Jump to content

Professional estuary netting proposals


Recommended Posts

Submissions to the review (read increases) of estuary netting in NSW estuaries are due by May 30th. Every personal submission will help subvert this attempt by professional netters to gain more access to our estuaries. That can only have one outcome for you and I - less fish to catch.

Read about the waterways that will be affected here:

http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/opinion-it-s-up-to-us-to-stop-the-nets

Please take the time to write a short submission detailing your concerns and send it to commfish.wg@dpi.nsw.gov.au, office @hodgkinson.minister.nsw.gov.au and your local member (name of electorate@parliament.nsw.gov.au). It mighn't hurt to copy your letter to those supposed representatives of ours - The Fishers and Shooters. They might just support us on this one! Nothing on their website to indicate this though.

Sitting back and then complaining when these proposals get the go ahead just isn't good enough!

I am happy to share my submission with you should you wish for some help to get started. Send me a PM.

Kel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How short sighted by government. Revenue from recreational fishing provides jobs and allows conservation of fish through proper fish management ( bag and size limits) I'm already dismayed by commercial fishers being allowed right on the doorstep of such populated recreational fishing zones. How many new fishos will be attracted to the sport when there is naff all left to catch?

Imo net fishing should be banned in a 10k radius of major populated places. I know they have a right to earn a living but.

There is an awful lot of ocean and coast outside major cities they can use.

Here's my message to commercial fisherman.

Bugger off out of our back garden . Grrrr

... Steve

Edited by NaClH2OK9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can they even consider these reforms after all the hard work that's been done to protect these environments.

Why should we ruin our waters just for the well being of professionals.

I have one message to these professionals who clearly do not care about sustainability, sort out your resume and find a different job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is nothing wrong with the current system, and commercial fishos are against the changes too. They are restricted pretty heavily to how many days they can fish a year, and already have to buy 'shares'. The increase in shares required to fish still will put a lot out.

All the hate on the commercial sector is pretty bad. They are making a dollar, AND helping us recreational fishos too. Anyone ever bought fresh hawkesbury squid from a tackle shop? These changes go through, chances are your local tackle shop will have imported squid from Thailand or Californian squid. Yuck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my first post on this particular forum. I'm quite active on others, but I apologise that my first post on Fishraider is a political one and not a fishing story, but if you think the fishing has got better in the last few years because of the reduction in commercial fishing in many areas, including where most of us fish (estuaries), you should make your voice heard ASAP. I've put together (with the help of veteran recfishing advocates more qualified than me) a little "opinion piece" all of you might be interested in reading &/or using as you see fit:

The so-called NSW commercial fishing "reforms" represent the greatest attack on recreational fishing resources and therefore recreational fishers and the billion-dollar industry we support, since commercial fishing began in the State.

These "reforms", a government sop to the political anti-rec fishing lobbying of the commercial fishing industry, including small-time, inefficient and largely subsistence licence-holders, wind back the fisheries resources' conservation and protection initiatives hard won by recreational fishers during the past 40 years (read as: Minister Hodkinson’s National Party electorates).

And all this from a government which only recently announced the results of a State-wide survey which showed recreational fishing in NSW to be far more valuable economically - in dollar and socio-economic returns to the State - than the commercial fishing industry. (A result, incidentally, entirely consistent with the results of recreational fishing surveys conducted by other States and nationally in the past 30 years.) Survey link: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/499302/UOW-statewide-economic-survey-final-report.pdf

The main issue for the majority of recreational fishers because estuaries and inlets are where the majority fish, is the dramatic widening the free-for-all the "reforms" will give commercial fishers in netting the estuaries. Mesh nets are going to be permitted in a huge number of new locations in NSW estuaries in which they are banned now, and the time in which commercial fishers can undertake the netting is being extended. The reason that there are currently widespread bans on netting in these estuaries/inlets/lower rivers is that their fish resources were netted to near extinction by commercial fishers in the past. Some have still not fully recovered and some are in reasonable shape following the imposition of bans years ago, but the planned "reforms" will take us back to the real dark ages and estuaries - the main spawning and nursery areas for most of our finfish species (including Australian Bass) - will once again be denuded by the commercials.

Not only is a wholesale expansion of estuary netting planned but there is no provision for the prevention or limiting of bycatch in the government's proposals. Nor is there any mention of new and extra funding for the number of Fisheries Officers which are going to be essential to ensure commercial fishers abide by the fisheries laws and regulations, particularly in the very sensitive estuaries/inlets/lower rivers.

Individual rec fishers and all recreational fishing clubs, associations and organisations in NSW must loudly voice their outright opposition to the proposed commercial fishing "reforms" and especially concentrate on the "reforms" proposed for the estuaries/inlets/lower rivers. This opposition can be expressed in a number of ways, but could start with an urgent letter of opposition to the Ministerial Fisheries Advisory Council (MFAC) rec fishing member and Fishing World editor, Jim Harnwell, asking him to inform the Minister immediately about your concerns and your strong opposition to the commercial industry "reforms". You could also make strong and immediate representations by letter and in person to all local State Members of Parliament and keep voicing your opposition to those local MP’s as the issue develops. Finally, you should ask every rec-fishing related and natural resource-related organisation or entity with which you have an affiliation or association, to take up the cudgels immediately and start telling the government in no uncertain terms that its proposed commercial fishing "reforms" are unacceptable - for fisheries resource, fisheries habitat and estuary ecosystem sustainability reasons, as well as for economic reasons. (Always remember, the government, by its own survey, knows that the recreational fishing industry is more valuable socio-economically than the commercial fishing industry and that the recreational fishing industry is entirely dependent on the maintenance of healthy natural resources and habitats in the estuaries.) You should also record your opposition in a strong but carefully, constructively worded letter to the NSW Fisheries Minister and encourage all your fishing associates to do the same. Letters to the editors of all suburban newspapers in your catchment, warning of the dangers to valuable local fisheries and natural resources should the "reforms" proceed, would also alert the wider public to what they stand to lose if the government and commercial fishers have their way.

Do it soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...