I also don’t mean to cause trouble, but for the sake of the argument ........Are you a member of PGFC?

The point could be made, that unless you have contributed in some way to the FAD deployment, that neither of you had exclusivity to the FADs? (Recfish FAD's excluded of course).

It’s certainly an issue that PGFC is very concerned about, and you are not alone in your annoyance. I share some of your frustration.

 First in first served i would think 

 It's a conundrum. .. so here's what to do. Communicate so you know his intentions and share yours... act like a human and give him  the chance to be grown up about it or of being an A hole.  If that doesn't work. ..Take his boat number/name. .. radio into PGFC..  open channel so they hear the complaint and are what the club s response is. 

If all else fails have a goggle and snorkel on board  and join in... very poor form of him to repeat the practice at the second fad. ... carry a dive flag next time you see the guy and reverse the tables. .. be there first and play his game.  Then he must stay the appropriate distance away as you have. 

People don't need to behave like that. .. they're making a conscious choice to. 

 Sharing whats that.popcorn time

 I would ask how long they intend on being there or as you did, move to another spot. Maybe I would hang back for a while, search some new ground, whatever.

BUT... If a vessel pulls up to a spot  that is already being fished and puts a dive flag out, "thats taking the piss" and I would be very unhappy. And not because it's a FAD but anywhere. This would entitle anyone with a dive flag to park within 50mtrs of another boat forcing the line fishing vessel to leave. I must state this,  I am not a diver and have nothing against divers. I give them a whole lot of respect and credit for what they do.    I am sure and hope this is a one off situation. I have a few mates that dive and doubt they would do this. Its a whole new type of "pinging"! How easy is this, pull up, flag out and now you have a 50 mtr perimeter. But I do think (without checking, but I will) that the law is "you must take care within 50meters of a dive flag"? Please correct me if I am wrong. 

I was wrong, just read this.

All boats must keep at least 50 metres clear of boats, buoys or areas showing diving signals.

Where this is not possible, the approaching vessel should:

• Proceed at the slowest speed at which the vessel can be safely navigated.
• Maintain a proper lookout for persons in the water

 pretty straight forward if you ask me.

1st FAD they were there first. so if they jump into the water so be it. 2nd Fad, if your there first and they come along and jump in, have a word with them and say fellas we are trolling / throwing lures at the FAD. If you get a smart ass comment in return, continue to throw metals nice and close and if you hook one of them.. will put up a better fight that a dolly!!

some should so some respect in these types of situations. Its unfortunate you have to travevl so far, but a word of advise, get out there early!! not too many guys will get in the water before its light

 ...it's not quite so easy to go out fishing on weekdays, but more and more, it's becoming necessary to avoid this situation. Just about anywhere in metro waters, on a nice weekend, is going to be popular.

The regs say if you can't maintain the 50m distance, proceed with caution (slow as possible). The two times I've encountered divers at the fads, they were spread out everywhere...some certainly much farther than 50m from their boat/flag. With those two observations, normally I'd say "fish right on top of them", except it's not worth it because the divers put the fish off the bite and you won't catch anything anyway.

End of the day, PGFC can't legislate divers away from the fads, and that's probably a good thing because if they had their way, they'd legislate EVERYONE who wasn't a member.

 The FADs are a shared resource.  PGFC has a code of conduct for the FAD's, available on the website at www.pgfc.com.au/fads/code-of-conduct, and we encourage all users to abide by the code and act responsibly.

This code of conduct is endorsed by RecFishWest and the WA Game Fishing Association.

 mate dont listen to sub aquatic, the fads are deployed by a number of organizations, i am not a member of the PGFC but i do bye the fad chart each year which gives you the co-ordinates(which are pretty much the same every year) for $25 and i donate money to assist in the funds for the FAD deployment each year. 

 there are 2 fads specifically for snorklers and spearos launched by one of the local clubs

 You're trolling? or your trawling? 

Along the same lines there was a small boat parked in the navigable waters 10m to the south east side of the southern cardinal off Hillarys on Saturday afternoon as all the boats were coming back in from the bluewater. He had his dive flag up (below the height of his bimini mind you) and when we approached at speed his spotter got up from his sleeping position and pointed at the flag. I kept the throttle down and wished him a nice day. 

Not quite the same thing but I went down Mullaloo Point a while back to chuck some slices and popper over the reef there. There were a few surfers so I went right down to the corner and had to chuck my lures over the reef rather than just off to the side. After a while they paddled the 100 or so metres and started surfing right where I was fishing so I decided that they didn't care if a 90g slice was chucked next to them. I stopped after I missed a guy by no more than 5-10m. Same thing though, I tried to show them respect by risking losing my lures and they still paddled straight in from of me

If they were there first I would show a bit of respect and just throw some lures around. I wouldn't give a toss about the 50m. They gotta be kidding. If divers tried to drop in on a fad I as fishing different story. I would continue on as normal. Reckon I could navigate through them ok. Lures 50m out the back might prove a challenge but reckon if everyone looks out all should be ok. Might be a bit hard for the spearos trying to spear with lures and props whizzing past and I wouldn't want to lose a lure as they are not cheap, but I can't see any problem.

 Just keep casting and trolling. 

Just slightly of topic, hopefully towards the end of summer the proposed Artificial Reef (AR) will be put in place off shore from Mandurah. I am of the understanding that this structure will be available for both divers and line fishers, which I believe is the case for the ARs of Dunsborough.

Now what is going to be the case with the AR of Mandurah, with a diver on site does that close that particular node of the AR down to line fishers. On a beautiful summers day with the AR being so close to the shore and available to all and sundry in everything from the small tinnies to the floating gin palaces (and this is exactly what it is designed and put in the chosen location for)there could be some very animated conversations taking place on the water.

A possible solution that has been thrown around in the group I circulate in is, if your boat registration ends on an odd number you can line fish on odd dates of the month. If your boat rego ends in an even number then even number dates in the month are for the straight hook gang.

Just an idea that has been thrown around if things start getting testy out there.

I must state that there is a lot of resentment about allowing spearos to use the ARs when the same access conditions do not apply to the various ex war ships and other wrecks sunk of the WA coast.

If the fear of becoming entangled in broken off fishing line with hooks is the reason to prohibit line fishers from using these wrecks then the same "danger" will exist on the ARs along the coast.

I personal believe that the time to look seriously at allowing different groups to access these structure on some sort of roster is a long way off.

To close on the topic of the FADs at the back of rotto and spearos and line fishers both using these devices at the same time.
Just who is going to be on the receiving end of the lash when (if) and hopefully never a spearo gets taken by a GW that has come around because of the huge amounts of burly, "chum," offal and whatever else has been dumped in to the water by spearos to bring mackies etc around at the FADs.

Just an alarming observation.

 The spearo's should drift dive/fish the FAD like everyone else does. Common courtesy. 

 Guys I know have dive flag connected to big float and spear away from main fishing  fad . Go close to main fad drift away . Then jump in.( tied to boat) they will come to you. In this case shoot them:);) 

 Hi Megladon.. I would like to state a correction in your post regarding diving in the SW ARs at either end of Geo bay... Dunsborough & Bunbury.

As a committee member of this pilot program in the South West it was openly discussed about what methodology was acceptable to use to catch fish from these structures.  Both AR s are relatively close to dive structure reefs..  Bunbury has the Lena... Patagonian Tooth fish boat that was created as a rec diving structure  and the Dunsborough site is close to the HMAS Swan. Each of these Dive sites it is not permitted to line fish or angle within a given distance for obvious reasons of safety.

 For this very reason it was determined by the committee and ratified that the new AR s would be accessible only to rec line fishers who should drift thru the ARs and not anchor.  Spearfishing and diving was determined to be hazardous given the high traffic usage of line anglers expected. .. remenbering the placement of the reefs would be available to smallish family craft that would allow them to experience a quality fishing experience and when the prevailing winds  arrive allow for them to return to feeder ramps with a following sea.

To my knowledge this remains the status quo..... boaties keep clear of the afore mentioned dive sites and divers keep clear of the ARs. It is a closed zone to diving just as the zones around the ARs are closed to fishing.  If you are still not sure my advice would be to contact Mark Pagano @ Fisheries and ask him  Mark was the project leader and a real unsung hero with what he did above and beyond the call to see these first ARs project successfully completed.  Ellen Smith now based in Fisheries Albany also worked on the project and could verify line only on methodology. ... Monies provided by the RBFL s  has been used along with royalties for regions to procure the funding for the ARs.

A little further detail on the chosen sites.  These were essentially barren of any life... aquatic deserts.. even macro algae, if present made the site unsuitable....  needed to be a certain depth for water upwelling that the structure provides. .. and be safely accessible to craft as small as 4 metres. 

Dive flag, If it can't be helped it just means you navigate at the slow speed with a proper lookout watching for divers. Approach and have a chat. Have no dramas (within reason) going inside 50 metres from a flag if your doing it by the book, and have no worries with people doing the same. Often dive in close proximity to fisherman and vice versa just go over and say gday never had a problem. Happens all the time at the Gemini and Key Biscayne, have no worries with fisherman fishing above me if they are aware and paying attention. You'd be a bit of a knob to rock up to a site and expect everybody to move away because you put up your flag. No body owns a peice of the ocean and a flag shouldn't make it so either. Problem is if you don't display a flag and your seen you'll cop a fine.

 Just remember if they are undersize throw them back

agree dodgy ,

snorkellers while they will be safer with a dive flag up they are not to the best of my knowledge legislated to put one up & even if they do boat skippers are not legally required to obey the dive flag regulations in the same way as they would for divers

so legaly i would think you could using all good caution as notorius posted , continue to fish and snorkel side by side with all due care to each other and maybe some goodwill sharing the fad

hezzy

It is my understanding that the FADS are paid for by Recfish, not PGFC. I believe they are administered by PGFC who look after them, retrieve them etc etc but they do not have exclusive access to them.

That means everyone has a right to them (including divers). If you have a rec fishing license then you have contributed and you should be able to use them. If you want to further contribute, join the club or help out on the busy bees.


In terms of ethics, Notorious had it right. If people want to dive the FAD then suss out the order of boats, drift past when it is your turn and then jump back into your boat once past. If one FAD is not performing then go to a second.

If you dont like that other people are on the Fad - build your own.