wiped my hands clean, not interested in giving a local a bad name 

LIKE I SAID HERE WE GO AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 thanks for you comments DAD {canarvonite} you hit the nail on the head

   jeff

I agree,

not against pros on a whole and the other types of fishing, but netting is carnage,it wipes everything out, FACT..

obviousley prof fishermaen have a business and livelyhood to maintain and to provide for resturants/consumers/export but netting is wiping out areas, we need to sustain this as

the stocks are not getting any better, its not about the recs its about the eco system of our marine stocks,

The mob behind it cannot have much going for them when the pic on their site isn't even from an Australian boat!! When was the last time you saw a shark or even fishing boat with a wooden mast and nets being pulled by a thin  [Indonesian?] arm.

If they are going to boost support for their cause at least they can get their shit together and put up shots that represent the true picture not just what they want you to believe.

Doesnt matter if they are organised and have all of the good gear or not, a net is a net. Doesnt matter if the pro's have a financial interest or not either, pilaging is pilaging.