i second your opinion - too many people gety away with it when they could easily be aprehended - its not that hard for fisheries to come down and patrol popular fishin spots " where are they?"

Saw 2 guys from the fisheries there, handing out the measurement sizes for fish. Plenty of undersizes but managed to bag 6 around 38cm. Yeah those asian fisherman are a pain in the ass. Im an asian myself and this people give asians a bad name... assholes to be honest... It is because of them I lost my shark yesterday.

very annoying seeing as all of us obey the rules and even release fish and then ammo jetty fisherman in particualy, once i saw one guy with about 5 15cm skippy

I guess you can only do so much to try and get Fisheries to attend the scene.

For what it's worth, might be worth considering putting an official complaint in writing to the Fisheries Department and cc: the Fisheries Minister and both the West Australian and Sunday Times..and maybe even Today Tonight.

If the department or the minister don't act, at least the media may make a something about it !

Fisheries officers have lives too you know.  You don't know what else they were up to, they were probably up in the hills staking out people that were taking hundreds of undersize marron, or chasing people selling fish on the black market or ....  If you want to get upset, get upset with the govt who gives them a shoe string budget to work on with no where near enough staff.  We have 4 fisheries officers in Exmouth and 28 DEC staff and 2 of those fisheries officers are funded by DEC Marine Parks.  Yep, that maths works out...

Yeh the government is pretty piss poor when it comes to funding fisheries ! Not alot of officers around concidering the size of the sport of fishing in western australia !

ring the coppers. They have similar powers to fisheries. yeah it may be hard tp get them down there with the other jobs theyve got on, and fish stocks probably arent high on their list, but if they arent doing much at the time, its worth a go.

most people know that if you ring fisheries after hours, no one is going to be coming out, but ring the coppers in front of them and it may be enough to scare them off.

stuff em, their the ones that spoil it for the rest of us.....

i can understand your frustration but unfortunately there are a lot of places that are getting hammered by people taking undersize fish and there are only so many fisheries officers to go around, its been happening as long as i have been fishing and for many years before that so it will not just stop overnight as much as we would like it to. other than making that call there isnt anything else that can be done legally apart from kicking the bucket of fish back in but that probably wouldnt be the smartest thing to do either. at least you tried to do the right thing

that the fisheries resources are stretched (or mis-managed, but thats another debate), but what gets me is that there isn't even any follow up at all, no call back nothing. 

You play the role of unofficial fisheries officer in their absence (take down descriptions of the offender(s), the illegal activity, car rego, take photos etc etc), they take down notes of the phone conversation and then like mission impossible it explodes and is never seen nor heard from again. Thats the frustrating part, you begin to wonder why bother?

i have been to coogee. not fishing and these two guys were catching tailor. they about 8 and probs the biggest one was around about 5cm or something ridicoulsy small. i told them u cant keep them and they said oh we just keeping them to show my mate or something. about 20 mins l8er i went back on the jetty. they had taken all the water out  and put another bucket with water in it ontop of the tailor. i told them i can the undersized tailor and they just laughed and said well we are gonna use them as bait. seriously fisheries should have a program were we can do like "citizens aressests" or fines or something like that.

When the debate on the $30 licence fee was on, I put up several comments as to why the persons fishing from a boat was being penalised with having to pay a licence fee just to fish from a boat. I suggested that if every person fishing in the sea paid about $12 for a licence, more money would be generated, and more fisheries staff could be employed.

This thread has argued the case perfectly.

I rest my case your honour.

I would be happy to pay for a licensce if meant that there were more fisheries officers patroling popular fishing spots around Perth

Has the right idea,call the cops,tell them there is a  verbal fight that may degenerate into a physical one with knives used,all the afore is possible so when they turn up you explain that to them.then tell them to check the catch.jersey

This present Government, Mr Moore and friends are doing no better than Mr Ford and his little friends did, all 3 fisheries sectors, Pros, Charter Operators and Recreational are being completely miss managed at the moment. Licence fees for one section of the Recreational sector is stupidity, especially when that section is having to pay it and is less than 1/6th of the total Rec fishing population. The Pros, with their murdering nets taking fish during one of our prime spawning periods is complete madness. The Pros in the Cray industry must be looking to the heavens for some help as their industry is being miss managed to the maximum by the very poor decisions being made at the moment. The Charter Operators must be wondering where these stupid rules emanated from. Taking 20 or so Pros out of the Metro region and forcing them into other areas all ready over fished by murdering gill nets is complete lunacy. There were tons and tons of fish taken from the area between the two capes during one of our major spawning periods by these extra Pros now fishing this area while the Recreational sector had to endure their two month ban ! !
I agree with iana the licence structure is so stupid it is ridiculous, if every one payed a small licence fee the dipsticks who are completely destroying our fishing future, besides our pollies, would help to employ more fisheries inspectors, the more inspectors the more fish that will survive to a breeding age, the more fish for everyone ! !
A lot of concern was shown right from the beginning by a lot of people about the lack of research and the speed in which these new rules were rushed through parliament. This is proving to be true now, a lot more consultation and research needed to be done before this stupid set of rules were introduced !! One of the questions asked was, how were the fisheries going to police these new rules, Mr Moore no money and no fisheries inspectors equals NO FISH for the future. Then again I suppose you don't give a shit because you won't be there after the next election.

Like Adam siad there are 4 fisheries in Exmouth but they do have lives and annual leave and cant be everywhere at once. It would be great to see the gov put thier money where their mouth is and employ some more in main Rec fishing towns.
I launched and fished from my boat in Exmouth every day at the start of this month for 8 consecutive days and never saw a Fisheries officer all week...Pretty sad if I was doing the wrong thing as I have seen people do time and time again in Exmouth.
Today I went to mandurah crabbing....41 degrees...A Sunday...Hundreds of boats....Launched at one of the busiest main ramps in the town.....No fisheries officers or volunteers launching or retrieving?
I wish I saw them every single time I went out but there just isnt enough of them
Rosco

greed thats all it is' how you stop it I don't know,its like the hoons and crims,they don't think the law applys to them

Sure theres a lack of funding etc but i've been out on the water a fair bit over the last few years and yes i know there are lots of ramps jetties etc but i've been checked by fisheries 3 times.! Now they cant be every where at once but if they just made a regular appearance at ramps on weekends ( weekends generally being the busy time)  sooner or later people are going to realise they might be there and hopefully deter them from doing the wrong thing. Its not neccesarily about being there, just getting it into peoples heads that theres a good chance they might be. Its a small minority that ruin it for the rest of us and we can only hope that more money gets injected into fisheries to rectify the problem.

at the north mole, same scenario - bucket full of undersize tailor and other fish owned by a charming young Asian man next door to me. I confronted him, he said you cant do anything. Well I did, I grabbed his bucket tipped the fish back in and told him he'd be going in next, being a sizeable fella helped me. The funny thing was there were a few others who promptly got there buckets and left. The upshot is though, he had a laugh and told me he'd be back there the next day !!!  Sometimes, words escape, that was one of those times. 

why cant the govt make a few of us volunteer fisheries officers. hand out 100 -200 citizen fisheries inspectors badges put them through a bit of tranng give them a infringment book and let the ones paying for our fishing licences police our precious fishing stocks. Good work calling the number though

i like the idea biggerfish. id certainly be in!

rosco I agree that 4 fisheries officers isn't many for exmouth but couldn't they have split shifts or something like that so the hours they patrol are a bit longer. I understand that its a huge coast line and they can't patrol everywhere but if they were nowhere to be seen where were they. If you launched your boat for 8 days straight and never seen a fisheries officer then what were they doing as there isn't that many boat ramps in exmouth. i had the fisheries check me a few times when I was up there for last years FW comp so why is it any different now. I live in Mandurah and agree that I never see fisheries at the main ramps so why aren't they policing any ramps. It only takes 1 officer at the main boat to check catches but they don't even do that. You go to point peron ramp and there always seems to be a fisheries officer so is it just some fisheries officers that aren't doing there job or most. atleast show your face at the main places where boats are launched and they wouldn't cop so much flack.

Just got back from a couple of hours in front of the Swanbourne SLSC clubrooms - 1 taylor and a few sand whiting - bit disappointing but nice too wet a line after the winds we have been getting over the last few weeks.

There was a family group fishing down there who kept absolutely everything and eventually when they kept a tiny skippy,  I went over and made a comment that the fish was undersized and should be put back - they replied that they were keeping it to feed their cat and told me that I should "F off".  I guess a tiny skippy is not worth an assault charge but it really pi$$ed me off as the young kids in the group are being taught all the wrong things.

If the fisheries can't do anything its up to us.

Lets get say 20 blokes together and check popular spots(as 1 group), any under size get tipped back in and offenders get they photo taken for our records, unless we decide to arrest them (citizens arrest).

Who is in and where/when do you want to start ?

is that gonna stop them? probably not. they wouldn't view normal people like us as much of a threat. and if anything WE would be the ones getting in trouble for aggravation

i agree that the whole thing is a major frustration. i was fishing in shelly the other night and i was the only one who took back a (barely) legal size bream. but western australia, or even just the metro region alone, has countless possible fishing spots dotted all over the place. it'll be a hard yard to police this sort of thing properly

i do suggest something like a petition to the government to get more funding for the fisheries tho. it'll get us into less trouble and we'd still be making an active effort (sort of)

Everyone has seen the multidude of people fishing along the jetties, moles and under the bridge pylons etc, the people are not only raping the inshore and river areas, but are feeding scavenger fish so that they breed more (blowies).

It seems to me that the fisheries dont want to enforce the rules in these areas, as it would be too messy, to political.

Much more fun to race about the ocean in a fast ridged inflatable and check out one or two boat fishers who would most likely be towing the line, no mess, no politics.

How easy would it be for three officers to block off the end of a mole, one guarding the start, and two officers to make there way along, the fishers can't escape unless they swim. No they don't want to.

Seems a bit of rational thought needs to be applied here, and some legal ideas put forward.

Mine, push for a blanket licence system on fishing. To bring in more funding.

Perhaps invite the TV media down to Woodman mole and film these people. Then that if aired will be right in the Polies and public faces.

More ideas guys.

Many here acknowledge that the taking  undersized,fish is going on in many places,we all understand that the Fisheries are understaffed,and not able to be every were,so if any one  feels so strong about a situation,they can do as you did,through the fish into the water and as you said your a big fella,but what would have happened if this Asian fella had three or four mates or took to you after you throwing his fish back,he may have belted you and thrown you in the drink or worse you may have belleted him and done  the same then the cops would have been called any way,and you Paully would have been charged with aggravated assault by provocation,you started it by your actions of throwing his fish away.I think that Scotty has a very good plan,but we must then be careful of not being seen as vigilantes.lets be factual the majority of people will throw back small/undersized fish but some will keep them and that group that do keep them are sometime of a certain race,it happened in Mandurah with the undersized crabs being taken and kept,some so small that most would not see worth keeping,then when Fisheries started targeting and educating some particular people they then started to remove the crabs pincers so the crabs could not eat or defend themselves,but how can you say a crab was undersized if you only have the pincers?

Maybe if every body feels that the officers are not doing their job and not attending ramps and other fishing spots then maybe a thread or section on FW could support that when you do see some fisheries officers you could post it on there as a kind of our own experiment / survey to support the letter or petition to the fisheries minister???

I have only ever been checked by the fisheries twice and that was 2 weekends in a row about a year ago at point perron.... thats it..... I often wonder why I dont see them at popular locations like the moles, jeties and ramps....?

Personaly I do like the idea of the licence- it aint too much money and it will help pay for more officers etc but land based fishos should too contribute.....

but again it'll be hard to police it properly. especially for landbased fishermen, seeing as how theres alot more of them than offshore ones and are harder to keep track of. however, if the license can be checked not only by fisheries, but also the state police, or even local rangers, it'll be a wicked thing, seeing as how using a license effectively brings fishing under the law

mmm, ironically even for a more basic security need - my house got burglarized and the cops did absolutely NOTHING. DO NOT EXPECT ANY HELP FROM THE POLICE!

They never even came down to take a look, neither did the cops show the slightest of interest in doing anything about it.

When i mentioned i found a set of footprints in the sand (where the thief had jumped the fence) and whether the forensics should come over asap to record them, the police officer at the station even had the gall to tell me it had only been one day since the incident happened and that the forensics were another department and that would call me when they were free. Of course i never got a call and nothing ever has been done about it ever since (its been 3 weeks now).

 So Fuc$#$%#$% the police.

Case in point - I personally return undersized fish based on my belief of sustainable fishing NOT because l'm worried about fisheries catching me. Then again, lot of these people who retain undersized fish have this mentality of - if i don't catch and take them someone else will and still take them anyway. I think expecting and relying on fisheries to do something about it is a complete waste of time.

Instead a dual prong approach should be used The Carrot - 1) Education and constant drumming in that should the taking of undersized fish continue there won't be any left after a while and people would not be able to engage in their favorite hobby sometime in future. I think this is far better than a confrontational approach where you intimidate people into tipping back or giving back their fish. Like they said, they will be back next day so whats the point? I think constant peer pressure type of tactics coupled with educational measures should be employed.

The stick 2) Fisheries should spot check people more often sort of like Random breath tests, except its random fish tests! The point to drill in is that they are around and the fear of getting checked should be high enough for people not to try to take any undersized fish. Currently l've been checked 3 times on my boat, but never while fishing off land so they seem to be heavily boat biased?

 Either way, there will never be a total elimination of this problem, as long as its kept in check and under control and 9 out of 10 people return fish to the water i believe we would have achieved our objective.

Now on the commerical fishing side of things which does far worse damage anyone know how they police them?

Fisheries are on a cost-recovery model...ie fees pay for their operations.

So when you pay licence fees for crays, abalone, marron, etc, a proportion of their resources (patrol time) gets allocated to checking compliance for those activities. Likewise, commercial fishos pay alot of money in licence fees and so get more compliance checking and resource monitoring.

Apart from the specific licences that we buy as above, we don't pay anything to fish for your general shore-based fishing, hence, they do minimal patrols. Except in marine parks where marine park funding pays for patrols of sanctuary zones etc.

Add on to this model, successive budget cuts (3% public service 'efficiency dividend', etc) and what do you get? The individual officers have so much work to do with little resourcing...then when they bust someone, there is much more time needed to actually write up the prosecution...which is more desk time. I remember talking to a fisheries officer who suggested they might be better off rarely actually busting someone, but rather just give them warnings and let them off, so they can spend more time patrolling and being seen, and not back in the office processing the busts!! man...

Under the cost-recovery model, we need to be charged more to fish, to fund the compliance patrolling. Or the Govt needs to stop cutting budgets. Or they need to raise taxes! Anyway you look at it they need more money from somewhere (us) to fund more compliance checking...

I agree with Adam and Watto069. It is really hard. What would be good is a presence. A bit like cops...When you see one you always slow down even if he is filling his tank with fuel. We stopped in at Bundegi on the way back from Tantas to check the fillet table and also took a "day off Tantas" and did over 40km's in the gulf launching and retrieving at the Marina. Also went to fuel up and buy ice etc twice a day at servo. Did not see one fisheries the entire 10 days I was in Exmouth? Was a bit wierd.
Last January we were checked at Tantabiddi and the Marina which was reassuring. I also saw fisheries every second day driving around last year and even had a quiet drink with one of them (after he had knocked off of course)

Lastly Adam if I was a Fisheries officer and there were only one or two boats going out every day because of rough conditions that's exactly where I would be as that is when many of these "A" Holes get away with breaking the law as there are few people around to witness it and less chance of being caught.
I've always thought a great big sign at Tantas, The Marina and Bundegi saying "YOU MIGHT NOT THINK SO BUT FISHERIES ARE WATCHING YOU" would make some people feel a bit uneasy about their undersize fish and overquoters.

Lastly I'll add that on a couple of trips to Coral Bay we have even had our Freezers checked for possession limit which has never happened to me in Exmouth over 25 years of going there. We had our 20kg's of fillets in the first two days this last trip but choose to release a lot of fish. I always wonder how many freezers drive out of Exmouth full with 100kg's of fillets as they plan their next rape and pillage trip.

Thinking out loud
Rosco

Every now & then there is a group of volunteers at the launce ramps collecting information for the fisheries department, fish species caught, aproximate location, & thoughts on facilities etc. Why cant the fisheries department use the same tactics for placing people at launch ramps & fishing locations as a form of visual deterant for those who intend to flaunt the regulations. I believe there is a small payment involved for these people as well. Im sure there would be no shortage of hands go up from retired folks & others if the fisheries dept asked for volunteers. As for Exmouth, i have been going to exmouth fishing for the last 12 years & only once have we seen or been aproached by fisheries to check our catch & that was by two retired lookin gentlemen who looked more like tourists, but we obliged & they went on their way.  Perhaps this may at exxy there will be a unbeleivable fisheries presence at the ramps just to push a point  lol. The more the betta i recon, ya cant beat visual presence as a deterant.   Rob

A fisheries officer actually called me this morning about my report and basicly just asked for Amy extra info that I could think of and thanked me for the report and encoureged me to report in the future he also said that the reason that they didn't come was cos they were stuck at another job at the river .I was pretty surprised that they followed up the call I didn't think they would bother.It's not that they are not doing there job i think it's just that there's simply not enough of them and the government needs to give them more funding so they can get more patrol officers even if that means that everywone has to pay for a licence , I think the volunteer thing would be good tho

bring on the volunteer-ranger fisheries

Very good points Adam and I am going in to bat for them because they do a great job. We just need more of them and more people doing the right thing.
Well done for listing the amount of responsibilty they have. It is a huge task
Rosco

the only fisheries officers ive ever seen have been in marron season they just absolutely hammer people in season for doing the wrong thing when god knows how often you see people walking around rivers in broad daylight with their bag-fulls of marron and a handfull of nets!!!

But then again it all comes down to the fact that there are way to many reports for such a limited number of officers so the government just needs to increse officer numbers and its problem solved and they are even putting more work for unnemployed people...

over the last 5 or so years we have been fishing anywhere from Dunsboro through to exxy, we have been checked all over the place but mostly in Shark bay (every trip out) yes they are a deterant to those that even think about taking excess and u/size fish. these guys and girls are only human and can only cover so many areas in one day. it is frustrating when you see people of all races taking small and too many fish and no amount of public awareness notices are out there as well as fisheries officers will be enough to stop whats going on.So unfortunately we can only look at whats going on and shake our heads at those doing the wrong thing and hope they get the guilts over it