It is a great day for recreational fishing across Qld !

It is a great day for recreational fishing across Qld !


The final count was from last nights "dissalowance" vote on our new Net Free Areas was :-


No (Against disallowance motion) - 46 (Labor + Katter Party + Independent)
Yes (For disallowance motion) - 41 (LNP) !!!


Arrogance is what cost the LNP the election earlier this year when we asked for their position on recreational fishing policy and it seems that no lesson has been learned. It is clear that the LNP does not support recreational fishing in our state !


Let’s hope that this decision assists seeing our Great Sandy Marine Park "Corrected" next in-line with the full term review and STOP unrestricted numbers of commercial fishers netting what "should be" TRUE YELLOW CONSERVATION ZONES !


Congratulations to everyone who supported these areas !


Share with friends and contacts ..


Regards Scott Mitchell

Is it really a great day for the rest of qld?
The areas outside of those closures will be fished harder to meet demand for the export market....less local fish will hit the markets and imports will rise.
On what level is this good news?
If they really wanted to protect the fishery just blanket ban all seafood exports and imports......supply and demand will take care of the numbers of commercial fishers.
No need for buy backs, closures or tighter regulations.

Mangajack - Findings from a recently completed survey of the availability of fresh fish through 44 different outlets across Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast, fly in the face of ongoing claims made by opponents of the proposed three new commercial Net Free Ares on the east coast of Queensland.


This survey data clearly shows that a wide variety of fresh fish is available throughout restaurants, clubs and hotels, fish and chip shops, supermarkets and specialist seafood retailers trading in Rockhampton and on the Capricorn Coast. The data shows that the overwhelming majority of fish currently available in this marketplace, does not come from commercial fishers nets operating in the proposed new Net Free Areas.


The survey data reveals that of the 14 most popular local fish and chip shops surveyed, only one definitely had locally netted barramundi on sale, while 12 of the 14 shops had Spanish mackerel as their mainstay fish species for sale, with 6 shops also offering various reef fish species as well.


Spanish mackerel and reef fish are solely caught by commercial fishermen using lines, not nets . To scare the community by claiming they won’t be able to get their usual fish and chips in future if the new Net Free Areas go ahead, is simply dishonest scaremongering of the highest order.


The survey data also showed that a significant segment of the market is being satisfied by high quality farmed Atlantic salmon (available from 25% of all outlets surveyed), as well as a wide variety of other species of fish from Australian and overseas fish farming operations and factory-scale overseas wild harvest commercial fishing.


Would anyone seriously believe that if a cattle property was resumed by the government so a coal mine could be developed, that suddenly supplies of beef in our shops would disappear? Of course not, yet people, including many in the media, have fallen hook, line and sinker for the same ridiculous argument as it has been applied to fish.


Our Queensland coastline extends almost 7,000 kilometres, and to seriously believe that closing three small sections to commercial netting will result in the disappearance of fish from our shops, is simply absurd.


For 20 years, fish has been distributed via a national food supply chain, just as other fresh produce like eggs, milk and fruit and vegetables have . Official figures show that the national fish supply chain deals with a massive 300,000+tonnes of product annually, sourced from Australian wild harvested fish, overseas wild harvested fish, and Australian and overseas fish farms.


Queensland’s contribution into this national finfish market, is around 10,000 tonnes per annum, which comes from both commercially line-caught and net-caught fish. The net-caught component is just less than 6,000 tonnes per annum. Of this 6,000 tonne annual production, commercial netters have reported their total annual harvest from the three new proposed Net Free Areas has historically been between 200-300 tonnes. Therefore fish commercially netted historically from the three new Net Free Areas only represent a tiny 0.1% of the national finfish market supply.


This misleading scaremongering must stop , right now! We’ve now put the real data on the public record so everyone will be able to quickly see what the survey and national market figures are saying. I suggest that anyone who carefully scrutinises this survey and official finfish marketplace will see where the truth lies.

Regards Scotto

I accept your survey results but still maintain the best way to protect the fishery is to stop all imports and exports of seafoods.
The industry will sekf regulate to demand.
Closed areas does not stop or reduce exports and imports of fish will continue.
How long before diseased foreign fish is used for bait and releases that disease into our environment?

Hello Mangajack

Imports of fish are a sad result of local fish being too expensive. $36.60 kg for barramundi.

Nile Perch ( a very close relative of barramundi) can be imported and sold for $18 kg. Imported from N Africa which is 13,000km away. Yet local barra is transported 5 km from the river and costs $36.60 kg. They must be carted around in silver service Rolls Royce limos.

Barra from Darwin is transported 3,000 km and sold for under $30 kg in SE Qld. Fresh barra fillets in Karumba are $25 kg.

Who is kidding who?

Self regulation in the netting industry? Like having a fox guarding the chicken coop.

You know there are 2 pro fishermen in CQ who have the nicknames Rape and Pillage and they're proud of it. Happy to talk about what they get up to outside the fisheries regs

At least imported o/seas product goes through the AQIS import system.

Yair . . .

Or do what my old man always reckoned . . . ban all nets but issue part time/amateur licences making it legal to sell if caught from a boat with no electronic gizmo's . . . that 'ud sort 'em out.

Cheers.

If you removed the market of overseas sales of fish and stopped all imports of fish, the market size will soon do one of two things.
1 force greater competition for the sale of thier product which will reduce prices.
2 weed out the excess commercial fishers who are not viable for the local market only.

Nobody will run a business producing anything they can not sell.....remove the export market and the numbers will drop, especially with the big guys that export everything.

As for local prices, who sets the price to the fisher? or does the fisher accept the market offer? Then look at the markups down the line.

Simplistic Mangajack

This exercise wasn't about the price of fish. It was about rebalancing the community benefit vs profit scale.

The main fish we are talking about here are barramundi and threadfin salmon for which the principal markets are Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane where top price is demanded by retailers. Not the o/seas market.

Very little locally caught barra/threadfin is sold locally. The locals will not pay the interstate prices demanded by local retailers. $36.60 kg for barra fillets and $30 kg for king threadfin.

Hence we have retailers importing cheaper overseas product as "second prize" for locals while they make significant profits from the local resource. No community is going to put up with that indefinitely.

None of the attempts to reduce the pressure has worked in the past so why would anyone think buybacks, self-regulation or market forces are going to work in the future. Banning the practice of netting solves the community concerns immediately.

And its not just local fishermen. Fishermen from all over the state come to our river systems to join in the outright plunder.

There is very little benefit or return for local communities with fishermen taking their community resource for profit. The benefits go to fishermen, retailers and interstate consumers.

The fishermen get most of their running equipment from the SE corner with no local benefit from that.

Fuel is local,boat servicing is local, some local ice with only limited local benefit there.

The community has been getting short-changed and that is now going to stop in this area.

To be honest I'd be a bit wary of the food handling practices exhibited by some local net fishermen anyway. Like playing Russian Roulette with your health. Yet these guys point a condemning health finger at imported product.