New measures to safeguard stingrays

[hornet]

In the interests of safety it should be no divers within 400m from man made structures.

Now that would make sense in my mind.

But this is not what this is all about is it ?

It's about the yuppie movement slowly etching away at their ultimate goal to eventually ban fishing.

Always has been the case as long as I can remember.

[cobby]

It is a strange rule what does a man made structure have to do with it.

This whole load of rubbish has been instigated by "pink Scuba" divers. They like to dive and interact with Rays around the jetties.
The only thing they don't seem to get is that the rays are hanging around the jetties because fishers are there with burley and scraps.
So I suggest that those with boats keep all there filleting scraps and dump there 500-600mtrs away from the jetties. The rays will soon move

So instead of enforcing existing rules to catch people doing the wrong thing they are going to legislate and punish all fisherman law abiding or not and all to appease a small group of lobbyists. It's obvious that people who are stabbing rays then throwing them back don't want to keep them and will continue to do so as they aren't their target species.

Is this the group who are tangling lines on the piers.

Probably some of them do tangle lines. All of them appear to break the laws regarding dive flags too...

[frozenpod]

I'm just a recreational fisho mate who takes an interest in our fisheries and fishing opportunities. I'm concerned that our voices arn't being heard and we have people representing the majority without knowing the views of the majority.

I have contacted Jo Klemke who is the managing officer and Principal Policy Analyst of this NOtice and have sought significant information as to how the proposed Notice came to be. I have also contacted VR Fish to see the level of their involvement, as fisheries have stated they are consulting them. I can share information as it's obtained.

Ultimately I encourage everyone to issue their own submissions, but thought it would be good to discuss anything to try and consolidate our views and discuss solutions.

No worries, there certainly is an issue of vocal minority groups pushing agendas that are not in the best interest of the majority.

[sarsi]

I hope that they are not planning to introduce a daily bag limit on puffer fish (toadies) around man-made structures like piers and jetties

[purple5ive]

damn, am so glad they brought this **** law in now and not when i used to fish landbased at portsea pier and all we would catch were banjoes.

[colnick]

First an admission. I live on the mid-north coast of NSW and my only link to Vic fishing is an annual week in Bemm River. Paradise! I regularly scan this site and have been variously amused, entertained and informed by the posts but I have to say I am quietly amazed at the heat this proposal has generated in some quarters. If I interpret your posts correctly, few, if any target rays and banjo sharks and none of you condone their killing and maiming so why are so many of you incensed by the proposed legislation? It simply won't affect you one way or the other.
From what you locals are saying it sounds as if the most rational criticism is because in the absence of adequate enforcement it simply won't work. If that's the case I'd suggest that your submissions to Fisheries should courteously and constructively point that out. A calm, rational submission on this issue is much more likely to give you some credibility with Fisheries if you need to make future submissions on issues which really do affect you.
That's my opening salvo. I'll just go and put on my flak jacket!

[georgek]

First an admission. I live on the mid-north coast of NSW and my only link to Vic fishing is an annual week in Bemm River. Paradise! I regularly scan this site and have been variously amused, entertained and informed by the posts but I have to say I am quietly amazed at the heat this proposal has generated in some quarters. If I interpret your posts correctly, few, if any target rays and banjo sharks and none of you condone their killing and maiming so why are so many of you incensed by the proposed legislation? It simply won't affect you one way or the other.
From what you locals are saying it sounds as if the most rational criticism is because in the absence of adequate enforcement it simply won't work. If that's the case I'd suggest that your submissions to Fisheries should courteously and constructively point that out. A calm, rational submission on this issue is much more likely to give you some credibility with Fisheries if you need to make future submissions on issues which really do affect you.
That's my opening salvo. I'll just go and put on my flak jacket!

Because the proposed legislation doesn't address the killing or maiming of them beyond what the current laws already do, but restrict the freedom of fishers to actually take them for a feed or as bait from the most accessible land based options. You're saying if we don't keep them and the laws don't apply to the individual, then it "simply won't affect" us. This is wrong and doesn't consider the community. If everyone only cared about what impacts them directly then we would have a very selfish, self centered fishing community. Laws aren't there for the individual, so we need to consider any proposals as a collective and how the proposal will affect the collective (and legislators have to do this in any event).

That said, it will impact on me, my family, and people i know. For someone to break a law because they kept a stingray from a pier (or "injure" one, whatever that means) is a nonsense and only seeks to encourage limiting our fishing freedoms to satisfy the wants of the minority.

[cheaterparts]

I am quietly amazed at the heat this proposal has generated in some quarters. If I interpret your posts correctly, few, if any target rays and banjo sharks and none of you condone their killing and maiming so why are so many of you incensed by the proposed legislation? It simply won't affect you one way or the other.

I think you miss the point - some do target these fish and bag limits on our species are set using science , this controls stock and is to stop over fishing various species
Bag limits do change from time to time good example was the change to Dusky Flathead bag limits and sizes here in Vic - that was due to slower breading than other flathead species ( using the science )
But changing a bag limit or size of the fish you can take or a land based platform not using the science of how good or bad the stock is - instead using a knee jerk reaction to some F/Wits that killed some rays at a local jetty

and bag limit changes wont stop these fools from killing more of these fish and chucking them back

[azkay]

I personally believe the real damage that's being done to these species is inhumane and probably sits outside the boundaries of the law anyway. In my opinion these types of measures will do nothing to stop those killing and maiming of these fish for no reason. The problem isn't the few fishermen who are taking the odd Ray or Banjo for a feed or what the catch limit is. The problem i see is a lot of fishermen treating them as pests, maybe resources would have been better spent on figuring out how this is impacting the species. I just think there should be more fisheries patrolling common areas in the bay and harsher penalties for those who maim and kill for no reason, whether that's a banjo, ray or a toadie. It just simply has to be harsh enough to deter, punish the first few, media release it, make fisheries presence felt & it may actually people thinking twice about being caught or reported..

Voices of minorities need to be heard to, but there is a line, they're a minority for a reason. We can't keep using valuable resources to address these issues & the result is feather in the cap of a minority group who will no doubt move onto a different cause pretty quickly, especially if it attracts more attention. I'm all for it, if it fixes the problem but in the decade(s) I've been fishing in PPB i cant recall one instance when someone was trying to get a bag limit of Stingray, Banjo, etc.. So how is changing a bag limit going to fix the mistreatment? That's more likely problem.

As a side note, this is a fishing forum, where all things fishing are discussed, some things are fact, most are people's opinions. Suggestions that fishermen are not permitted/encouraged to have an opinion on an issue simply because it doesn't affect them are ridiculous. If i wanted to make a suggestion to Fisheries i would do that, in a manner i deem fit. If i choose to discuss it with other fishermen here, BAM! we have the legal definition of a forum;
'1.a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged'

Again this is simply opinion, not intended to offend anyway hence why no one has been quoted..

[Brett]

I agree Az, a far better idea and use of funds, would be to collect the info from divers, try to find a regularity of the event and then do a cpl of targeted operations. Be it hiding in the bush for hrs on end with a video camera and binos or repeatedly walking down certain piers every hr for several days.

The offenders need to be caught and dealt with, not the innocent bystanders who do the right thing.