PPB Netting , Your Thoughts ?.

[ecofreak]

The netters often come to where I live and catch very little and sometimes a lot. Either way they hammer the same area over and over again. There are no resident fish in the area. No rays, banjoes, butter fish, wrasse, leather jackets, flathead. How do I know this, because I dive the area also. They catch passing school fish, but also have cleaned up everything else.

Their nets span many kilometres out and ensure that anything in this area will be caught.

Pauly there are no netters in the bay with the capacity to drag many kilometres of nets, in fact the super trawler does not have this capacity, like I said lets get some facts back into it

[frozenpod]

I have seen a few posts blaming the netters, the weather or being fished out after having a bad day. All goes quite when they bag out the following week.

Following the 2 best snapper seasons in the passed 25 years, flathead making a strong return after dredging and environmental factors wiped out 90% of the population, plenty of squid, gars, tummy rough, yakkas not to mention kings. A lot of winging blokes out there, pretty sad really.

[frozenpod]

The netters often come to where I live and catch very little and sometimes a lot. Either way they hammer the same area over and over again. There are no resident fish in the area. No rays, banjoes, butter fish, wrasse, leather jackets, flathead. How do I know this, because I dive the area also. They catch passing school fish, but also have cleaned up everything else.

Their nets span many kilometres out and ensure that anything in this area will be caught.

Many kilometer??

The nets I have seen are many meters and I would estimate 100m at most.

Whiting and flathead swim around a lot, whilst the netters may take out most of the fish in a localised area but they soon return.

[Paulybehaved]

The netters often come to where I live and catch very little and sometimes a lot. Either way they hammer the same area over and over again. There are no resident fish in the area. No rays, banjoes, butter fish, wrasse, leather jackets, flathead. How do I know this, because I dive the area also. They catch passing school fish, but also have cleaned up everything else.

Their nets span many kilometres out and ensure that anything in this area will be caught.

Many kilometer??

The nets I have seen are many meters and I would estimate 100m at most.

100m, yeh right, not here! The nets would easily go 3+km. It takes them over 2 hours to pull it in.

[frozenpod]

Maximum legal lenght for commercial sine nets in PPB is 460m and 650m in Corner Inlet.

They used to use mesh nets that were longer I don't know the length or if they are still legal.

[Rod Bender]

Regarding the banning of netters, honestly I have no experience to make a decision. Watched part of the video - as a person with limited experience all I can ask is - the water seemed shallow to me in 'that spot where the netters were seen a few hours prior'. Could they even operate in that depth? I guess it may have been low tide when the vid was taken...I have no idea!
Jim

[ecofreak]

The netters often come to where I live and catch very little and sometimes a lot. Either way they hammer the same area over and over again. There are no resident fish in the area. No rays, banjoes, butter fish, wrasse, leather jackets, flathead. How do I know this, because I dive the area also. They catch passing school fish, but also have cleaned up everything else.

Their nets span many kilometres out and ensure that anything in this area will be caught.

Many kilometer??

The nets I have seen are many meters and I would estimate 100m at most.

100m, yeh right, not here! The nets would easily go 3+km. It takes them over 2 hours to pull it in.

This confirms your credibility on the matter then mate! Fact no boat operating in Victoria has the capacity for kilometers of nets, if you saw them then you were not in Victoria or Australia, the super trawler could not work km of net but your saying a mum and dad operation from the bay can LOL.

[Paulybehaved]

The netters often come to where I live and catch very little and sometimes a lot. Either way they hammer the same area over and over again. There are no resident fish in the area. No rays, banjoes, butter fish, wrasse, leather jackets, flathead. How do I know this, because I dive the area also. They catch passing school fish, but also have cleaned up everything else.

Their nets span many kilometres out and ensure that anything in this area will be caught.

Many kilometer??

The nets I have seen are many meters and I would estimate 100m at most.

100m, yeh right, not here! The nets would easily go 3+km. It takes them over 2 hours to pull it in.

This confirms your credibility on the matter then mate! Fact no boat operating in Victoria has the capacity for kilometers of nets, if you saw them then you were not in Victoria or Australia, the super trawler could not work km of net but your saying a mum and dad operation from the bay can LOL.

I see the nets go out the front of my house at least once per week. Definitely longer than 100m!

[frozenpod]

What you are describing sounds more like mesh netts but I don't really know. I thought that was no longer used or legal for bays and inlets but I could be wrong.

The nets I have seen used first hand were much shorter called sein nets and they were in and out of the water in less than 30 minutes. The net was shot 4 times to cover a low tide period and the fish were all hand sorted whilst alive and kicking in the water.

The net holes seemed huge and lots of fish even size fish would swim out of them.

If they are using mesh nets 3+km long I would have thought that would be illegal and I would take a video and or contact DPI.



From DPI website"
Meshnetting

Figure 5. Meshnetting
When set, the meshnet which may be several kilometres long, is a high wall of netting usually just above the seabed. The nets are anchored in position and marked at each end with a buoy on the surface so that they can be collected easily. The fish are either trapped by their gills while trying to swim through the netting or they become entangled. As in beach seining, the net is rigged with a floatline at the top and a weighted bottom line. The size of the mesh may vary from 10 cm to 13 cm.
Mesh netting is practised by the southern shark fishery in Bass Strait. A shark fishing boat sets several 6000m nets and retrieves them over the bow of the boat by winding them on to a large spool on deck.
Meshnets used in Victorian waters not be confused with driftnets (used in ocean waters), which are much longer (35-50km long), hand much deeper in the water, have a smaller mesh size and are made from much finer material. Driftnets are not anchored and float near the surface. They are illegal in Australian waters.
"

Any chance these above mesh nets are being used in the bay? Is that legal?

Below describes what I have seen being used for whiting.
"
Danish Seine
Danish seine vessels fish in a similar method to beach seine netters however the net is hauled back into boat and not on to the beach. The net is towed along the seabed and relies on the herding effect of the towing ropes to direct the fish into the wings and then the bag (bunt) to catch fish. The depth fished will determine the species caught. Naturally the length of the hauling rope determines the depth that the net will fish. The net is laid out in a pear shape, and the ends slowly winched into the boat as the boat moves forward. These two actions draw the net wings together and forward until the fish are concentrated the bag (bunt) of the net.
Lakes Entrance has the largest Danish Seine fishery in Australia with Flathead and School whiting being the main species targeted and caught.
"

[Paulybehaved]

Yep definitely Danish Sein method. They use a boat to lay out the net and have a little square punt located just off the beach edge which holds the other end and then winches on both the punt and the boat slowly drag in the long net. Takes them ages to pull the net in.