Fishing Victoria Forum

Media release

Friday 1 November 2019

BOAT SEIZED FOR ILLEGAL CALAMARI CATCHES


Queenscliff’s fantastic run of calamari has proved too tempting for a St Albans man who was apprehended on Monday night by Fisheries Officers, had his boat seized and will face court on several charges relating to exceeding the bag limit repeatedly.
Victorian Fisheries Authority Director of Education and Enforcement Ian Parks said the man was observed on three separate days in October during Operation Focus allegedly taking 17, 33 and 38 calamari.

“The daily bag limit is 10 per person,” Mr Parks said.
“On one occasion, the man allegedly made two trips in one day with his wife. On the first trip between 6.25am and 10am, the man was observed taking five calamari. He launched his 4.35-metre aluminium boat again at 3.30pm and allegedly took another 12 calamari, including some from within the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park where fishing is not permitted.
“A week later, the man allegedly took eight calamari in the early morning. He returned to the boat ramp to pick up his wife, took another eight, then retrieved his boat and left Queenscliff. In the afternoon, he returned with his wife and allegedly took 17 more calamari, making 33 for the day.
“On Monday, the man allegedly took 18 calamari, retrieved his boat and returned to Melbourne. He came back to Queenscliff in the afternoon with his wife and allegedly took 20 more, making 38 in total.
“Soon after, Fisheries Officers intercepted him at the boat ramp. He initially claimed the 20 calamari were all they’d caught that day and were taken by both himself and his wife. However, during a subsequent interview the man admitted to taking all the calamari himself and being fully aware of the daily bag limit.
“His boat, estimated to be worth $7000, fishing gear and calamari were seized on the spot and the man will be charged on summons with exceeding the calamari catch limit on three occasions, and various other offences relating to fishing in a marine park and boat safety equipment.”
Mr Parks emphasised that your catch is your own and you cannot claim them under someone else’s daily bag limit who is aboard your boat.
“Furthermore, multi-tripping to exceed the daily catch limit and appear compliant at the boat ramp is a deliberate and serious attempt to deceive and is unfair to legitimate recreational and commercial fishers who abide by the rules.”
To report suspicious or illegal fishing activity call 13FISH (133474) anytime. You can remain anonymous. Make the call and make the difference.

Media contact: Marc Ainsworth 0448 512 213

Good work fisheries - and good punishment so far.

Not sure how they guage what to hand out but the punishments seem to be a bit all over the shop. Without going back through the threads from memory, there have been really impactful behaviours that have seemingly gotten minor punishments and here you have offence of a little bit over a bag limit of a quick breeding and populating species resulting in seizure.

Not at all diminishing the action, suggesting the lessening of punishment or knocking the work fisheries does but would be good to see more consistently sized costs and charges in relation the the species and overstepping of the limits.

Glad to see that the Authorities are onto this kind of thing.

And also good to see that "intent" is considered on how serious the offence is. The Authorities acknowledgement of the alleged offenders to appear compliant with multi-tripping, is a deliberate attempt to decieve. Kudos to the Authorities, and the penalty should be higher (by by Boat) which I'm sure it would be, rather than an opportunistic breach.

We got checked one night at the Whyalla Boat Ramp cleaning table. The Fisheries Officer said "Ah, they weren't biting, only 7 Snapper". We told him they were biting well, but we caught our others on the morning trip, so that's our bag for the day, counting them.

He smiled and nodded in respect.

We felt good, better feeling than catching our bag

Cheers, Bugatti

Just read this on fisheries' page. They knew it was a wrong thing to do and yet they did anyway.
Well done fisheries. They deserved it. Hope they learn the lesson and not to do it again.

What an idiot!
Good stuff by fisheries

Good on fisheries

Keep up good work

Just a quick query. It says
Mr Parks emphasised that your catch is your own and you cannot claim them under someone else’s daily bag limit who is aboard your boat.

So if 3 blokes fishing limit is 30 but I can't catch more then 10 and share them even if other blokes only caught 5 each as long as we don't exceed 30.
Or did the wife in the article not have a fishing licence?

smile0784 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 01, 2019 11:25 am

Just a quick query. It says
Mr Parks emphasised that your catch is your own and you cannot claim them under someone else’s daily bag limit who is aboard your boat.

So if 3 blokes fishing limit is 30 but I can't catch more then 10 and share them even if other blokes only caught 5 each as long as we don't exceed 30.
Or did the wife in the article not have a fishing licence?

Technically no, but I doubt it’s enforceable.

This is essentially what the protein collectors are doing when the bring the wife, kids, the kids cousins and a grandparent along and claim the bag limit for each person.

the way they would enforce the "catching someone elses limit" would be if they could prove the person wasn't actually fishing ie no license or proof of fishing

They video it to see who is fishing. Obviously this guy was being watched so he has been reported and they have setup to get him. Watch and take video for two days and move in on the third.
Commercial operation, he will have a friend or family owned shop/ restaurant. These people are the scum of the earth. Bypass the commercial controlled fishery then sell cheap to an outlet that then has a commercial advantage over the ones that do it within the law. Puts the honest ones out of business and destroys the fish stocks.