Pittwater Is Bare - Last Of The Pros Is Going

[Narralakes]

Reading the Manly Daily this morning and front page is a guy who is a professional fisherman, he's been fishing the Pittwater for nearly 40 years. He trawls with nets and now cant make a living, when in its heyday, he was catching "400 boxes" of fish per night, 400! No wonder there is no fish in Pittwater now, him and all the pros have fished the place dry, so to speak. I wont be sorry to see him go. Maybe the fish will get back there one day, I was there yesterday and it was very slim pickings. Of course there are other reasons why Pittwater is a shadow of its former glory fishing days, lack of sea grass, probably stripped off the bottom by the nets anyway, but some algae is being blamed for that too, but trawlers dont discriminate, big, little, anysize fish just gets taken, make Pittwater and Hawkesbury rec fishing only.

[Martin]

I am with you

Many of the pros methodologies strip the bottom of Pittwater as they have little chance of being snagged. What they do to the Hawhesbury is just as bad. As they move through you can see the plumes of brown water behind their boat as they plough the bottom ripping up the sea grass, pipi beds, blending the gravel beds to a mud bottom.

They are their own worst enemies

Greater regulation is required, don't get me started again.

[Pukka]

Hear, hear.

Joe

[Gibbofisho]

Awesome, best news in a while, Botany bay rejuvenated pretty quick (over a few years) Lets hope pittwater can do the same!

[kevvie]

If Botany is any indication of the ability of a system to bounce back from commercial raping then surely the h'bury will recover to some former glory. I understand that peolpe make a living (or try to these days) from commercial fishing but these people are in the minority. Why stuff it for the masses.

[Narralakes]

Dont know if any of you guys read the Manly Daily today, but they made it sound like he is a victim of circumstance, which he is, his own! As some of you have pointed out. The sooner the pros are out of there and not taking everytihing and stripping the bottom bare, the better, he should have taken the buy out when he could. Probably thought he would clean up since most pros were getting out.

[jewnut]

all for rec only fishing in the hawkesbury/pittwater

i was out there today and if it wasnt for the squillion baby snapper than my nephews would have fallen asleep

i dont know how far we will get with Ian MacDonald as our minister...hes all for the pros

[Guest bluecod]

Narra,

I'd hate to be a dampener of your news, but not having seen the article I could hazhard a guess and surmise that whilst he may be getting out on his own accord, if he has any business nounce he will be selling the license for whatever he can get for it.

This means that a gung-ho type who buys it will want a return on his money and hit the place harder than a disillusioned old bloke who has only been fishing it on an irregular basis. Let's hope not!

About 20 years ago I had a very pleasant conversation with an almost blind old timer who was 92 at the time and had lived in his waterfront property all his life. He could recount when Pittwater was a week-ender only proposition for "Town" folk and they would row out in their clinker built skiffs with the women using umbrellas for shade and fish for snapper in the deeps off Clareville - I told him you still get snapper there, to which he replied "they are only red bream - what I'm saying to you is that Pittwater is their breeding ground and we often used to catch snapper of over 20 lb even after the War [iI]."

Food for thought and hope for a better future.

[Grantm]

Good point Bluecod, its the licence that needs to go moreso than the bloke. Still better than nothing I suppose.

Its a pity that these stories dont read more along the lines of benefiting the actual waterway rather than feeling sorry for some bloke who has taken 400 boxes of fish per day for 40 years. Only fishing 5 days a week he still took over 4 million boxes of fish ! Who can feel sorry for that. Its a shame that wasnt pointed out.

[Guest bluecod]

I agree totally that this is where Fisheries should be reducing the number of licences. However, being a Manly Daily article its probably not, errr ... umm, shall we say, cutting edge investigatory journalism, and I sincerely doubt that the bloke referred to in the article holds the only license to fish Pittwater.

The full story below.

Fisherman gutted

KATHRYN WELLING

05oct05

PROFESSIONAL fisherman John Alldritt took his boat out into Pittwater on Monday night and caught six tailor, four flounder, two mullet, eight squid and a few yellowtail - total value $17.80.

``It didn't even pay for the fuel I used,'' Mr Alldritt said.

At the height of his 37-year fishing career the western foreshores resident would net up to 400 boxes of fish a night from Pittwater and achieve an annual turnover of $180,000.

Today his haul is barely worth taking to the markets.

As a result he is selling the family home at Coasters Retreat that has been in Alldritt hands since 1926 and giving away the profession he has loved for decades.

``There are simply not enough fish left in the water,'' he said.

Mr Alldritt, 60, is the last beach seine fisherman working Pittwater, where a circular net is used to trawl for fish.

He is aware of a couple of other trap and mesh net fishermen but believes he was the only full-time fisherman among them.

He said there were other full-timers when he first took his boat out in 1968 and they all made a good income.

``The waters were full of whiting, bream, flathead, jewfish and yellowtail,'' he said.

However 18 years ago, when the Hawkesbury River flooded, dam water was released to flush out the waterway. The water temperature dropped and so did fish numbers.

It took a decade for stocks to return. Then, three years ago, the State Government offered to buy back commercial licences. Everyone except Mr Alldritt accepted.

Now depleted numbers means he, too, must surrender his licence.

``I am a member of the Brooklyn and Hawkesbury River Fishermen's Co-operative.

``We have 13 members and between us had a net income of $126,000 over the last 12 months,'' he said.

According to Mr Alldritt, the real drop in fish numbers occurred 18 months ago.

Independent marine researcher John Fairfax, based at Palm Beach, has his own theories about the depletion of fish in Pittwater.

He says it is part of a much bigger picture affecting the whole of Australia's eastern seaboard.

Mr Fairfax said geologists had recorded the presence of a 1200km current travelling south to north and carrying sediment.

He believes the current is transporting nutrient-rich pollution up the seaboard that is feeding algae which, in turn, is smothering the seagrass on which the fish depend for food.

``The seagrass is the primary sole nursery habitat for the food web in this region ... studies show that 400sqm of seagrass can support 2000 tonnes of fish per annum,'' he said.

Mr Fairfax said cuts to government agencies meant there was little research in this field, although the Queensland Government had found significant nutrient pollution in its estuaries which he believed related to the south-north sediment-filled current.

All Mr Alldritt knows is that the fish are no longer in Pittwater.

``I'm selling up ... I love fishing but there isn't a living in it for me any more.''

Well there is at least one other netter operating in Pittwater based in Careel Bay, not on the Western Foreshore like Mr Alldritt.

Look at it, it makes good headlines - the last of the breed doing it tough.

Crap, this bloke is only 60 probably has bad rheumatism and suffers from skin cancer, is at retirement age and is selling the family waterfront property which is probably worth over a $million, and is likely to retire to the north coast to his weekender and either buy another license or work part time for a pro or fish co-op.

and NO I am not cynical at all

Edited October 5, 2005 by bluecod

[Narralakes]

I was down the Fish Market last week with the Mrs. Its sad seeing all that fish and other seafood laying on ice and just being netted by blokes like that poor B#s#$d. Tell everyone to buy farmed fish if they want a feed, just like buying their vegies.

Edited October 5, 2005 by Narralakes

[inked]

Tell everyone to buy farmed fish if they want a feed, just like buying their vegies.

70854[/snapback]

good point

commercial fishing in these water ways is bullshit and needs to be stopped

[Ken A]

Mr Alldritt, 60, is the last beach seine fisherman working Pittwater

Don't count your chickens before they hatch guys. As it says in the article he is the last beach seine netter not the last commercial fisherman. So he is only the last of one type of commercial fisherman.

Remember rec fishos had their chance to get the river & Pittwater closed to commercial fishing but at the meeting about it bugger all rec fishos turned up & were outnumbered 3 to 1 by commercial guys. No one gave a damn until it was too late.

[veck]

I thought the money we paid for our fishing licences was to buy our the pros, and inturn allow local stock to rebuild.

I feel sick in the stomach when i go the fishmongers and see boxes of undersize breams, snapper and other species selling for close to nothing .

Fish as resource is undervalued, no different to our water supply.

Once its given a true value, the protection will come.

Lets hope we can take our kids fishing and see them pull up more than a plastic bag.

It would be great if the fishing community could unite. There seems like there is a lot of passion and energy amongst the fishraiders.

[Guest iain]

Ken we all know the old chestnut of the 'public forums' was a scam. Recreational fishos should not have to go to these public meetings to get the right result because that's what politicians are paid for i.e. to do the right thing by their constituents.

Veck, I remember going through the same set of emotions you have just expressed. In my case a few years ago I was out fishing on a weekday and was wondering why half a dozen trawlers were plundering a 500m area of the Hawkesbury. “Hang on” I thought, “How can this be happening? I thought the pros were being bought out”.

The majority of casual rec fisho's swallowed the Governments spin that your licence money was buying out the pro's and most believe that their rivers are pro free. This myth is prolonged and encouraged by the fact that in Pittwater and Hawkesbury there are weekend bans so your ‘average Joe’ fisho remains blissfully ignorant.

So here’s the history for those that have not had the benefit of my past ramblings:

The Government suddenly had this cash cow being the rec fishing license revenue and needed a system of prioritising which estuaries would be the targets of buy-outs. Anyone with any brains at all would say that as the lion’s share of anglers live in Sydney, let’s make Sydney rec free.

The Government in their infinite wisdom decided to ignore the bleeding obvious and went for an alternative strategy being to call for ‘public comment’ unsing mechanisms including public meetings and paper feedback forms. These measurement methods are unfair, unrepresentative, statistically invalid and prone to hijacking by the pro’s. They were also poorly promoted and poorly executed.

The result is that Botany Bay is the only Sydney estuary to be freed of the pro’s. If you doubt me, do yourself a favour and go fishing on a weekday.

So if you fish in the Harbour, Hawkesbury or Port Hacking and have paid for a fishing license you have been royally screwed up the arse. You might as well take your license money and set it on fire for all the good it will do you.

Don’t be fooled, the pro’s are why there’s no fish. It’s not algae or anything else. It’s nets scooping up thousands of tonnes of fish and destroying the environment in the process.

[Grantm]

Remember rec fishos had their chance to get the river & Pittwater closed to commercial fishing but at the meeting about it bugger all rec fishos turned up & were outnumbered 3 to 1 by commercial guys. No one gave a damn until it was too late.

70884[/snapback]

Before I was flushed with information from this forum i was just another average rec fisho. I had no idea all this was going on, and that I would need to attend public meetings etc to save a waterway.

My understanding was the licence money was used to buy out pro's. No one told me I had to fight this battle myself, I thought that was done by the elected officials.

I dont think im alone either in thinking this. The majority of rec fisho's just assume things are being done for the benifit of rec fishing based on their licence fees being paid.

[veck]

Ken we all know the old chestnut of the 'public forums' was a scam. Recreational fishos should not have to go to these public meetings to get the right result because that's what politicians are paid for i.e. to do the right thing by their constituents.

Veck, I remember going through the same set of emotions you have just expressed. In my case a few years ago I was out fishing on a weekday and was wondering why half a dozen trawlers were plundering a 500m area of the Hawkesbury. “Hang on” I thought, “How can this be happening? I thought the pros were being bought out”.

The majority of casual rec fisho's swallowed the Governments spin that your licence money was buying out the pro's and most believe that their rivers are pro free. This myth is prolonged and encouraged by the fact that in Pittwater and Hawkesbury there are weekend bans so your ‘average Joe’ fisho remains blissfully ignorant.

So here’s the history for those that have not had the benefit of my past ramblings:

The Government suddenly had this cash cow being the rec fishing license revenue and needed a system of prioritising which estuaries would be the targets of buy-outs. Anyone with any brains at all would say that as the lion’s share of anglers live in Sydney, let’s make Sydney rec free.

The Government in their infinite wisdom decided to ignore the bleeding obvious and went for an alternative strategy being to call for ‘public comment’ unsing mechanisms including public meetings and paper feedback forms. These measurement methods are unfair, unrepresentative, statistically invalid and prone to hijacking by the pro’s. They were also poorly promoted and poorly executed.

The result is that Botany Bay is the only Sydney estuary to be freed of the pro’s. If you doubt me, do yourself a favour and go fishing on a weekday.

So if you fish in the Harbour, Hawkesbury or Port Hacking and have paid for a fishing license you have been royally screwed up the arse. You might as well take your license money and set it on fire for all the good it will do you.

Don’t be fooled, the pro’s are why there’s no fish. It’s not algae or anything else. It’s nets scooping up thousands of tonnes of fish and destroying the environment in the process.

70909[/snapback]

THANKS FOR THE INSIGHT, NOW I REALLY FEEL DEPRESSED

[Guest iain]

Mate some say, "Ignorance is bliss" but I think it's better to be informed!!!

[pogo]

My share of cynicism

Botany Bay surrounded by labour held electorates Pros all bought out

Sydney Harbour and Pitwater surrounded by liberal seats. you guess

[pogo]

More cynicism,

I bet hes sold his licence already.

Otherwise he's running a #$%^house marketing campaign

,

[Geoff]

My understanding was the licence money was used to buy out pro's. No one told me I had to fight this battle myself, I thought that was done by the elected officials.

I dont think im alone either in thinking this. The majority of rec fisho's just assume things are being done for the benifit of rec fishing based on their licence fees being paid.

70915[/snapback]

Personally I would like to see all NSW waterways + a distance off the coast , say 3km rec only.

For those interested in where the money goes check out the NSW Fisheries web site then Rec Fishers expenditure

A comment a few weeks back by the Chairman of the Trust Fund advised there was $4,000,000 now available for further buy outs.

Inittally buy outs will be on a volentry basis. Not sure I agree with that.

The biggest threat is not the pro's but the ever increasing number of Marine Parks.

Those pushing that wagon argue M.P's will only cover 20% of the waterways. The problem is it is 80% of the popular fishing spots.

The flow on then becomes greater pressure on the remaining 20%.

As a side aspect I understand The NSW Minister , Mr McDonald will be on 2SM (1269) for an hour , Sunday 16/10/05 , 6.00 - 7.00 AM

Geoff

[LEELEE]

Reading the Manly Daily this morning and front page is a guy who is a professional fisherman, he's been fishing the Pittwater for nearly 40 years.  He trawls with nets and now cant make a living, when in its heyday, he was catching "400 boxes" of fish per night, 400!  No wonder there is no fish in Pittwater now, him and all the pros have fished the place dry, so to speak.  I wont be sorry to see him go.  Maybe the fish will get back there one day, I was there yesterday and it was very slim pickings. Of course there are other reasons why Pittwater is a shadow of its former glory fishing days, lack of sea grass, probably stripped off the bottom by the nets anyway, but some algae is being blamed for that too, but trawlers dont discriminate, big, little, anysize fish just gets taken, make Pittwater and Hawkesbury rec fishing only.

70674[/snapback]

I have it on good authority that Pittwater is looking like going off this summer. heaps of Rats there at the moment was the report that I got.

Mate fished there yesterday and pulled 4 kings and got smoked by a monster.

Cheers

Lee