PPB Netting , Your Thoughts ?.

[ecofreak]

I thought some one said there was no fish there, yet the netters seem to be bagging out every time they go there. Which is it???? There either is fish there or there is not, if the netters are bagging out daily then there must be lots of fish there.

You are missing the point. Some netters hit the same areas over and over again. Sometimes I'm sure they will be very fruitful in their efforts and sometimes not.

The point is if they continually go to the same area over and over again with a 460m wide seine net, there will obviously not be as many fish in the area for Mr Joe Blow average fishermen with his two lines out the back of a boat.

The netters are relying on fish migrating into the area that they net, otherwise they wouldn't return as there would not be any fish to net. The end result is that there will be less fish in the area of the netting activity and also in the broader area.

I am not missing the point, people accuse netters of raping the same place every day getting boxes upon boxes of fish, how do they get the boxes and boxes of fish every day if there are no fish there. If they did not get fish there why would they go there. They have been doing the very same thing for more years than I have been alive and the bay is thriving, before any one says its not on that side of the bay, I bagged out on squid in 30 minutes and picked up 15 good whiting all with in 3 hours just outside of Corio bay only 2 weeks ago. If this is how things are when its bad over there then bring it on for the rest of the bay.

For the record 460m is the biggest known net but most are only approx 220m which when closed is not a very big area. The ban on netting has been a propaganda mission from the start. No one has any data for or against, no one can produce facts that it is effecting fishing, when things were quiet in the regions where apparent net raping was taking place it was also quiet in the rest of the bay. I hear many people talk of their personal experience, well mine is when I have fished there I have no issues catching fish nor do the hundreds of people posting all over facebook about how good the western side of the bay is fishing.

[Caviar]

Well then Joe Blow can go buy some fish at the fishmongers like his mother in law always can.LOL!

Exactly, people have always been able to buy fish and still will be able to buy fish regardless of whether PPB is closed for netters.

Oh yeah sorry I forgot there is no fish left so netters cant be catching them. The fish at the fishmongers must have grown on trees. LOL

[Rogue_Hunter]

Watched this this morning; recommend to watch

Callum Roberts - Ocean of Life: How our Seas are Changing

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stori ... 729644.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fish-Hunter]

It was said that during World War 2 , the Pacific Ocean & others . The Navy's were busy conducting Maritime war & Pro netters & fishermen didnt fish for several years because of the War , when the War ended & Pro fishing resumed , the fish stocks got a very big increase .

[frozenpod]

I thought some one said there was no fish there, yet the netters seem to be bagging out every time they go there. Which is it???? There either is fish there or there is not, if the netters are bagging out daily then there must be lots of fish there.

You are missing the point. Some netters hit the same areas over and over again. Sometimes I'm sure they will be very fruitful in their efforts and sometimes not.

The point is if they continually go to the same area over and over again with a 460m wide seine net, there will obviously not be as many fish in the area for Mr Joe Blow average fishermen with his two lines out the back of a boat.

The netters are relying on fish migrating into the area that they net, otherwise they wouldn't return as there would not be any fish to net. The end result is that there will be less fish in the area of the netting activity and also in the broader area.

We have fished Corner Inlet for close to 30 years now. A greater number of whiting are netted for the available area than PPB.

Over this time I have found the whiting fishing to be very hit and miss depending upon when the netters last worked the area.

Whilst it would be great to fish 1km from the ramp and bag out every trip, this doesn't happen. As it is currently finding whiting requires time and effort and sometimes I don't find them but thats life.


My main concern for all types of fishing is damage to the habitat. No doubt if you take less fish out there will be more fish to catch but if the fishing is at sustainable what is the problem?

IMO protect that habitat, fish using sustainable methods & sustainable catch limits and share and there is no problem.

PS a good sounder helps heaps when trying to find whiting as well.

[ecofreak]

I thought some one said there was no fish there, yet the netters seem to be bagging out every time they go there. Which is it???? There either is fish there or there is not, if the netters are bagging out daily then there must be lots of fish there.

You are missing the point. Some netters hit the same areas over and over again. Sometimes I'm sure they will be very fruitful in their efforts and sometimes not.

The point is if they continually go to the same area over and over again with a 460m wide seine net, there will obviously not be as many fish in the area for Mr Joe Blow average fishermen with his two lines out the back of a boat.

The netters are relying on fish migrating into the area that they net, otherwise they wouldn't return as there would not be any fish to net. The end result is that there will be less fish in the area of the netting activity and also in the broader area.

We have fished Corner Inlet for close to 30 years now. A greater number of whiting are netted for the available area than PPB.

Over this time I have found the whiting fishing to be very hit and miss depending upon when the netters last worked the area.

Whilst it would be great to fish 1km from the ramp and bag out every trip, this doesn't happen. As it is currently finding whiting requires time and effort and sometimes I don't find them but thats life.


My main concern for all types of fishing is damage to the habitat. No doubt if you take less fish out there will be more fish to catch but if the fishing is at sustainable what is the problem?

IMO protect that habitat, fish using sustainable methods & sustainable catch limits and share and there is no problem.

PS a good sounder helps heaps when trying to find whiting as well.

Amen to that! :notworthy:

[Rogue_Hunter]

AND to make matters worse, we have situations like below (from last year)

http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/dpi ... ver-jewies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Sources close to the process today told Fisho that a plan for the netters to take an as yet unverified number of mulloway from 45cm and up while restricting anglers to one fish of 75cm, was going to be presented to Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson. There were no plans by Fisheries to engage in any public consultation on this, the source said."

""This news shows that protests from anglers about the proposed plans to allow the pros to continue to net undersized jewies seems to have worked. We understand that they were going to put these plans to the Minister. Now they aren't. Fisheries weren't going to consult on this, now they are. That's a good result. Now we need the Minister to step in and make decisions about this fishery which are based on science," a prominent recreational fishing source told Fisho."

"Scientific data reveals that jewfish only reach breeding size at about 70cm"

Excuse my lack of understanding on this matter, but how would it be s it sustainable for netters to be allowed to haul in 45cm fish and anglers allowed to 1 75cm fish?

[re-tyred]

I have been reading all this and restraining myself from joining in as it is a very emotive issue. However here goes.
Firstly I am an ex profisherman. 1971-1985. also since then i have been involved in marine electronics service mostly to pro fishers and shipping.

Everyone needs to just chill a bit. The fish in our oceans and bays are public property. All Australians have a right to a share of this resource. The amount taken is monitored by various authorities and scientists.
Now if you ban all pro fishing then people who cannot fish do not have access to local fish. Do you want it that only those that recreational fish can eat snapper, whiting etc? it would be like saying only those that can use a chainsaw can have firewood. There is a need to have all species of fish from Australian waters available for sale in a market. Only the quantities can be argued about. Yes i get annoyed when I go to my fav spots in the gippsland lakes only to find a ring of mesh nets running along the bank. By hey I don't own the resource outright. They have a right and they are very closely monitored. Our fish stocks are in the best condition they have been ever. This is due to strict controls put in over the last 20 years.
As time goes on profishing will disappear due to rising costs and smaller quotas. Even now the price of flathead fillets is 25% more than the price of Australian farmed salmon.
For those that say well they should be kicked out of the bays well maybe they will be but, that will be the end of that industry because there is no room to transfer to other places and no extra quota. A lot of the bay species are only caught in the bays and those that are caught elsewhere have the same effect when removed.
If everyone wants to remove the pros then they will need to pay them out. So say a 30 yo profisher who makes 60-80 thousand dollars a year after expenses will be looking for that times their working life , plus the costs of their investments. Make that offer and most will go. However the public that don't fish will complain they can't buy Aussie fish anymore.

Lastly, does netting make it harder for you to catch fish? Absolutely it does, not because they take them all. It is because the removal of fish by any method means that those remaining have less competion for food. So anglers struggle but netters don't, because they don't rely on the fish being hungry. It sucks but that is life, besides angling is a sport if it was easy where would the satisfaction be

[re-tyred]

The comment about the fish stocks being much better after the second world war is correct. But there is more to it than that. 1920-1930's was the era of the steam trawler, large board trawlers working mainly the east coast tiger flathead and mowong fishery. Yes they did catch a range of other species as do todays trawlers. There was no restrictions on them other than some nets mesh sizes and fish minimum sizes. The fisheries collapsed due to over fishing by the mid 30's. The steam trawler that were left by the start of the war were taken for the war effort. The reamaining profishing for the next few years was hand line and cuta boats. After the war the Danish Seine industry got going with much smaller diesel vessels ( this was my game). There was a number of peaks and troughs in the fish stocks until the late 80's when the quota system got started. The fish stocks are now under utilised and in excellent condition.
The gummy/school shark industry has also gone thru a similar thing and the stocks are rapidly recovering hence all the gummies being caught these days. So now you can get your share but remember it is a share.....

[Fish-Hunter]

^^
Thanks for your informative input re-tyred . :thumbsup: