Netters Get Green Light to Decimate Salmon

[Gad]

Taken from Fishing World Email Newsletter 28-11-11

28 Nov 2011

COMMERCIAL netters in NSW have been given the go ahead to take up to 3 tonnes of Australian salmon per day (per licence holder) in changes made by the state's Department of Primary Industries.

The changes apply north of Barrenjoey headland and have been introduced following a review of current arrangements relating to the NSW Ocean Hauling Fishery.

In a media release issued late last week, NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) Director Commercial Fisheries, Andrew Goulstone, said the decision to implement the changes follows consultation with commercial and recreational fishing advisory groups, including a cross-sector working group.

"The latest scientific information shows that the Australian salmon stock is in a very healthy condition," Goulstone said.

"The new arrangements will allow a limited increase in the catch of Australian salmon caught in waters north of Barrenjoey Headland in the NSW Ocean Hauling Fishery.

"This will be subject to a daily catch limit of 3 tonnes per endorsement holder and a total annual catch trigger level of 224 tonnes."

Goulstone said these minor management changes are not expected to impact on angling opportunities for recreational fishers.

"Australian salmon is a valued recreational fishing species, as well as an important source of bait for commercial fish and lobster traps," Goulstone said.

"The measures will help to ensure that there is a ready supply of trap bait available for commercial fishers on the north coast of NSW, at a time when Australian salmon undertake their annual migration from southern Australian waters.

"When the stock is in such a strong position, it makes clear economic and environmental sense to allow fishers to catch a portion as it swims past their front door, rather than requiring fish to be caught south of Sydney and transported hundreds of kilometres by road.

"The catch of salmon in the subject area will be monitored throughout the year and a review process comprising commercial and recreational fishing representatives will be instigated if the total catch approaches the trigger level. This monitoring is in addition to the annual species assessment process already in place."

Edit..I`ve added a reply from FWs` Email readers comments..

quote [The really sad thing is that a misguided but very vocal minority of NSW north coast recreational anglers who seem to hate this iconic sportfish have been calling for exactly this for a couple of years... Careful what you wish for! This is really terrible news. And personally, I think it's as much of a crime to use these wonderful fish as trap bait as it is to use them for pet food. Watch their numbers decline now. Shame, NSW Government, shame....

Steve Starling on 28-Nov-11 05:50 PM] end of quote

[BassTracker]

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[Gad]

Taken from Fishing World Email Newsletter 28-11-11

COMMENT: Salmon netting disgrace!

28 Nov 2011

By Fisho writers

THE announcement late last week that netters north of Sydney can now take up to three tonnes of Australian salmon a day highlights how much sway the commercial sector has in such governmental decisions.

This decision, which has been approved by state Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson, is a slap in the face to NSW's 1 million anglers.

Up until now, salmon stocks had slowly been rebuilding after being decimated by years of overfishing by netters who slaughtered countless tonnes of these prized sportfish for pet food and for use as lobster trap bait.

In a move which signals that the NSW Fisheries Department is regressing back to the bad old days when commercial interests ruled the roost as the expense of the recreational industry, the increased salmon quotas for netters north of Barrenjoey Head were announced before a commercial fishing review has even been completed. Sort of makes the idea of a review a bit of joke, doesn't it?

And to make matters worse, the Minister has rejected calls by ACORF, the group which is supposed to advise her on rec fishing matters, to not allow the netters to again pillage salmon stocks.

The fact is that by kowtowing to the netters over the salmon issue Minister Hodgkinson has failed an important test. The development of a sustainable and well managed sportfishing industry is the way of the future as far as NSW's fish stocks are concerned. The socio-economic benefits of sportfishing vastly outweigh that of the commercial sector. By allowing the netters to get their greedy hands on our salmon schools, the Minister has demonstrated that she and her department are backwards thinking.

Even Ian Macdonald, the former fisheries minister who is widely regarded as the worst fisheries minister in recorded history, resisted pressure from the pros over the salmon issue, realising that salmon were too important to be wasted in beach haul nets.

Minister Hodgkinson has been in charge of fisheries for less than a year yet has managed to alienate anglers with this dumb and senseless decision on salmon. This doesn't bode well for the future ... To be fair to the Minister, she probably doesn't understand what she's done. But that's no excuse. Shame, Minister, shame.

In the wake of this ridiculously short sighted decision, Fisho has contacted Robert Brown of the Shooters & Fishers Party to ascertain his stance on this issue. We understand the S&F is in a position to put pressure on Minister Hodgkinson to reverse the salmon decision.

[Do$tylz]

3 tonne a day per licence holder?? WTF?? how many licence holders are there?

[ChrisC]

dissapointing! wonder if they will show up again next winter on the goldy or will they all be cleaned up ?

[Oconnell]

3 tonne a day per licence holder?? WTF?? how many licence holders are there?

Who's going to be measuring that!!!

Bet they don't have the resources to measure everyone's catch.

[Manni79]

Absolute stupidity !!! fish stocks start to recover and then at the first chance they allow commercial fisherman a license to destroy a thriving population of sport fish !!!

I think i read some where recently as well that for recreational fisherman they are looking to reduce the bag limit of Salmon...... how this makes sense i have no idea :evil: :evil:

[tugger]

2 words

liberal government

[waldo]

These big buggers are showing up in places I have never seen them before in all the years I have been beach fishing and in numbers. They have the same habits and food prefernces as tailor, seem to be faster growing and have fewer predators. They dont rate on the chew unless you want to waste a ton making them edible. This is a good thing imho, 224t is nothing compared to what the pros used to take.

[ellicat]

Yeah, I agree Waldo. People seem to get over-emotional whenever commercial gets a go. At least it looks like they are doing some science-based decision making rather than just doing as the Greens tell them.

[aussie123]

224 ton of salmon is a drop in the ocean.

Some of the monster schools down there now would have that much in them alone.

Often you see salmon schools larger than a football field and sometimes 2 and when they come through they eat everything in their path.

They decimate any bait populations along that part of the coastline and who knows how many juvenile whiting and other fish they are devouring along the way.

Also 3 ton a day per license is stuff all considering they only come through an area for maybe 4-6 weeks a year and for various reasons beach haulers don't get to work every day so its only a very small window of time to catch them.

They also come through when the more valuable fish are there and historic catches of salmon were only done when there was nothing else to catch.

In the end I would rather see tons of salmon used for bait than tons of pilchards.

[Gad]

Update..

Sydney salmon to be "obliterated"

01 Dec 2011

By Fisho staff writers

LIKE many anglers who heard the news last week that the NSW Government had given the green light to increased salmon netting, Sydney-based fishing guide Justin Duggan didn't immediately see the full implications of the announcement.

"I didn't take in the numbers and so on at first," Duggan, who runs Sydney Flyfishing Tours, told Fisho today.

"My initial reaction was that it was just going to be a little bit of netting for some trap bait up north. When I sat down and read [the NSW DPI media release] and realised it was three tonnes per endorsement ... per day ... I realised that this has the potential to absolutely obliterate local recreational fishing for salmon."

Duggan is in a good position to make informed comment about the potential impact of the salmon netting increase. For the past 10 years he's been a specialist fly and lure fishing guide on the waters of Sydney Harbour, Broken Bay, Pittwater and the Hawkesbury River – all known salmon fishing strongholds.

In that time, Duggan has come to understand where salmon schools congregate around July to October each year. He says you don't need to be a genius to realise that commercial netters are armed with similar knowledge - and as a result the decimation a salmon school could just be all in a morning's work for the net crews.

"I don't think [NSW DPI] put any thought into what will happen to the salmon in localised areas," Duggan. says. "Using Broken Bay as an example, there are three or four major salmon aggregation areas there during the peak season. If I was trying to net salmon I would be naturally gravitating to these areas .. those aggregation points are going to get hammered [by the netters]."

According to Duggan, this increased netting pressure will almost certainly limit the recreational salmon fishery in the Sydney area, home to almost 60 per cent of NSW's 1 million anglers, reducing opportunities for rock, beach and boat anglers and their families and causing flow-on effects in the tackle and boating industries.

Where are the Greens?

Like most anglers, Duggan sees himself as conservation minded. As a result, he is perplexed by the silence from environment groups and Greens politicians on the salmon issue.

He sees it as "hypocritical" that green groups aren't up in arms over the move, especially as he says it has the potential to directly impact on at least two endangered species.

The first of these are the juvenile great white sharks that live off Stockton Beach on the Central Coast. Salmon are believed to be a major source of protein for these sharks.

With great whites on the World Heritage endangered species list, the increase in salmon netting in this area could reduce food supplies for the sharks. Salmon netting also has the potential to impact on seals, dolphins and various seabird species.

"When you move that amount of protein from the environment that is potentially food for many, many predators there is going to be some impact," said Duggan.

Increases in salmon netting could also impact on the endangered grey nurse shark.

"Having spoken to divers and spearfishers, salmon schools are a great spot to find grey nurses. Even during the day, grey nurses are found under salmon schools. So once again we are eating into a known protein source for an endangered species."

Various conservation organisations, as well as Greens Party politicians, have long campaigned for increased protection for grey nurse sharks, calling for bans on fishing activities at various locations up and down the coast.

Duggan, along with many other anglers, notes with interest that none of these groups or politicians have entered the debate about the possible ramifications of the salmon netting increase on these sharks or various other species.

Economic loss

Duggan is also concerned about the socio-economic aspects of the salmon netting increase. The increased catch will be used for trap bait by commercial operators fishing for lobster and other species. Many other bait sources are available but salmon are historically the most convenient bait for the trappers to use.

Like other anglers, Duggan sees no economic value in netting tonnes of sportfish simply to make life more convenient for a small group of commercial operators.

While the right of these commercial fishermen to operate a profitable business is not under question, the netting increase will almost certainly negatively impact on rec fishing businesses, including Duggan's. Between July and October each year he has charters four or five days a week when the prime target is salmon.

"They're one of the best sportfish on offer. We're lucky to have them," he says.

No compensation will be paid to professional guides like Justin Duggan whose businesses stand to suffer due to the salmon netting increase.

Fisho understands that angling groups are currently considering a push for government compensation over the salmon issue. This could come in the form of increased rec-only areas, the declaration of key species as rec-only or increased size limits on commercial operators targeting popular recreational species such as bream, flathead and kingfish.

Duggan is confident the salmon issue can be resolved with a bit of lateral thinking. European carp are a pest species in plague proportion in many waterways. Like salmon, they have a naturally oily flesh and a reputably good as berley and bait for saltwater species.

Removing carp and using them as trap bait makes sense on a number of levels yet it doesn't seem to currently be on the table. Duggan believes it should be.

"We finally get [salmon] to return to numbers that they really should be at, and then the [commercials] think that because there's a proliferation of these fish that they're entitled to just turn them in to crab bait. Why would they do that and not utilise carp as bait?"

Good question ... And you can be assured that we'll be asking NSW Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson why this can't happen.

[Gad]

UPDATE….

Taken from Fishing World Email Newsletter 1-12-11

Minister responds to salmon netting backlash

01 Dec 2011

AS a result of a Comment piece we posted last Monday, (Salmon Netting Disgrace!) Fisho today received a response from NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson, which is reprinted below in full.

Minister Hodgkinson:

"The value of Australian salmon to recreational fishing is acknowledged, but its use as bait to enable commercial fishers to catch and supply high quality fresh local seafood to the community must also be acknowledged.

"Much of the initial angler response seems to be based on the mistaken assumption that the changes will allow uncontrolled fishing that would decimate the resource. In fact, the changes would enable only an additional 100 tonnes (approximately) to be taken north of Sydney.

At most, this represents a minor (approximately five per cent) increase in the

commercial catch of the unit stock of salmon on the east coast and may just lead to a shift in catch of salmon from south of Sydney to north of Sydney. The scientific information indicates the stock can easily sustain that increase. I am confident that the new limits and the monitoring measures implemented will be an effective control.

"I would also note that the previous closure preventing the targeting of tailor by nets, which expired at the same time as the salmon closure, was replaced unamended.

"This decision is a measured position which avoids a situation where the fish are simply taken south of Sydney and trucked north at unnecessary expense, or where other important recreational species are substituted for use as bait.

"Accordingly, I support the new controls and close monitoring throughout the year, with the option to review the arrangements next year and adjust them if necessary."

[tiotony]

Shame its probably not economically viable to take the same amount of carp and tilapia instead