Well well well better than nothing I suppose
Submitted by sea-kem on Tue, 2020-03-10 18:56
Be interesting to see if this actually goes anywhere.
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Love the West!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18026
Date Joined: 11/03/08
i still believe there should
i still believe there should be a few shark licences issued throuought the state to help keep the shark numbers under control.
control the sharks and save the fish. less sharks = less fish taken
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
selthy
Posts: 294
Date Joined: 27/05/11
"Shark depredation has
"Shark depredation has significant economic and social impact on states fishers" It sure does, I lost $70 worth of jigs in 2 drops last time I was out. Tackle stores probably love hearing a good bite off story as they help the fisho replenish their tackle. The social impact is when the wife checks the bank account :)
carnarvonite
Posts: 8667
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Gambling
Using lures anf jigs is like playing two up, once you cast out its a gamble that you will get it back, same as putting your money on heads or tails in two up.
Love to ones who have their favourite lure yet don't take the risk of using it
SeperateKnob
Posts: 668
Date Joined: 28/11/16
Shark numbers must be
Shark numbers must be increasing at a fierce rate. Constantly getting chomped fishing out of metro area. So real big ones too busting off 200lb leaders with 90lb braid
wagyl
Posts: 219
Date Joined: 08/03/09
Four times since New Year
I have had unstoppables that have taken a little fish or just the bait. Follow them in the boat for half an hour and either bust off or lose the hooks, on 80lb braid with max drag and locking the reel down.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8667
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Shut down
Fisheries shut down the demersal fisheries from The Harvey drain south of Mnadurah through to Lancelin and the one I used to fish in from NW Cape through to the 120 deg line between Port Hedland and Broome over 15 years ago.
Before these were shut down anglers had very little worry about getting bitten off but since then it has been a gradual build up over the years. The restriction on rec and pro fishers taking sharks over the 700mm size limit allows more larger breeders to learn the trick of following boats to their next spot and an easy feed. Surprisingly we had a problem with this with dolphins south of Nanga with a mother and calf plus two others chasing us in moves of over 3nm at 25knots.
Opening up these fisheries will not be an immediate fix but will be a start towards fixing the problem. The shark protection zone from Steep point through to NW Cape should be opened BUT this comes with a problem as there is a very severe restriction on pros in the Shark Bay area snapper fishery which is also affected by the bottom fish trawlers working outside the 100 metre line.
Also affecting the re opening would be where to sell the larger sharks caught as the processors don't want them, ours were bone out, plastics wrapped and snap frozen then exported overseas and again I don't know if this market is still open or would accept them. Finning is not and will never be an option.
uncle
Posts: 9474
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Pretty bad
In kalbarri atm
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
beeroclock
Posts: 740
Date Joined: 22/08/12
Good news!
We used to love our boys trips going to Exmouth, Coral Bay and Shelter bay demersal fishing but stopped going for the last couple of years cause of the sharks. Ive been asked to join a trip to camp/fish shelter bay in May and would love to go but the sharks piss me right off . To bag out on your 5 keepers for the day you end up feeding 5 - 10 really good fish to the sharks and lose a shit load of gear then on top of that theres the anger and frustration that goes with it. We used to come back to camp f%$kin pissed off, next morning go out, same shit with the sharks and wonder why your there with all these friggin sharks circling the boat and showing on the sounder. Really hope some solution to the problem comes of this, not just cause I wanna start fishing up in those places again - it must be affecting their economies also when people stop going (just my 2cents worth) cheers Dave
sea-kem
Posts: 14972
Date Joined: 30/11/09
That's it pretty well in a
That's it pretty well in a nutshell Dave, we might get one or two good fish off a spot at Gnaraloo before they move in. And that's pretty well all my good marks up there. We got lucky in the deeper water but it's a long way out to avoid the noah's.
Love the West!
uncle
Posts: 9474
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Need a virus
For sharks.
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
beeroclock
Posts: 740
Date Joined: 22/08/12
If someone can find a way to process
shark carcasses into toilet paper they will become an instant billionaire ha ha
carnarvonite
Posts: 8667
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Wrong way
Alright if you wipe with the skin going from head to tail but if you forget and drag it tail to head its not going to remove all your dags but 3 layers of skin with them' They don't nickname sandbar whalers "thickskins" for no reason.
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8144
Date Joined: 07/05/12
It will still be nicer than
It will still be nicer than the paper they provide at my work
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
shark fishery
SURELY.... they realise since the majority of the shark fishery has closed, shark max size limits imposed, some shark species protection, etc, that shark numbers have HAD to have increased?? they have PROTECTED the sharks, ie: they have stopped the number of sharks being taken. quick maths would have to concur that if they are not decreasing, then they are increasing??
I cant for the life of me see how sharks can't be sustainably professionaly fished cheaply?? they seem a perfect candidate to harvest, as they seem plentiful, large size for good yield of fillets per animal, and (in my opinion) taste a lot better than some of the frozen basa and thai mud fish you get at supermarkets. I understand some of the larger ones get a bit tangy with the mercury, but we have eaten them up to 2.5m long (pre shark size ban years), and they were fantastic table fish. mako shark (although they are a very different shark, as they have no mercury), are seriously one of my favourie eating fish.
perhaps a reduced license fee would encourage pro-fishers back into shark harvesting? keep it cheap to harvest/fish, prohibit export of it, and keep west australian fish in australia and western australia?
sea-kem
Posts: 14972
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Mate with the current state
Mate with the current state of the Cray industry you'd almost think a no brainer to issue them with a shark fishing licence or at least give an option.
Love the West!
Darren253
Posts: 570
Date Joined: 23/07/16
agreed
But sell to where?
D_d_001
Posts: 1522
Date Joined: 09/03/13
I think a lot out there like
I think a lot out there like Scotto says would prefer over basa etc so there would have to be local market.
Although I do think there would be a lot of political backlash and knee jerk opinions....the sharks....the sharks !!!
Not too sure about the makos not having Mercury though. thought they would have been higher than most sharks being pelagic eaters.
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
hmmm
I caught a 1.4m mako a few years ago, and trunked it into the esky. I remember it doing the OPPOSITE of what most sharks do, and it didnt stink the esky out! me and a mate made remarks about how it didnt stink, and I remember eating the fillets, and they were as sweet as chicken! it was that point we decided no mako ever goes back alive.....
not long after that, I read something that suggested makos, poorbeagles and great whites dont generally have high levels of mercury as thay are warm blooded sharks, which is why it didnt stink like a normal shark, but I am googling as we speak, and now cant find anything to back it up.
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
Correction
It's not Mercury they don't have, it's ammonia!
great whites, porbeagles, and makos are warm blooded sharks, and therefore have little-to-no ammonia. That's why the shark didn't stink, and why it tasted sooooooo gooooood.
sea-kem
Posts: 14972
Date Joined: 30/11/09
To sell local, it's
To sell local, it's expensive as fish and chips at the moment. But more on the market would bring it down.
Love the West!
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
IMO,
its the license fees that incur the most costs of commercial fishing. a cray doesnt cost $90+ per kilo worth of diesel and labour costs. its the $5000 per pot rental fees theyre paying on top of that.
I understand the need for license fees though, but imagine if (for the good of the economy), fisheries introduced a heavily reduced license fee to target SUSTAINABLE amounts of local shark. it would keep the costs down, which would enable the product to be sold as cheap as possible, which would encourage buying over imported crap.
for the record, I also believe a similar thing could also be introduced for LOCAL only crays, where a small amount of reduced fee licences could be allocated for a supply of cheap crays, that can only be distrubuted/consumed in WA. perhaps just issue a couple of smaller boats a local only, cheaper license, with reduced pots per boat. or even a per cray fee, where the government gets $X per cray, and the operator has a quota.
just a thought.
sea-kem
Posts: 14972
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Ahhhh too much common sense
Ahhhh too much common sense there mate, it'll never happen. But we can all see it.
Love the West!
Billcollector
Posts: 2080
Date Joined: 16/05/09
Commercial cray guys didn't
Commercial cray guys didn't give a flying fuck about locals until the shit has hit the fan, now they want our support to survive until China's market improves, when they will not give a fuck again about the local market.
Sharks on the other hand are rampant and need sorting. 22 years sailfishing in Broome and over the last 5 years it is rediculous the amount of sharks taking sails even after what you think is a good recovery of the sail..Doing less sailfishing now as over the carnage.
SeperateKnob
Posts: 668
Date Joined: 28/11/16
We have demersal and other
We have demersal and other fish limits but how many fish are sharked in the process? Are fisheries collecting this data? If a fisher loses 4 fish for one take home surely this would have a huge effect on stocks
Billcollector
Posts: 2080
Date Joined: 16/05/09
They started last night. I
They started last night. I got a call from the research mob due to having done previous surveys.with them . Told them to politely go away.
Alan James
Posts: 2223
Date Joined: 30/06/09
...
I'm willing to bet Jackfrost's left nut that the Edith Cowan University will not come to any conclusion that proposes or suggests any cull or resumption of commercial fishing for sharks. The $350k grant from the Recreational Fishing Licences is imo a total waste of our funds. Scientists will tell you that shark numbers are in decline wordwide. The government is simply spending our money in a feel good exercise that will have no benefit to us.
sea-kem
Posts: 14972
Date Joined: 30/11/09
That's what I'm worried
That's what I'm worried about Alan.
Love the West!
Billcollector
Posts: 2080
Date Joined: 16/05/09
Summed it up well Alan.
Summed it up well Alan.
Cruise Control
Posts: 973
Date Joined: 03/11/10
Seriously. . . . . .
Seriously. . . . . . ???
Shark mitigation methods using deterrent devices ? We don't want to deter the buggers, we want to reduce the number of them.
What's the point in deterring when they will either develop a resistance to the deterrent methods or move on to someone who can't afford, doesn't have the effective deterrent device. They will still continue to breed and the problem will continue to get worse.
It seems pretty simple to me but then I find that simple plans usually work best.
- Reduce the shark numbers by catching not deterring
- Process the shark catch in some way so as to gain an economic benefit
- pressure comes off the demersal/pelagic fishery as not as many "bite-offs"
- Win win situation.
There's the plan headlines, now it just needs some of these bright young people at the Uni to fill in the details as to how we effectively get from step 1 to the conclusion. Seems to me that there is a massive opportunity for a new business out there that can only benefit the people by providing a cheaper "domestic" product and possibly develop a new export as well.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Common sense is not so common
Common sense unfortunately not so common any more (just look at the current toilet roll fiasco) just about everyone who chases good size fish these days is experiencing a large percentage of bite offs by sharks, thus a large percentage of good fish are lost.
If nothing is changed then nothing will change except the "sharked" problem will be progressively worse and move south because of their numbers increasing then what.
Belly Fish
Posts: 499
Date Joined: 09/03/12
Meanwhile
We have so called "academics" sitting in an office at Curtin University saying that Sharks need protecting. They really need to get out of their office and visit the real world to see how bad the problem is.
Simon5.7
Posts: 45
Date Joined: 26/12/17
Testing already underway
Hi guys I don't post too often on this site but wanted to give my 2 cents on this topic as it's pretty close to my heart
I was part of some field testing that was done using one of the deterrent devices mentioned in the media release up in Exmouth back in December (magnetic device) and even got a glimpse of my ugly mug on the Channel 9 news piece that talked a bit about it a few weeks ago
mate of mine is super smart with a brain that never stops thinking and I reckon he's nailed it with this deterrent device
I was telling him about my Exmouth trips and losing so many fish to sharks and how me and my young bloke who makes the trips with me were questioning do we even make the effort to make the trip again based on the bloody sharks taking so many good fish
not to mention how frustating it is to know that while you've come back with some tasty fillets from that days trip it always nags me how many quality fish the tax man takes.
yes you can move spots when the tax man arrives but how much fuel and time are you burning ? We're only there for a week normally and of course it's not often you can get out every day because of the weather so when we do I need to make every second count
Our testing involved 5 guys on the boat. One using the stop watches timing and recording data from "fish on" to fish either taxed or landed, one changing over and maintaining cameras (we connected cameras above the rigs to record every drop), one on the laptop collating all video footage as we'd replace SD cards regularly and 2 just fishing
one fisher would use a rig with no device and the other would use a rig using a device. My smart mate had designed multiple prototypes that we used throughout the week so we could determine if one design worked better than another. We also changed fishers using and not using the device. My role for the week was as one of the fishers. Yeah I know what you're thinking, the things we do to help to help out a mate
Simon5.7
Posts: 45
Date Joined: 26/12/17
Testing already underway
Hi guys I don't post too often on this site but wanted to give my 2 cents on this topic as it's pretty close to my heart
I was part of some field testing that was done using one of the deterrent devices mentioned in the media release up in Exmouth back in December (magnetic device) and even got a glimpse of my ugly mug on the Channel 9 news piece that talked a bit about it a few weeks ago
mate of mine is super smart with a brain that never stops thinking and I reckon he's nailed it with this deterrent device
I was telling him about my Exmouth trips and losing so many fish to sharks and how me and my young bloke who makes the trips with me were questioning do we even make the effort to make the trip again based on the bloody sharks taking so many good fish
not to mention how frustating it is to know that while you've come back with some tasty fillets from that days trip it always nags me how many quality fish the tax man takes.
yes you can move spots when the tax man arrives but how much fuel and time are you burning ? We're only there for a week normally and of course it's not often you can get out every day because of the weather so when we do I need to make every second count
Our testing involved 5 guys on the boat. One using the stop watches timing and recording data from "fish on" to fish either taxed or landed, one changing over and maintaining cameras (we connected cameras above the rigs to record every drop), one on the laptop collating all video footage as we'd replace SD cards regularly and 2 just fishing
one fisher would use a rig with no device and the other would use a rig using a device. My smart mate had designed multiple prototypes that we used throughout the week so we could determine if one design worked better than another. We also changed fishers using and not using the device. My role for the week was as one of the fishers. Yeah I know what you're thinking, the things we do to help to help out a mate
Simon5.7
Posts: 45
Date Joined: 26/12/17
Part 2 of my comments not sure why didn’t post above
we purposely fished areas we knew had high levels of shark activity as no point fishing remote spots with none around and depths fished were between 20 and 60 metres. Plus when the sharks moved in we didn't move but kept fishing the same spot as wanted to fire them up anyway upshot was that at the end of the week the average time for a fish to be sharked was between 3-8 seconds (bearing in mind we had them revved up) when not using the device on the rig. Using the device on a rig we only lost 2-3 fish for the week The video footage is insane. When using the device the footage shows the sharks fly in to take the fish like they normally do but then literally bounce off when they hit the area the device is protecting. Best way I can describe is its like a force field you see in the movies Using a rig with the device on a big spango I landed in 55 metres you see the shark come in time and time again at different angles trying to get at the fish until we land it. At the same spot on the rig not using the device we get the spango up a few metres off the bottom and a shark glides up off the bottom and swallows it whole in one easy movement. These spangoes were all in the 55-65cm range I understand they need to do some independent testing on the device my mate has designed but it's pretty exciting to think there is something that will be available hopefully soon to help our northern fish stocks avoid the taxman. Maybe they can call the new device the accountant as it helps you avoid tax ?
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
How can we get to see the video
I am sure a few of us on this site would like to see the video of upsetting the taxman.
Belly Fish
Posts: 499
Date Joined: 09/03/12
Really promising news
Thanks for the update Simon.
Couple of questions.
1. Does the "device" affect the bite rate of the target fish?
2. When can we get our hands on one? I'm a month away from going to Shelter Bay, so would love to do another trial for you.
Cheers