Snapper closed season coming

[Yellow Peril]

was going to post this in the thread on snapper bag and size limits, but decided to make a new post.

Word is that seasonal closures are coming for snapper. No take species for 3-4 months of the year. Possibly for recs only, not charter or commercial boys.

Look out for the RIS next year and 'consultation' meetings to follow.

Jeremy

[Doobsy]

I'd support that.

Better than a mass of blanket "Green Zones" IMHO

[crazywalrus]

do you know which months they propose

[David88]

For me it's not about eating them, it's the enjoyment they bring when fighting them. I think that if they have a closed season, it should be for commercial fisheries too!

[Do$tylz]

YP - got an article to read about the potential closed season? I wonder if it will be a blanket QLD or just in SEQ?

[Old Scaley]

crazywalrus wrote:

do you know which months they propose

I heard it proposed last year (I think) for May through to August. Should still be a few around in September. Gottta wonder how you could enforce it though, because they have been everywhere in the past couple of months and it would be hard to go fishing most places without hooking at least one. Might have to be a "no keep" season. Personally, I think they need a bit more research on the effect of the last change before making another one. I would support a new minimum of 38cm and keep the bag limit at 5 with no limit on over 50cm, but I am not a scientist and I do love catching and eating them. I usually only keep the fish over 38cm anyway.

[crazywalrus]

wow if that is the closed season it will make it hard for the general punter here in SEQLD to catch any for a feed. It would have to be a no take given how many there are around at the moment.

[dhess]

The problem with a closed season for snapper would be people fishing for things like pearl perch in deep water are inevitably going to catch a few. Not many fish release too crash hot when they come out of 90m of water.

[daveylad]

dhess wrote:

The problem with a closed season for snapper would be people fishing for things like pearl perch in deep water are inevitably going to catch a few. Not many fish release too crash hot when they come out of 90m of water.

Hey dom the 90metres of water sound good Tuesday and wednesday looking fine Not trying to twist your arm or anything

[crazywalrus]

dhess wrote:

The problem with a closed season for snapper would be people fishing for things like pearl perch in deep water are inevitably going to catch a few. Not many fish release too crash hot when they come out of 90m of water.

Yeah agree it would make it hard. just as a question do you get many under size fish there?

[Yellow Peril]

Don't know what months are proposed as yet. Possibly yet to be determined. There is a working group which have been nutting this out for the past year or so.

My position is that we should not have the closed season on snapper and we should not have any green zones.

As for snapper, no strong evidence as yet that they are overfished. Most snapper fishers would prefer to see an increased minimum size to a closed season.

Green zones - Queensland has some of the toughest size and bag limits to protect the fisheries in the world so our fisheries are already protected. Green zones are designed to protect biodiversity, but the only thing they prohibit is fishing (extractive activities) and they do nothing to protect the habitats from the real threats such as pollution, urban runoff, fertiliser runoff from farming, etc etc.