Boating etiquette or is it just me

Is it just me or over the last few years there seems to be more boats coming closer to you when you are fishing or diving.Im not sure what drives individuals to b line to a boat if they see them fishing or diving but certainly over the years its getting unbelievably frustrating. Two weeks ago Saturday the 27th of feb I was diving of myalup with a mate and my step son watching the boat (dive flag up) and a muppet drove past my boat and stopped on the bubbles above where we were diving to what I can only assume to mark the spot. Not only is this practice extremely dangerous its illegal to do so. Unfortunately my step son didn't get the boat number but described it as around 6m marone bar crusher with a radar and two large white antennas. He had a radar for god sake and still had to park on top of us which gives you a good indication of his intelligence .unfortunatelly without a number we couldn't complete a full report with dept of transport. Is it just me?


z00m's picture

Posts: 1086

Date Joined: 10/05/14

Etiquette

Tue, 2016-03-15 15:34

 Todd, seems as though you have been boating for many years from your description. While I don't condone parking on top of divers or approaching boats too closely, the fact of the matter is that there are far more ocean capable boats out there now than ever before and the numbers will continue to increase. When I'm out there I try to make sure I don't run over anyone's divers or even their berley trails, but I don't think I need to divert 500m from my intended course to get to where I am going because there is a boat there.

Last weekend I was running out on direction bank and wanted to travel to a couple of marks on my screen. Sometimes when you line up from a long way off a boat may be on the trajectory and you divert by 75 to 100m to give them a wide enough berth. Turns out there was a boat at both of the marks - they might be good but I didn't get to find out on the day. Point is it's up to everyone but gone are the days when you won't see anyone else out on the water.

todd davies's picture

Posts: 28

Date Joined: 14/03/16

etiquette

Tue, 2016-03-15 15:56

Point taken, there is definitely a hell of a lot more traffic on the water and as you know you invest a lot of time out on the water to find spots and manage the spots you find.I cant think of anything more relaxing and rewarding than finding a new bit of ground as apposed to driving up on someone else for the same outcome. But there will always be those people that do. Not sure wether the people are new to the game and don't see it as a problem.
cheers todd

Madmerv's picture

Posts: 672

Date Joined: 24/01/15

Spotting us

Wed, 2016-03-16 05:41

 Couple of weeks ago we headed out from TR and up to Moore River area. Had a 5m ish boat follow us out and sit 100m or so behind us for the trip up. That is no problem as they may have never launched from there and might want a safe line through the reefs and it is calmer for them. All good. 

We pulled up for our first drift after a bit of sounding around and they pulled up 200m away. We moved to a new spot and they moved also... Was starting to piss us off.  We cranked up the v8 and endured a bit of a rough ride to get a k away or so and enjoyed the rest of the day in peace.

I like to beleive in the better nature of man so my theory is they didnt have a working GPS and Sounder and just wanted to fish somewhere so followed us. Not that they were real pricks and wanted to peg our spots.

The polite thing to do would have been pull up to us on the first stop and explain what was going on.

____________________________________________________________________________

 Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !