A Sad Week for Recreational Fishers in SA
Hi, I have viewed your forum for a while now and find it very informative and one of the best in the country. I would rather my first post be a fishing report describing my personal best Mulloway catch off a beach or bagging on 50cm King George Whiting in my WA built boat however I felt the need to communicate to you what has just eventuated in the very "fishy" world of politics in SA.
Marine parks in SA will take effect in SA as from 31st October. These parks have been proposed by the Labour Gov. with little or no research and the public consultation process has been with little more than an act and react methodology.
On Thursday a Bill to make amendments to no take zones within some parks was defeated by one vote as Geoff Brock (a once independent member that swung to Labour after the state election) voted against the Bill.
Recreational fishers will now be denied access to fish in these areas, many professionals will be forced out of the industry and many rural community businesses will be affected.
This is an example of Government not listening to recreational fishers but to that of the squeaky door of the Greens. We are a soft target in the political world and its about time that we unite and form a political voice or our children and children's children will not enjoy the pleasures of fishing in many areas of this great country.
I am and the majority of fishers are not opposed to marine parks, protecting our environment and ensuring fish stocks for the future but we must protest the "lock-out" mentality of Green infected governments.
Well that's my rant over, I feel better now and tomorrow I can get on with installing my new Garmin GPS/Sounder Combo.
out wide
Posts: 1535
Date Joined: 30/12/08
After all the bad government years
SA people vote them back WTF is going on over there.. has SA turned hard left. They just cant get away from their mates the greens.
Over here Barny is struggling [ dwindling royalties.. stuff all GST from Canberra..football ground to build and so on ] but he is still a much better polly than the fucks from the left who will do the same thing to us over here.
Last time I looked the alp were galavanting around with their retard green mates down on the beach protecting killer GW sharks.
ace rimmer
Posts: 187
Date Joined: 19/08/13
never vote labour
with the close ties that the Labour party seem to have with the greens and the last labour government that this country had I will never vote Labour again
Paul H
Posts: 2104
Date Joined: 18/01/07
Don't know SA voted labour
Don't know SA voted labour back in outwide they did not get in with a majority and had to get support from independents to form gov. Long story. A pretty inept opposition helped them as well.
Unfortunately much of the public is pretty unaware of what they are actually voting for come polling day.
Bloodworm agree with you unfortunately worse is to come when the conservation council of SA are put in charge of managing and studies in the parks. Given a whole heap of our money to do so whilst cutting funding to fisheries. Like that's not going to be biased.
Can't see many SA fishers dobbing in their fellow fishers though.......
Youtube Channel - FishOnLine Productions
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sunshine
Posts: 2555
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Respectfully SA needs some restrictions
Where else in Oz are you permitted to catch and keep S A staple, the king George Whiting , at a size before and I stress before they have even had an opportunity to breed.......the.y are not mature enough to breed until they are in excess of 35cm hence no take areas in my view are essential. Snapper ......ditto, our size limit is now 50cm ensuring breed stocks
ditto bag limits as well.......we might bag our Fisheries here in WA but our stocks are without question on the improve whereas SA stocks are going the other way.
just my view but having both lived and fished extensively there something has needed to be done for many years .....
saltatrix
Posts: 1075
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Thats the job of state. No
Thats the job of state. No fishing zones wont help that.
Cold water states have fish that spawn at smaller size, just like WAs southern Snapper that have lower size limits for that very reason.
Its well known the SA dive shops were the drivers in this kicking out Aussie anglers for the dive shops businesses otherwise the state government could have up the minimum size on the species.
Youll notice in WA the no fishing zones around Rotto are used by glass bottom boat and dive businesses.
Its about creating business zones under the guise of conservation.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
Bloodworm
Posts: 2
Date Joined: 28/07/14
SA needs some restrictions
@ sunshine, yes we need good fisheries management. The Snapper fishery in Spencer Gulf is at the point of collapse IMO. Juvenile Snapper are now a rare catch in the areas I fish yet 15 years ago and longer they were considered a pest when fishing for KG Whiting.
No take zones are not the answer but both commercial and rec catches need to be looked at. 6-800 tonnes of Snapper taken by commercials is too much IMO.
saltatrix
Posts: 1075
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Each kilo of recreational
Each kilo of recreational fish is worth truck loads more than a commercial kilo of caught fish.
Recreational caught fish is greater than 10X the commercial value
Imagine the $$$$ and jobs South Australia will keep losing. $64 million per year in economy apparently
South Australia snapper breed at much smaller sizes than say Shark Bay snapper because SA snapper grow slower.
The commercial sector has been pushing to have recreational anglers pay an expensive tuna licence on top of their other costs in South Australia.
I say, sure, as long as recreational anglers can claim their boat & fishing equipment as a tax deduction, get a tax rebate on primary producer fuel on the 39 cents anglers pay in road tax on fuel used in boats on water.
Jay Weatherill is a greedy bastard with no consideration for anglers.
Welcome to Labor governments
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
saltatrix
Posts: 1075
Date Joined: 30/03/08
South Australia has like the
South Australia has like the #2 highest unemployment with the marine parks destroying economic value loss of $64 million dollars & jobs
Labor are not helping jobs in South Australia
Labor say the no fishing zones are only 6% of the South Australian ocean. However as all anglers know, fish only live in very small sections of the ocean.
As it turns out dive shops are the ones driving the no fishing zones to set up their personal business dive areas in the ocean kicking anglers out.
As an angler, I dont feel welcome in SA so wont be going there for holidays with the family
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
Paul H
Posts: 2104
Date Joined: 18/01/07
Still plenty of KG's in SA if
Still plenty of KG's in SA if you look in the right places so I don't know that they are as bad as what is made out. Seagrass degradation from run off etc is more of a factor than overfishing. Still waiting for anyone to explain how lines on a map and no take zones are going to do anything to address the real factors and threats to marine life.
Snapper - well the recs have tight bag and size limits plus closed seasons to protect breeding aggregations but the gov refuses to put any total allowable catch limit on the pro's - yep they can catch as much as they want with no limits. They even have an earlier start to the season with rec anglers still not allowed to fish for a few more months.
Saltrix - you are right only 6% but as you say most of the sea is a desert and also just how much of the state waters are really accessible by the average boatie with a sub 5m boat so when you consider only accessible waters the % is a hell of a lot higher. Right on the money with the dive shop ops as well. To many people involved are pushing their own interests.
Add to that the consultation process of tell us where you fish so we can place zones elsewhere and then whack the zone right where we said we fished and it's no wonder fishers feel screwed over. I have met many fishers who made submissions on where they fished and yet to met anyone who has not had a no take zone right smack bang where they said not to put one. We later find out the gov is in bed with Conservation Council of SA and it's well know our premier Weatherill is a conservationist. He even wants to put meters on farmers dams and charge them for water they collect when it rains.
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saltatrix
Posts: 1075
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Thats right Paul H Run off
Thats right Paul H
Run off is massive problem. Even in Queensland it contributes to large population explosions of Crown of Thorns starfish killing the Great Barrier reef coral.
But that is not what these closures are about. No fishing zones are about kicking anglers out, creating business areas for the diving industry etc :( Councils are in on it too.
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
sunshine
Posts: 2555
Date Joined: 03/03/09
KGW do not breed until around 35 cm
That is a scientific fact and applies to SA ......why then allow them to be taken well before they reach that size.
and yes there are places in SA where they are still abundant but NOT metro, west coast of the York has some good areas but the gulf is rooted ! Speak to any rec fisher in the west and, apart from herring (your tommies) every other fish in metro has improved fishing and size wise, twelve years ago hard to find a dhuie now they are everywhere as a result of the banning of cray fishermen drop lining and the removal of pros from the metro zone.
As for snapper are you suggesting that our new size limits won't improve breeding stocks......they can breed over several seasons before being allowed to be caught.
Shark Bay had an almost total collapse of snapper in the inner gulf caused by the use of indiscriminate trapping and netting, now all snapper up there are line caught and are size limited....stocks are now recovering rapidly
i agree no take zones Are NOT the answer but unless size and take limits are drastically changed they might at least help to provide breed stock ?
Paul H
Posts: 2104
Date Joined: 18/01/07
Sunshine - I agree metro
Sunshine - I agree metro Adelaide KG fishing is not what it used to be and fishing pressure has played a part - that being said I know some people who still catch plenty locally - but is the loss of stocks due overfishing or degradation of sea grass from run off. I remember being able to walk along the local jetties and the blue line being around halfway along the jetty. now you get to the end and you over sand with the blue line a fair way out. As said fishing pressure has played a part but the fish won't be where there is no seagrasses or food. The new Desal plant pumping out hyper saline water into a gulf with a low replenish rate combined with a high amount of dodge tides is certainly not going to make this better.
Metro Perth and metro Adelaide are two totally differing scenarios given the nature of our gulfs and the fact they have less water replenishment (water moving in and out). This makes our gulfs a lot more susceptible to water quality issues. The real hypocrisy is the desal plant pumps out very close to existing marine parks of the Aldinga and Pt Noarlunga reefs.
We had a huge fish kill in our gulfs recently which the gov blamed on an algal bloom, this is true but what they hid is the algal bloom occurred on period of dodge tides when they happened to be doing test flushes on the desal plant. Doesn't take much work to figure the desal plant flushing probably was a large factor in the creation of the algal bloom. The Gov denied this but some data was brought up by scientists at Flinders Uni that showed some very circumspect coincidences with the timing and they also questioned why the hell the flush coincided with the dodge tides in any event. Talk about a balls up.
With snapper I'm talking SA - rec fishers have bag and size limits and I have no problem with them. Many recs also release snapper as well after catching a few. but its a farce when the pros can catch as many as they want using long lines. Many in SA have been calling for an annual TAC (total allowable catch) limit to apply to pros to at least limit the amount they can catch. in the lead up to the snapper ban and when it is over the pro's catch so many snapper (targeting breeding aggregations) that the price plummets so they can't be making much from the practice anyway. They also have different size limits than rec fishers (ie. allowed to take smaller fish - I see plenty of fish on many species in fish shops that would be undersize for any rec angler -) a limit if done right may allow the pros to make more money from catching less thus helping both them and the snapper stocks.
Saltrix is dead right - it's about time the SA government realised there is more money to be made in this state by having a healthy rec fishing industry which would include tackle/marine/boating and tourism industries. Salmon for example are a low priced fish and mostly used for cat food but if protected better and allowed to recover could generate a whole fishing tourism industry. Same could be applied to many other fish in SA, snapper and tuna included.
Appreciate your views regardless
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lastcast
Posts: 215
Date Joined: 04/04/13
you're on the money there paul h
but try influencing policy into those directions and you will fnd that
the process is a dogs breakfast
sarcasm0
Posts: 1396
Date Joined: 25/06/09
Sunshine - Do you reckon WA needs to change KGW Size?
Our limit in WA is still only 280mm, you reckon that should go up to 350mm?
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