11 Barra,7 Fingermark-Tragic sight

Early today at Palm Cove Jetty, 3 divers turned up with spears. Within 90mins these 3 guys had massacred 18 huge fish. I just stood there with my mouth opened in horror knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop them. They even laughed and bragged about how silly these fish were as they all just came up to them to investigate and showed no fear of divers.
What can we do to stop this slaughter of big fish like this? Do divers have to adhere to bag limits too?
No wonder there are no big fish left close inshore anymore.
I can't believe their attitude. Whatsmore these guys scaled and gutted and then just threw it all into the ocean to attract sharks when they were finished. I am now lost for words and feel like giving up fishing alltogether after a greedy slaughter like that.
Rose

Hi Rose,

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done unless they are taking more than the limit permitted for that particular species. It is a real shame and certainly makes you somewhat bitter to see such people, what would you say, abusing or appearing to abuse such a good fishery we have.

I have fished both the Palm Cove and Port Douglas jetties before and it takes a lot of time to pull something decent from these locations.

I believe Bad Bubby (Dan) also has as story from the Palm Cove jetty where in a hour session 3 metre long plus saltwater barra were speared and mangled up on the wharf and the fillets were given to spectators.

I mean, people are allowed to spear however I think the location they were doing it at and I can only imagine it would upset the locals.

I agree with you Rose, not what a local angler of the area would like to see!!!

Regards

Active Angler Crew.

Yeah Ben, thats right, 2 years ago on a crowded first day of open season (at 9am so was technically closed season still) I saw a guy gun down a few big barra at Palm Cove. The water was glassed out and crystal clear and it took about 2 mins before he would resurface with another fish. He kept two and began giving away other fish which were hacked up by the surrounding anglers with blunt 50cent bait knives. Like you said the whole thing was over in about an hour but the local anglers were furious for many days after.

Just on my doorstep, thats garbage that these guys do it but not much we can do, all we can do is give em a mouth full everytime we see em.

Thats why they would have been there, seeing it was a weekeday and no one around to see em doing it.

Shane

Not good at all... Its people like this that ruin things for everyone! What really gets my bloody boiling is how they disposed of the guts n' all... absolutely terrible. Not only does it draw other dangers (sharks, crocs even?), and adds to the poor water quality, but its just a poor image that tourists and locals have to put up with. Theyd definetely cop a mouthful if I was near em'!

Theo