Mulloway

[zoki]

Just received a media release from DPI saying that they are asking for public comment for a recovery plan for mulloway in NSW. It says that the mulloway is being overfished that some new restrictions need to be applied. Anyone can have there say on the subject on website www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au and follow the links to "Have your say on Mulloway recovery"

Happy fishing all

George

[mrsswordfisherman]

CLICK HERE for fisheries or use the button up top of the forum

fill in online submission here

[Jew Stalker]

Just a thought, how about raising the legal length to 75cm? The quality of the flesh is not as premium under that size anyway when push comes to shove. It is good don't get me wrong it is good but it isn't sensational. Aside from that, that is the legal length of them in QLD and they seem to have a healthy sustained population (though I am not sure if this is due to climate or food availability, just taking a wild stab in the dark). I would like to know if this is an isolated thing to particular areas of NSW or there is a general decline up and down the state. If it is all up and down the state perhaps it is due to the legal size limit being too small and not allowing them enough spawning seasons to reproduce consistent growth in numbers. Once again I am no scientist just putting 2 and 2 together.

What are your thoughts?

[rjc123]

Just a thought, how about raising the legal length to 75cm? The quality of the flesh is not as premium under that size anyway when push comes to shove. It is good don't get me wrong it is good but it isn't sensational. Aside from that, that is the legal length of them in QLD and they seem to have a healthy sustained population (though I am not sure if this is due to climate or food availability, just taking a wild stab in the dark). I would like to know if this is an isolated thing to particular areas of NSW or there is a general decline up and down the state. If it is all up and down the state perhaps it is due to the legal size limit being too small and not allowing them enough spawning seasons to reproduce consistent growth in numbers. Once again I am no scientist just putting 2 and 2 together.

What are your thoughts?

Totally agree! 75cm should be the legal size.. The soapies don't taste as good as fish 75 and over anyway...

[A.dawg]

75cm size limit and a bag limit or 2 per person.

It would be a real shame to keep seeing the jewwie population decrease every year they are getting smaller which isn't a good sign at all.

[barnzey]

Read the FAQs before filling out the form it may change your views on why bag/size limits are set as the are and the potential impact of changing them.

I've place my preferred option as 1 fish and minimum length of 70cm. Quicker stock recovery and once the fish get to 70cm that's enough to feed a family of 6 for two nights.

I like their proposed changes for commercial fishing as well.

[zoki]

Read the FAQs before filling out the form it may change your views on why bag/size limits are set as the are and the potential impact of changing them.

I've place my preferred option as 1 fish and minimum length of 70cm. Quicker stock recovery and once the fish get to 70cm that's enough to feed a family of 6 for two nights.

I like their proposed changes for commercial fishing as well.

I too like the 70cm 1fish option as Barnzey says thats enough to feed a family for while

[sniper]

The 70 cm limit I guess had to come to bring it in line with the states Queensland 75cm Victoria 60cm but most novice fishermen ever catch ajewie over 70cm in their life!!! The fisheries prefered option for Commercial Beach/ocean haul of 500kg per day is ridiculous.HOW IS THIS GOING TO HELP STOCK RECOVERY!! Also to allow commercial fishers to keep fish from 45cm is not at all fair.I have for many years always followed the fisheries rules and regulations BUT due to unnessesary changes in the passed few years,this proposal and fisheries allowing supertrawlers into the country (this last one was not the first anyone remember "Vanessa")I have lost all confidence in our fisheries departments

Sniper

[barnzey]

The 70 cm limit I guess had to come to bring it in line with the states Queensland 75cm Victoria 60cm but most novice fishermen ever catch ajewie over 70cm in their life!!! The fisheries prefered option for Commercial Beach/ocean haul of 500kg per day is ridiculous.HOW IS THIS GOING TO HELP STOCK RECOVERY!! Also to allow commercial fishers to keep fish from 45cm is not at all fair.I have for many years always followed the fisheries rules and regulations BUT due to unnessesary changes in the passed few years,this proposal and fisheries allowing supertrawlers into the country (this last one was not the first anyone remember "Vanessa")I have lost all confidence in our fisheries departments

Sniper

Read the FAQ report Sniper, it explains why the scientists who have performed the research recommended the quota. I trust that they are in a better position to make a well informed decision on proposed size and bag limits. Their reasoning appears to be sound. The bag and size limits are temporary until stock status recovers, the length of time for this depends on the recovery option you choose. It could be 3 years (eg a Moritorium on Jewies), it could be 20 years or more (eg continuing on the path we're on).

Already most novice fisherman don't catch any jewies because the stock status is low. Raising the size limit might mean that some day in the future they might be able to hook up to one (or at least increase their chances). It's better than going out and not getting any bites at all. At least they can go back and tell their mates about the monster that got away. Increasing the stock just increases the chance of hooking one up and landing it. Like mentioned earlier, the size limits are not set in stone and are subject to change depending on stock status.

Despite Australia having a strong fishing community the majority of Australians don't catch their own fish and require to purchase it from the local fish market. These fish must come from somewhere. 500kg sounds like a lot but ocean haul requires the right conditions to make the shot on a school so it isn't a technique which you can repeat day after day. 9 tonnes is the total ocean haul commercial catch per year, seems quite small when you're comparing it to a recreational catch of between 100-500 tonnes/year. Since recreational fishermen make up the majority of the jewfish catch (between 2-9 times greater than the commercial catch) the most important ingredient in the jewfish recovery will be changes to the recreational bag and size limits. The answer to your 45cm rule is also answered in the FAQ section; they're bycatch in a set net, they are dead anyway you might as well use them instead of wasting the meat.

These proposed changes are NOT superfluous as you think, it is the NSW fisheries trying to do their job and manage a fish stock so that novice fisherman 'johnny little' can have a chance to catch a jewy in the near future.

This has nothing to do with supertrawlers, that is to do with the AFMA.

So in summary it is important to read the FAQ section so you can make an informed decision on which jewfish recovery plans would be best for the jewfish stock and future fishing opportunity.

[cjchen]

I prefer the Bag limit of 2 fish with rules permitting retention of 1 fish between 45-70 cm and 1 fish above 70 cm this is the most sustainable practice in my opinion, if the bag limit is one fish over 70cm many anglers will release fish that may be gut hooked that has 40% survival, as 80% of the catches in estuary is under 70cm. this can lead to wastage and the impact on estuary anglers are too big.

[sniper]

re: barnzeys relpy to my post

You say these scientists know all just whose scientists are they ? Would they be employed by fisheries dept.No way rec anglers catch more than pros.! 1 commercial estuary will catch more fish in 1 day than a rec angler will catch in 5 years Reread the faq 54 tonne for commercial total. They say 100-500 t for rec fishermen now why am i s

uspitious of that number ummm is it because its a GUESS is it because they are unsure of 400 tonne give my a break!

[cjchen]

re: barnzeys relpy to my post

You say these scientists know all just whose scientists are they ? Would they be employed by fisheries dept.No way rec anglers catch more than pros.! 1 commercial estuary will catch more fish in 1 day than a rec angler will catch in 5 years Reread the faq 54 tonne for commercial total. They say 100-500 t for rec fishermen now why am i s

uspitious of that number ummm is it because its a GUESS is it because they are unsure of 400 tonne give my a break!

lol someone must be really good at catching those jewies.....

[pjbink]

lol someone must be really good at catching those jewies.....

The indivual rec take may be small but cumulatively it can be quite large. There are 1 million rec anglers in NSW and only 1000 pros, so do the sums on that.

[barnzey]

re: barnzeys relpy to my post

You say these scientists know all just whose scientists are they ? Would they be employed by fisheries dept.No way rec anglers catch more than pros.! 1 commercial estuary will catch more fish in 1 day than a rec angler will catch in 5 years Reread the faq 54 tonne for commercial total. They say 100-500 t for rec fishermen now why am i s

uspitious of that number ummm is it because its a GUESS is it because they are unsure of 400 tonne give my a break!

The 100-500t rec catch quoted would not be a guess. It would be an estimate produced by the scientists based on data. The large range given is due uncertainty from estimations based on limited data, most likely obtained from infield fishing surveys and boat ramp catch inspections. Commercial catches do not have this error as they have to by law have a record of their catch rates so there is a greater degree of certainty in the total amount of jewfish caught. Recreational catches have greater uncertainty as only a very small percentage of catch is able to be recorded. The difference in recreational catch to commercial catch is significant in that their estimated data ranges do not overlap. It is certain that the recreational harvest of jewfish is greater than the commercial catch (at least 2 times greater, at most 9 times greater).

I believe these studies are jointly funded by the recreational fishing trust and the NSW government (correct me if I'm wrong)

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/fees/research

Billfisher has also raised an important point, as individuals the impact on stock is negligible however the impact of the collective is significant.

[Yowie]

Having caught many jewies over many years in Port Hacking, the numbers have dropped considerably in recent years. Have found with the smaller jewies, that they can be greedy and swallow large baits, resulting in being hooked in the gut or gills. A gut hooked fish may survive, damage the gills and there is little chance of recovering.

Drop the bag limit to 2 fish. As others have said, one below 70cm, one above 70cm, sounds fair enough.

If you limit it to minimum of say 70cm, you may not take home anything. Earlier this year in the Port, I caught 10 jewies in the one morning, the biggest was only 62cm, and only kept one fish, which was hooked deeper than the others, so this one may have not had a good recovery chance.

As I said earlier, the smaller fish are more likely to suffer injuries than the larger fish, and it is better to keep an injured fish and eat it rather than through it back to die.

[Yowie]

I sent a reply to the Fisheries website regarding the Mulloway enquiry.

Was limited to 500 characters in the report length, which means that I could not put everything on the response that I needed to say (really needed 5,000 characters), so I finished off with "You don't care."

Same as the last survey I completed on the website, not enough space is given to respond, seems like Fisheries are only making a token effort to appease us anglers.

[plankton]

Throwing the big old breeders back would help.

[Yowie]

Just received a reply from Fisheries that the 500 characters for the reply was a mistake on their part, they have now expanded it to several pages, so if you have a comment, send it to them.

[Mr Squidy]

Personally i'd love to see maybe one over 65cm to allow for a feed and then one over maybe 90cm or 1m just to make sure there is a reason to keep fishing for the night once the first schoolie is in the bag. Under 65 is pretty pointless as they aren't great on the chew anyway and are a pretty sad looking fish once they get much under that. I'd also made the recommendation in my reply that any change should be permanent, not temporary as suggested.

Whatever happens its great that some action is being taken as the current limits are ridiculous, hope all the raiders take their time to have their say.

Rich

[Yowie]

I sent another reply to Fisheries, as I have kept written records of what fish captures I have from Port Hacking since 1968, which would give them an idea of mulloway numbers and sizes. At this time, no interest shown by Fisheries, may be it will come later!

[GaryO]

The indivual rec take may be small but cumulatively it can be quite large. There are 1 million rec anglers in NSW and only 1000 pros, so do the sums on that.

BAHAHAHA. 90 % of that million wouldnt know what a Jewfish was let alone know how to catch one, what a stupid cop out stat to throw up. Dont start me on that dumb lame argument because its TOTAL BS.

Edited November 6, 2012 by GaryO

[GaryO]

Sorry double post

Edited November 6, 2012 by GaryO

[Testlab]

BAHAHAHA. 90 % of that million wouldnt know what a Jewfish was let alone know how to catch one, what a stupid cop out stat to throw up. Dont start me on that dumb lame argument because its TOTAL BS.

And this is exactly the attitude and kind of response that discredits input from the recreational fishing lobby. The data in the paper was frank in its admission it was an estimate. Even so, I too was surprised at the magnitude and I thought it had been vastly over-estimated, but then I ran the numbers and 100t is only 50,000 fish for the whole of NSW (assuming they average 2kg). There are probably 1000 people fishing recreationally in NSW on any Saturday and if 100 of those caught two jewies of 2 kg that's 400kg a day.

It's all about means and averages and I think 100t is probably achievable. Around the north coast eastuaries and river mouths it is common to get a dozen or more smaller sized fish a day. Around Sydney its completely different.

[GaryO]

And this is exactly the attitude and kind of response that discredits input from the recreational fishing lobby. The data in the paper was frank in its admission it was an estimate. Even so, I too was surprised at the magnitude and I thought it had been vastly over-estimated, but then I ran the numbers and 100t is only 50,000 fish for the whole of NSW (assuming they average 2kg). There are probably 1000 people fishing recreationally in NSW on any Saturday and if 100 of those caught two jewies of 2 kg that's 400kg a day.

It's all about means and averages and I think 100t is probably achievable. Around the north coast eastuaries and river mouths it is common to get a dozen or more smaller sized fish a day. Around Sydney its completely different.

"And this is exactly the attitude and kind of response that discredits input from the recreational fishing lobby"

Why ? for not blindly accepting government depts figures as factual .

Do you really belive credit was or will ever be given to what an amatuer fisho has to say , they will impose licences ,fees, no fishing areas, bag an catch limits until the cows come home while ever people just accept their word and believe they are responsible for the decline in fish stock. For this reason i couldnt be bothered really debating this with much purpose but id would like to add a bit to the conversation. As for your figures yes they are getting to what is more realistic numbers but keep in mind those saturday night jewboys are not doing it on a daily basis unlike the 1000 pros you mentioned . If that 400Kg rec fisher stat was repeated for friday AND saturday for basicaly the 6 month Jew season that figure only reaches 20T , and as we all know bugger all people actualy get the chance to fish once a week let alone twice. Anyway i think the figures can be argued and swayed in anyones favour and until a more conclusive and actual data driven figure is achieved i will always stick to my own experience and observations.They have every licence holders details which could be easily used to send out a questionaire to obtain this info if they really wanted to actualy look for the truth. Sydney harbour to me seems to be picking up in Jew and noticably Kingfish numbers while The Hawkesbury is on the decline , Is that due to anything ?

The answer will be what supports my arguement .

Gaz

Edited November 7, 2012 by GaryO

[Testlab]

It's all about beating 'em at their own game Gaz. Unfortunately they set the rules, choose the players and set the price of admission. While we're packing the esky and cutting the oranges the games been played and the outcome decided before we've even left home. But to have a chance of winning one has to participate - even if it seems the odds are stacked against you - and that starts with getting invited to the game to begin with.

Smiling when entering the field has nothing to do with kicking em in the fish-balls later.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Testlab