Opera house snares killing platypus. B/S report CM

[rayke1938]

Did anyone else read the B/s report on page 38 in Saturdays Courier mail.

Written by Brian Williams obviously without any research whatsoever on information supplied by Wildlife Preservation Society spokesperson Des Boyland.

I don't know how to copy and post the article so I will endeavour to post some of it.

"A yabby trap widely sold in Qld is thought to be a major killer of platypuses,turtles and native water rats.

The opera house traps have been banned in other states because of the damage they do to native wildlife.( My note only illegal in Victoria and WA.)

Water rat numbers are thought to have crashed in Cooper Creek in western qld and innamincka in Sa due to Queenslanders with opera house pots."

( My note opera house pots are legal in SA)

Back to my whinge

I have checked regs in all states and opera house pots are only illegal in Victoria and Western Australia.

In NSW they must have by catch reduction rings of 90mm or less and you are not allowed to use them in waters running into eastern seaboard.In other words you are not allowed to use them in any waters that there may be platypuses in.

In Sa the by catch reduction ring must be 75mm or less.

Mr Boyland also waffles on about reducing the size of the ring from 100mm to 60mm to reduce the instances of by catch. There is no regulation anywhere that has a 100mm ring limit.

He also has a sob story about breeding female platypuses trapped and drowning in a pot and the young starving in the burrow.

Now I have no problems with the reduction of the ring to 60mm.

I always use the smallest possible ring that I can purchase .

Currently 70cm by Jarvis Walker as i find that with the 90cm rings the redclaw escape.

I have never caught a turtle in an opera house trap and i have been redclawing for years.

To safeguard platypus it would be simple to regulate the use of opera house pots to stocked impoundments and waters flowing into the eastern seaboard.

I just get stirred up by irresponsible reporting and especially misrepresentation of the facts by the greeny groups.

Maybe someone with computer skills can copy the article from the paper and post it here.

Cheers

Ray

ps maybe border security patrols to prevent the maraudering queenslanders swooping on the defenceless innamincka water rats? :blush:

[dassa]

Hey ray shouldn't they read 75mm in s.a

And 60cm the platypus would swim start through and 90cm you would nilly fit the opera house in it :laugh:

[rayke1938]

dassa wrote:

Hey ray shouldn't they read 75mm in s.a

And 60cm the platypus would swim start through and 90cm you would nilly fit the opera house in it :laugh:

sorry thanks for pointing out have now edited it. B metrics dunno why they just cant talk english and say 2 and 2and 1/2 and 3 inches.

Also was just down at amart all sports and they have the 60mm ring ones.

Cheers

Ray

[Davo_Dinkum]

i got the net factory ones made by javas walker .70 mm rings 7 cm.

i also got 1 to use at bruns that came in there size limits .its one of those brown expandable ones .they a rectangle shape .used to use 1 to get prawns and yabbies for the river for bait.

i think they are 60 mm.6 cm .

force ten brand

only unwanted thing in them so far a small turtle ,very small 40 mm across.

no other unwanted or dead things so far.the small turtle was ok .as the kids are impatient and check the pots every hr or 2 .

longest i usually leave them is over night .

turtles are ok for that long .when we had them 1 went into hibernation and stayed under water for weeks.

[Feral]

I killed some turtles with BCF supplied opera house traps at Awoonga one year, they had no rings and the large turtles just forced their way in. Only used them the once, tossed them.

[rayke1938]

Feral wrote:

I killed some turtles with BCF supplied opera house traps at Awoonga one year, they had no rings and the large turtles just forced their way in. Only used them the once, tossed them.

That type of pot hasnt been on sale for a few years now. Either NSW or South Australia DPI web site gives directions on how to either reduce the size of existing rings or how to insert rings into pots without rings.

Cheers

Ray

[rayke1938]

There was a follow up article in last Fridays CM titled " platypus trap threat to stay.

Has a photo of a opera house pot with a dead female platypus in it. The trap appears to one with the 10cm ring type which is no longer sold.

Since the original article i have been looking at the pots which are on sale and the largest diameter ring that I have observed has been 7.5 cm with the majority being under this.Goes on with a quote from DPI spokesperson that says that the traps have a ring in them to prevent unwanted bycatch and that they are legal to use in QLD but she also said that a review of freshwater fisheries was sceduled for next year and concerns about the traps would be addressed then.

Des Boyland from the wildlife preservation society then calls for the pots to be banned in all public waters.

This would make them illegal to use anywhere except in private dams.

( My words there ate no birds,water rats and platypuses in private dams :laugh: )

He then calls for the entrance ring to be reduced to 5cm ( It was 6 cm last week . Wonder what it will be next week )

He then says that people could still fish for yabbies with hoop style lift nets or baited lines with no hooks, which posed a lesser risk.

If you enjoy a feed of redclaw be prepared for a battle next year. looks like the WPS are already firing a few shots.

Cheers

Ray

[ellicat]

I fear that when people hear the same lie over and over again eventually they'll believe it.....seems to be an effective method as history shows.

Is it a good example of irony that so many fishy stories are told by those opposed to it ? :S

[dassa]

Yes ray I read the article after your 1st post and picked to pieces this guy needs to stop bullshiting him self and any clowns that are prepared to listen.People need to start thinking for them selves and not to take everything they read as gossple.

Dassa

[HookedOnTackle]

Bitch bitch bitch

next thing you know, marine parks will protect native animals from all forms of death. whoops, dolphin's have died!

It is so easy to legislate rather than manage a resource...