Shark fishers bite back at ban calls
Werent the particular anglers concerned about the number of Dhufish and other demersal species turning up in Commercial shark gill nets?
That Dhufish bycatch by particular Commercial shark fishermen was well exceeding wetliners efforts for which the Commercial shark fishermen were not licenced to target demersal species yet sold all the same?
That loads of Dhufish were dying in Commercial shark fishermen nets. That netting sharks had taken its toll on demersal species in the area?
Is by-catch recorded for measuring the amount of extraction occurring?
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DANIEL MERCER, The West Australian
April 7, 2011, 6:06 am
Commercial shark fishermen have dismissed as ill-informed and hysterical calls for them to be banned from fishing in coastal waters off the State's south.
A group of recreational fishers incensed the commercial fishing lobby last month when it claimed the shark fishing industry was overfishing southern coastal waters.
The group, led by spokesman Jack Jennings, said the gill nets used by shark fishers indiscriminately caught prized scale fish as well as sharks.
The WA Fishing Industry Council, which represents the State's commercial fishing sector, has angrily hit back at the claims.
Council executive officer Guy Leyland said the comments were the "superficial arguments of a disgruntled fisher" that ignored many of the facts.
Mr Leyland argued that WA's shark fishermen were subject to some of the toughest restrictions in the world and this ensured the fishery was sustainable.
He said the commercial shark fishery was vital to the State's restaurant and hospitality industry.
Jim Robb, who has run a commercial shark fishing business out of Windy Harbour and Busselton for three decades, shrugged off the criticism.
He said shark and many other fish stocks off the south coast were in a healthy shape, and the suggestion gill nets were harming the populations was wrong.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/9150582/shark-fishers-bite-back-at-ban-calls/
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
sarcasm0
Posts: 1396
Date Joined: 25/06/09
As I understand it
All by-catch is recorded. I have seen forms used by charter boat operators used to record by-catch, location by block, number of fishers, hours fished.
Not too sure how commercial fishermen report, but im certain they would have to have a reporting system of some kind.
saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Yes the charter operators and
Yes the charter operators and commercial fishermen have definatley catch diaries.
Personally I was more interested in records for bi-catch which is high value demersal species on many occasion when obviously wet-liners are stuck with hook and line vs nets for the shark fishermen
The wet-liners must be furious at times...
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
swoffer
Posts: 83
Date Joined: 30/12/06
Hey Salty , I personaly know
Hey Salty , I personaly know 2 of the southcoast gillnetters and while they wont say it publiclly their scalefish bycatch is the cream of their business .
Believe me they are very very happy they can take dhu , snapper , mulla etc .
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Records
All pro shark fishermen have to record the lats and longs of start and finish of their sets plus all fish caught in it not just the ones suitable for market as well as time of day. Now they also have transponder on board giving an electronic record to the authorities of their position.
swoffer
Posts: 83
Date Joined: 30/12/06
All true , but the VMS units
All true , but the VMS units only tell fisheries where they are , not where tey have set or what they are doing .
The recording of bycatch (discarded) is an honor system , no way of checking it .
snappermiles
Posts: 2100
Date Joined: 05/11/10
the bycatch is only small compaired
to the amount of demersals that fall out of the net on the way up due to not meshing in the net! but either way they should be not allowed to fish shallow waters during duhfish spawning seasons!
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
If they werent meshed why
If they werent meshed why wouldnt they just swim away???????
NOHA
Posts: 914
Date Joined: 24/06/07
A quick google
Of the fisheries website, http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/sof/2004/sof20042005-0503-08.pdf. This is 2004 but shows the saleable bycatch of scalefish in the southern shark fishery as 182 tonne......that is a significant amount.
The breakdown table however shows that its mostly queenies and blue groper with only 7 t being dhuies
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saltatrix
Posts: 1081
Date Joined: 30/03/08
Thankyou
Thankyou
Angling tourism is worth $10 billion to the Australian economy - 90000 jobs; more than any sport; spread the word
barneyboy
Posts: 1392
Date Joined: 08/01/09
I have seen the quality of net caught fish versus
line caught fish and it is dramatic. Net caught fish are very poor in quality and demand a low price often attacked by sea lice and mushy. Line caught fish are primo and get double the price of net caught fish. Same amount dollars wise 1/2 the fish. You do the maths!!
FEEEISH ONNN!!!
squidder
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 03/09/10
Ask yourself
Ask yourself the Question, "How good is the fishing " in the metro area after having a no go pro area put in place. The answer is simple as one only has to read the reports that just keep coming in on various forums.
I for one think it is great that such a closure has been put in place as it shows that Recreational fishing with the appropriate bag limits and other associated measures does very little damage to the fish stocks.
As for some that keep blowing their trumpets about how great the Commercial sector is, they need to pull back a bit and come out of their cave and see what damage Demersal Gill Nets can do to the fish stocks in a very short time.
Guy Leyland said publically that these sorts of issues should not be discussed in the Public arena.
What discuss them behind closed doors so some secret deal can be struck??
This is what happened to the folk from down Walpole to Manjimup, a meeting was held behind closed doors with WAFIC, FD, RFW and members of the Save Our Fish Stocks, namely Rec Fishers from surrounding areas.
The outcome of the meeting was that all parties agreed that the fish take from the area discussed by demersal gill nets was vertually off the planet.
After the meeting Wafic agreed with RFW"s proposal, that something should be done.
The suggestion would be that the catch at present would be cut to half of the 2005/06 catch, this being approx 2.5 tonne.
This was put to the Pros and they made it clear that they would continue their take of the fish stocks at the current rate as they "Had A Licence".
So you see these types of fishers are not there for the Future Of Fish Stocks.
2005/06 was approx 2.5t but this esculated to in 2009/10 to 21.048 tonnes of only demersal scale fish.
The actual total catch including sharks was in the vicinity of 100 tonnes.
Demersal Gill Nets have to go.
mannablue
Posts: 106
Date Joined: 24/02/11
Before I jump on the
Before I jump on the 'Demersal Gill Nets have to go' bandwagon I'd like to know if demersals would still be caught line-fishing and what would happen to them if they were? Yes the bycatch would be of a better quality and get more in price for the commercial operators, but would the total bycatch figures come down or not? As I see it the byctah would still be taken (it would have to be unreleasable wouldn't it?) but worth more to the commercials?
Would that be correct?
Not all who wander are lost...
hezzy
Posts: 1519
Date Joined: 27/11/09
there is actually no such
there is actually no such thing as bycatch anymore for these guys with commercial demersal gill net & long line licences ....
there licence entitles them to take anything that swims into the net and gets brought up to the boat when its hauled some hours later .....
their was a decision by WAFIC representatives at one of our local bunbury joint stakeholder meetings investigating resource sharing in regards to issues with demersal gill net that ,WAFIC would start research into the drop out rate of scale fish from these nets as they where hauled this was back in dec 2009 .
.the gill net is set on the bottom , specially made to sink , but with less floats to hold it upright in the water ...so in effect it becomes a 2.4 metre high wall of mono net , that for fish is difficult at low light depths to see even in daylight ...running along the bottom , from several hundred metres to several kilometres ...depending on the licence holders entitlemnts or gill net units .....
..the net tends to stretch tight under the winch pressure as it is hauled from the sea bed up to the boat ....this can and does cause fish that have been only lightly mehsed in the net to untangle and fall or drop out as the net is hauled back to the boat .....how many fish ?? who knows at present ...
currently this fishery has a two month closure from aug to oct , to allow the pupping of several shark species , that where considered vulnerable to this method of fishing ...
we had discussed the possibility to get there closure aligned with the demersal closure for recs from oct 15th to dec 15th .... hasnt happened yet ..
there has anecdotally been more pressure put on areas outside the metro since commercial fishing of this type was banned there .some of the operaters have moves further south etc and the incresed conflict has occured in resource sharing of the fish ...there are very little restrictions on where they can operate , in setting presently ...
i personally would like to see a 5 nm offshore exclusion , for these licences ... all along the coast ...with generally large ,commercial 15 metre surveyed vessels it makes no sense to be competing with rec fishers close to major boat ramps and inshore waters ...
an interesting side note to this is that ..although they must record their catch by grid and day /month ....the status of the fisheries report has no recorded catch for released undersize from demersal gill net and long line catches that i could find anywhere
i also believe areas that become zoned as marine parks , can not be fished using this method commercialy , with the imminent anouncement in wa about the proposed areas for marine park status ,especilay in the south west of the state , they may lose some areas and get tighter restrictions shifting pressure yet again ....
some changes & spatial seperation needs to happen for this commercial fishery imo
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Maverick
Posts: 1244
Date Joined: 06/06/06
Cameras
They need to have cameras running when they pull the nets in and then fisheries can see just what does and doesn't get caught.
OFW member 088
Sponsored by no one and I work for myself so my comments are my own.
swoffer
Posts: 83
Date Joined: 30/12/06
But who is going to pay for
But who is going to pay for that Mav ?
sea-kem
Posts: 14861
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Some of the tax we are paying
Some of the tax we are paying for fishing licences etc. Keep the bastards honest.
Love the West!