Deedi Opinion on keeping tilapia.

[rayke1938]

After conflicting verbal answers from the Deedi telephone inquiry line I wrote to Deedi in November last year inquiring about the disposal of tilapia caught by7 boat in North pine dam. The terms of lease from SEQ water specifically prohibit the disposal of fish in the lease

area and also prohibit the going ashore outside the lease area.

I also asked if it was permitted to fillet the fish before disposal and take the fillets home for consumption.

I asked for the response to be in writing due to the different answers I had previously.

Hers is the answer, Cheers

Ray

Hi Ray,

Sorry for the late reply, I am still trying to catch up from my end of year leave.

Unfortunately you are not permitted to eat tilapia or any other declared noxious fish in Queensland, including carp. The Fisheries Act states that if any declared noxious fish are caught they are to be killed immediately and placed in a bin or buried as soon as possible. You are not permitted to take the whole fish or any part of the fish away from the water body at all (including fillets). The reason why we have this rule is we still only have tilapia in 17 of our 76 catchments in Queensland. If we allowed people to utilise noxious fish we would see individuals illegally stocking their farm dams and releasing noxious fish in their local waterways for their own use, as is the case with red claw crayfish. It is illegal to move these fish around, you are not to have them in your possession at all (including parts of the fish) other than the short amount of time it takes to kill them and dispose of them at the site. It is also illegal to release them back into the water. The maximum penalty for the possession of noxious fish (including parts of the fish like fillets) is $200,000.

Seqwater have informed me they have disposal bins for tilapia at North Pine Dam. They may not be exactly where you are fishing however and therefore you would be permitted to have these fish in your possession until you reached the disposal facilities.

I hope this information has been helpful, please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.

Regards,

( Name deleted by Ray)

><@'>

Fisheries Biologist (Pest Fish)

Now all I have to do is find out where the seq waters disposal points are.

Cheers

Ray

[Keen-as-fisho]

Hmmm so I can't take redclaw home for a feed or my fish tank As for Tilapia (and Carp) if it was legal to keep fillets or dead whole fish for consumption maybe it would encourage people to target them more frequently. I know of a few European fellas who want to target Carp but don't bother because they can't keep them for a feed, why they would want to eat them I don't know yuk

[Bommie]

pretty straight forward answer there

[rayke1938]

Hmmm so I can't take redclaw home for a feed or my fish tank As for Tilapia (and Carp) if it was legal to keep fillets or dead whole fish for consumption maybe it would encourage people to target them more frequently. I know of a few European fellas who want to target Carp but don't bother because they can't keep them for a feed, why they would want to eat them I don't know yuk

SHe has confused the issue mentioning redclaw in with the tilapia answer.

You are allowed to take redclaw home.

You are not allowed to translocate redclaw .

You are not allowed to use redclaw as live bait but are allowed to use dead redclaw or their flesh as bait.

Cheers

Ray

[faulked]

there are some bbq s near the dam wall id sugest disposing of the filletts and red claw on top of them it should make it easy for the councill to clean up :evil:

[bootyinblue]

Interesting answer, and thanks Ray for taking the time to source it for everyone's knowledge.

I can see both sides there about not wanting to move the fish around any more than necessary, but then also see some merit in allowing the catch to be consumed thus hopefully reducing the population.

PErhaps a commercial operation is the go and they can call them bassa fillets too.

[Angus]

Interesting.

Still doesnt seem like an ideal scenrio (having to head back to the wall for disposal) but at least its a firm answer of were we stand as anglers.

Angus

[Dubbzy]

Yes that's a straight up answer, but I think the redclaw thing must be wrong.

[elops]

Surprised you pursued this for so long Ray the legislation is clear, as are the regulations on Redclaw both are clearly written even in the brief guide. A good example of the futility of of allowing them to be taken is the state of Florida in the US, where rec anglers are allowed to take them buy any means and there are long established commercial fisheries that are are only allowed to take them. Still spreading at a steady pace with a growing number of species, something we are seeing here with populations of other species of cichlids being found.

[ellicat]

Interesting answer, and thanks Ray for taking the time to source it for everyone's knowledge.

I can see both sides there about not wanting to move the fish around any more than necessary, but then also see some merit in allowing the catch to be consumed thus hopefully reducing the population.

PErhaps a commercial operation is the go and they can call them bassa fillets too.

There is currently an on-line petition to allow the commercial capture of carp in Qld. It's on the government petition site. (Too lazy on a Sunday to get the link).

[crazywalrus]

Surprised you pursued this for so long Ray the legislation is clear, as are the regulations on Redclaw both are clearly written even in the brief guide. A good example of the futility of of allowing them to be taken is the state of Florida in the US, where rec anglers are allowed to take them buy any means and there are long established commercial fisheries that are are only allowed to take them. Still spreading at a steady pace with a growing number of species, something we are seeing here with populations of other species of cichlids being found.

Sorry Steve I do not follow your reasoning here. Here we are not allowed to keep or transport them but they are spreading, There they are allowed to keep and transport them and they are spreading isn't this the same outcome. For me if they are not going to try and control them via managed destruction and electro fishing than the current controls are just a band aid and merely putting the head in the sand as the populations are growing and they are spread from here to Cairns.

[Bommie]

Their reasoning is if you are allowed to eat tilapia then people are more likely to stock waterways and private dams with them. Which is how some have gotten into the waterways in the past and present.

[bootyinblue]

Commercial licence to catch and process these fish has to be a step in the right direction in controlling numbers than just sticking your hands and admitting defeat.

What is the legislation with red claw then as the email appears to say they cannot be moved from the dam where caught. Perhaps the legislation is not as clear as you allude.

[rayke1938]

Do not think you will ever see commercial fishing allowed in and fresh water in QLD

Unless there are severe restrictions placed on the aquarium trade we will see a lot more pest fish emerging in our waters as well meaning people release fish that they become tired of looking after into streams.

Maybe the only aquarium fish allowed to be kept should be restricted to Aussie natives and even that can be problematical when they are released outside their native range. eg redclaw.

Cheers

Ray

[fishingnut]

Perhaps we should just stick with the tilapia issue as to not confuse an already cloudy issue, Now I can see both sides of the argument here, as a rec fisher (that doesn't eat fish ) but can see why other fishos want to target and eat these species to help control numbers and make the most from a pest species,NOW on the other hand I can see where DEEDI is coming from, limit it to a total no take no matter what happens happens species cos as soon as you make something viable and valuable there instantly becomes a market/demand for it hence the total no take policy. Yet there is still afew WBB who continue to relocate these pests as a food source as they are a staple diet in other countries

[Surfingant]

Their reasoning is if you are allowed to eat tilapia then people are more likely to stock waterways and private dams with them. Which is how some have gotten into the waterways in the past and present.

Yes but they are spreading anyway with seemingly nothing being done about it, at least if you could take them to consume it would make it more worthwhile targetting them.

[elops]

The main mechanism for the spread of Tilapia has been flooding, due to their ability to tolerate salt the recent floods would have spread them into every stream from the Nerang to the Sunshine coast. The illegal stockings only make it worse. The Redclaw analogy is a good example, the legislation is clear cant stock them out of their natural range without the appropriate permit, cant use them for live bait, cant return them to the water. Unfortunately people see them as a desirable thing and translocate them everywhere or stock them in their dams this is not done by the"WBB" it is done by mainly Anglo/Celtic white Australians. Opening up Freshwater to commercial effort? how do you harvest them, avoid bycatch mortality of natives. Just for the record myself I would like to see some change in regulations to allow them to be taken not going to have any real net effect though. The only real means of reduction and control is predation but unfortunately our native predators though they do eat them are either not present in a lot of areas or do not inhabit or feed in the areas where they are. Even if you were to stock to an ecological framework with multiple apex predators and allow them to be taken there would still be a substantial population of them in the impoundments they are established in. DEEDI stick by the Precautionary principle in the hope that they wont be established in the catchments they are not in, the most important of which is the Murray/Darling.

[Bommie]

Their reasoning is if you are allowed to eat tilapia then people are more likely to stock waterways and private dams with them. Which is how some have gotten into the waterways in the past and present.

Yes but they are spreading anyway with seemingly nothing being done about it, at least if you could take them to consume it would make it more worthwhile targetting them.

Then that brings you back to the above point of the risk of people stocking them in waterways/dams (that did not contain them) for consumption.

,by the way how's the fish tank going?

[Surfingant]

Their reasoning is if you are allowed to eat tilapia then people are more likely to stock waterways and private dams with them. Which is how some have gotten into the waterways in the past and present.

Yes but they are spreading anyway with seemingly nothing being done about it, at least if you could take them to consume it would make it more worthwhile targetting them.

Then that brings you back to the above point of the risk of people stocking them in waterways/dams (that did not contain them) for consumption.

,by the way how's the fish tank going?

True true.

The fish tank is not atm, haven't gotten my finger out yet

[tiotony]

Personally I think the benifits of advertising to the WBB 'all you can eat' tilapia would far outweigh the potential for unscrupulous persons to translocate the things, if they were allowed to keep them. I think the average WBB person wouldn't care in the least about regulations and would translocate fish regardless. I would LOVE to see the WBB slaughtering tillys around Cairns and filling buckets with them. As for translocation around Cairns, they are everywhere already, including in Tinaroo, which I will add are not that common in there- I think they have serious territorial problems with the resident sooties which average 3kg :woohoo: I have only ever caught one tilly in Tinaroo compared to dozens of sooties, and it was a monster tilly around 2kg so I think the resident 'wannabe mangrove jacks' keep them in check :cheer:

Of note, I know very little about bass, but JP's are bloody smart and bloody shy so I think the impact of the WBB smashing local creeks would be minimal on JP populations; they could hardly catch a JP to save themselves I think. As an example I have introduced a WBB man to the creek behind my house where I used to live, he then proceeded to utterly slaughter tillys daily in the creek behind our houses and I bet he has never got a JP as you have to be absolutely not seen by the fish to catch an urban JP ie: cast from the lepoard crawl position hiding behind thick bush.

I have also noticed tillys can't seem to negotiate waterfalls? Two creeks local to me, freshwater creek and stoney creek, have no tillys in the waterfall zones but are loaded with JP's in that area. Downstream in slower moving water tillys are abundant and outnumber JP's, as well as some ugly looking chichilid things.

[Uthrax]

If there was some way to stop people spreading tillies, then I would welcome not only taking them, but even allowing rec anglers to sell them. Maybe a "you can keep them, but you have to remove their heads first" rule plus having to kill undersized ones. I think this would reduce tilly numbers , at least in urban areas fairly quick