Link attached

of the super trawler that has apparently rocked up unannounced in Albany  

http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/largest-fish-trawler-geelong-star-arrives-in-australian-waters-20150401-1md4um.html

 I dont know enough about the sustainability of that fishery to say one way or the other but if it is to be fished surley we have local boats and crews more than capable of doing it. Wonder what Rick Mazza makes of it?

 But after watching 'Drawing the Line' and seeing the info there I would support a supertrawler.

 Exactly. One highly regulated or 50 smaller doing as they wish?

I agree with sarcasm0 and dodgy. The effect of media scare-mongering is amazing. I wonder if there would have been a different public response during the arrival of Margiris if the real facts, regulations and studies were focused on rather than the unfounded 'rape and pillage' view pushed by certain groups.

It uses nets to catch the"targeted species" and what best practice does it use to minimize by-catch?? Are Tuna and other pelagics that hunt the same food source thrown back dead?
Quote
"It will pursue the same jack mackerel and redbait that would have been targeted by the Margiris, but take a slightly lower 16,500 tonne quota in a fishery reaching around south-eastern Australia from Queensland to WA"unquote
....
What is the amount of bycatch, "non targeted species" and what happens to it?
The operator has replied to a media article link below.
http://www.redbook.com.au/boat-news/2015/seafish-has-its-say-49330?csn_tnet=true

  These questions are all addressed in the fisheries report. You have obviously read it hey??

The bycatch is minimal and all deep water ie not dolphins, fluffy children's teddy bears, fairy penguins, unicorns ect... 

ref;" you have obviously read it"

Obviously not MATE..........hence the question....

There is still a by catch which is unused...

 Just finished watching the GWN news-nearly spat in my beer,reported down here that one of the targeted catch will be tonnes of herring. I will be happy to catch my legal 12 herring off the jetty in the morning!

Moking, despite what the media might have you believe, herring are not a target species in the small pelagic fishery.

 um black bream and tonnes of leafy sea dragons! I think? Come to think of it, I never read the management report so I dont even know why I'd post on this topic?? ; )v

what i understood was that herring catch was reduced and commercial fishing for herring was banned till stocks improve . was i wrong

for small pelagic fishery, however there would be bycatch. They aren't just going to fish super deep water to reduce bycatch. What a crock of shit. They are going to fish where the target species is.(that means from just off the back of the breakers out).

Its a bit like coles setting up shop in an area though, and sending the corner store, deli and convenience store out of business.

This big boat can add to his quota also, meaning for a bit of paper work and some coin it will be open slather for them, making it harder for the businesses already operating in the area

I think the fisheries need to go on statistics of previous bycatch and work out how much it is going to knock Australian Herring stocks around for the future as it could be pretty detrimental.

I would like to see the statistics on bycatch for this fishery and think it should be made public, If they are going to let this ship take tonnes of Aust. herring bycatch, cutting the limit from 20 to 12 seems pretty pointless and in my eyes make the WA government look pretty pathetic.

 Cutting the Herring limit down for rec fishos was pretty pointless anyway. It's not us that affect the populations of these fish it's the commercial catch down south that does. So a Herring by catch, targeted or whatever should be of a concern to everyone. 

 There are boats larger than this one already doing what it intends to do so why is no-one up in arms about them?

The gummint will manage our territorial waters as it sees fit. These boats are highly regulated and there are sanctions if they get it wrong. Are they taking fish out of the ocean? yes. Is it more than would otherwise be caught? marginally and/or probably not. No small operation could compete with the scale of these boats so what they don't catch these boats will.

bit of an update ,

personaly id rather see the smaller fleet taking this quota, if it must be allowed to go ahead
hezzy
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trawler Geelong Star under stricter controls after dolphin and seal deaths
Stricter controls will be applied to controversial fishing trawler Geelong Star after four dolphins and two seals were killed in its nets on its first outing in Australian waters.

The 95-metre long vessel caused the deaths despite having a marine mammal excluder device and a Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) observer on board.

In a statement, Grahame Turk from the Small Pelagic Fisheries Association said the operators of the Geelong Star were required to notify the AFMA of the mortalities within 24 hours and they did so.

He said the Geelong Star ceased fishing for 12 hours and steamed away to an area 20 nautical miles away where dolphins were not visible.

The freezer factory trawler, operated by Seafish Tasmania, has permission to catch 16,500 tonnes of pelagic fish a year.

AFMA said additional controls would be imposed on the Geelong Star from today

A lot of crap being peddled by green groups about the impact of this fishery - these are the same green groups that want rec fishing banned

That being said.

4 dolphins and 2 seals caught and killed - AMFA have a please explain to do after they came out with this comment.

“Unfortunately, from time to time both commercial and recreational fishers will accidentally harm marine mammals and other protected species while seeking to put seafood on our tables. We will continue to work with marine mammal experts and fishers to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to minimise these risks”.

http://www.gfaa.asn.au/pdf/gfaa_media_release_20150421.pdf

Linking commercial fishing bycatch to rec fishers is not on..

You are not going to tell me that AFMA shouldn't release by - catch information because it is considered "commercial in confidence" are you.
I can understand not releasing catch rates and return rates about catch but really by-catch information the reason for with holding this eludes me, feel free to enlighten me why this info is restricted. (and I'm not being smart)

I readily admit that I may be light on about the need to keep by-catch info quiet, however at this point in time I have the strong opinion that this info should be out in the community so that "the cost" in terms of untargeted species can be seen and the Australian public, the people who own the resource, may make a decision about is it (to use the buzz word of the moment) sustainable.

To be clear on a point I'm firmly of the belief that our, that is Australian resources belong to Australian citizens and they should decide what is acceptable in the way of by-catch, and if we don't find it acceptable then we can make our views known to our elected representatives. But, how do you known what the by-catch is if it is kept away from what the industry sees as information not for public disclosure.

It may be out of fashion at the moment, but I still believe in good old democracy.

4 dolphins-not good

But the Northwest Shelf Trawl fishery was catching about 13 a year (reported without observers aboard ) for a long time and WA Fisheries did nothing-took along time before they did anything concrete.

The other side of the story

Worthwhile watching the lot but re concerns re depletion of an area watch 12.40 on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDss2VYdCBc