VRFish Oppose Proposed Commercial Increase in Port Phillip Bay

[purple5ive]

Everytime the fisheries go out and check people. Their main job is to gather statistics. They also check at the ramps. There are people that participate in the fishing diary system. Over many years the data base gets more accurate. For commercials they have to unload at an official receiving place. All fish is checked and recorded. This must then match their fishing log. They are also required to have cameras record onboard. The vid is recorded to hard drive that is sent into fisheries.
Stocks are assessed by egg count. A very complex science. It did predict the current KGW surge about five years ago.

i can understand those procedure's for the commercial guys, but surely theres a flaw with the recreational numbers.

these are for 1999-2000
597 tonnes of flathead for the recs as opposed to 151 for the pro's
332 tonnes of snapper for the recs as opposed to 47 for the pro's
215 tonnes of king george whiting as opposed to 213 for the pro's


surely that's bollocks!!!! or am i reading it all wrong

[re-tyred]

There are very few commercial fishing and hundreds of thousands of rec fishers. Personally I would catch more than 100 kg a year of whole fish . Ten people like me is 1 tonne. A thousand like me 100 tonne. Soon adds up. We have nearly one million fishers now. 1kg each per year is one thousand tonnes of fish.

[re-tyred]

The entire SE trawl quota for flathead is less than 2000 tonnes. That is for NSW, Vic and Tasmania. Snapper quota is a fraction of that. The one million rec fishers are fast becoming the major players in the resource.
Since the late 1990s the commercial fishers have been reduced by around 75% across the three states.

[re-tyred]

Going back to the original post at the start. This bycatch of longlining. It doesn't say what species that the bycatch is. I think that would be the most important thing. So what do snapper fishers catch in the bay when trying for snapper? It is going to be similar species.

[Seniorfisho]

There are very few commercial fishing and hundreds of thousands of rec fishers. Personally I would catch more than 100 kg a year of whole fish . Ten people like me is 1 tonne. A thousand like me 100 tonne. Soon adds up. We have nearly one million fishers now. 1kg each per year is one thousand tonnes of fish.

Maybe you could catch and release instead of eating everything that you catch, diversify a bit and use lures or plastics instead of going out for the sole purpose of catching and killing as many fish as you can. if everybody released fish and kept only a few for the table then those figures would come down

[re-tyred]

There are very few commercial fishing and hundreds of thousands of rec fishers. Personally I would catch more than 100 kg a year of whole fish . Ten people like me is 1 tonne. A thousand like me 100 tonne. Soon adds up. We have nearly one million fishers now. 1kg each per year is one thousand tonnes of fish.

Maybe you could catch and release instead of eating everything that you catch, diversify a bit and use lures or plastics instead of going out for the sole purpose of catching and killing as many fish as you can. if everybody released fish and kept only a few for the table then those figures would come down

How much fish I eat is my business. I don't catch and release. I catch how much I am going to eat, usually less than the bag limit, then go home. It is sad to see you have such anger issues about everything

[re-tyred]

Further to the subject of this thread. What is being proposed is that these longliners can keep their bycatch. They already catch it and dump it dead or alive. Like I said earlier I don't really have a personal point of view as I would like a lot more information.

[Andrews]

I think this raises the larger questions of sustainability, whether that's target species or by-catch.
I feel we've got an incredible seafood asset and industry here in Victoria and with correct management decisions based upon evidence we can ensure that it continues for future generations.

A great evidence based response is the page https://fish.gov.au/Jurisdiction/Victoria , which displays the current classification for status of stock for each species within Victoria.

Whenever you're targeting a species like snapper, there will always be by-catch. The important thing to ensure that the by-catch being kept is within a sustainable manner, rather than releasing sick or dead fish, if we are able to to sustainably keep the species I'd rather not see the food wasted. If the evidence suggests that removing alive/dead by-catch from Vic water will negatively effect the ecosystem, then we should continue current practices.

[Seniorfisho]

There are very few commercial fishing and hundreds of thousands of rec fishers. Personally I would catch more than 100 kg a year of whole fish . Ten people like me is 1 tonne. A thousand like me 100 tonne. Soon adds up. We have nearly one million fishers now. 1kg each per year is one thousand tonnes of fish.

Maybe you could catch and release instead of eating everything that you catch, diversify a bit and use lures or plastics instead of going out for the sole purpose of catching and killing as many fish as you can. if everybody released fish and kept only a few for the table then those figures would come down

How much fish I eat is my business. I don't catch and release. I catch how much I am going to eat, usually less than the bag limit, then go home. It is sad to see you have such anger issues about everything

So, you're a phsycologist as well, thank's for the assessment. Just keep eating all your fish. how many members does this website have? How many reports do you see? How many are actually fishing a lot? do you get the picture

[purple5ive]

Lack of reports doesn't mean people are not fishing, just means many members can't be arsed posting anymore, me included.

Now by catch of snapper seems to be the quota they are after.
I rarely fish bait for snapper, but this season I mixed it up with some squid bait as well as plastics.
By catch was a banjo and something unstoppable(probably a ray)
Rest were all pinkies/snapper.

I put back quite a lot of fish this season too mainly the 40 to 50cm fish , I have always released bream and perch bar a few here and there for a feed, in the last 5 years catch and release and tagging fish have been very popular, so those numbers are most definitely skewed imo...
Not to mention the stocking program by the fisheries, yes mostly freshwater but its still happening.

Ill never believe that rec fisherman took 332 tonnes of snapper in a year which is basically 4 months of fishing for most people who fish