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Snapper Fishing Ban Mooted for South Australia


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Hi Everyone,

After watching so many TV shows about the great snapper fishing in South Australia, this story won't make charter operators, commercial and recreational fishers in the area too happy. Surprisingly, the research quoted in the article states recreational fishers take close to 40% of all snapper caught. Much more than I would have expected.

'"Fishing for snapper in South Australia may be banned until 2023 to allow "decimated" populations to recover.The State Government said stocks have declined by 87 per cent in Gulf St Vincent, and 23 per cent in the Spencer Gulf.

'A statewide closure from October this year until February 2023 has been proposed in a consultation paper released by Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone, with the possibility that a limited season could be opened in the south-east.

'Mr Whetstone said if urgent steps are not taken, the iconic species could vanish from South Australia altogether....

'The state's commercial catch fell from a peak of 1,035 tonnes in 2010 to 339 tonnes in 2017, according to the department.

'About 62 per cent of snapper caught in the state are snagged by commercial fishers, and the rest by recreational fishers.'

Full story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-07/sa-minister-proposes-three-year-ban-on-snapper-fishing/11393520

KB

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This post has caught my attention!. I cannot imagine the economic or social impact that such action would have on the commercial AND recreational fishos that frequent these highly productive (Snapper) areas. We have fished several places and provided good support for SA charters for quite a few years. We have always caught plenty of good Snapper too, many in the 90 cm+ bracket. IF this proposal were enacted, I suspect that recreational anglers would be able to target other species. However, we all know that the same methods used for other species would lead to Snapper being caught too. They would HAVE TO BE RELEASED for the programme to work effectively. Commercial fishing would be a different proposition though. Their activities would have to be locked out entirely as most fish caught using their methods do not survive anyway. I'm sure that any decision made will take ALL factors into consideration... IT CERTAINLY NEEDS TO. bn

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Commercial catch methods for Snapper is not much different to rec methods, although a ban on anything is never popular, IF scientific evidence  supports a total ban for everyone, then so be it, it will be a hard fought battle to implement, and probably end up being a half cocked attempt to keep people at least partially happy.

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The number of fish caught by rec anglers has always been underestimated, the sheer numbers participating makes the catch number huge, bag limits, size limit increases, slot limits, bans and so on are never well received by the general fishing public.

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1 hour ago, noelm said:

The number of fish caught by rec anglers has always been underestimated, the sheer numbers participating makes the catch number huge, bag limits, size limit increases, slot limits, bans and so on are never well received by the general fishing public.

Well they are estimated by surveys backed by statitical techniques, presumably that's how they got the 38% figure. A lot of rec anglers/ charter boat operators simply refuse to believe the figures.

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Without changing the topic, a complete ban on all fishing in some areas and in some cases i would definitly support. If a ban were proposed for tuggerah, budgewoi and lake munmorah for 3 years it could only help. Not as sure about bans in the ocean, fish do swim around.

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1 hour ago, blindmullet said:

Without changing the topic, a complete ban on all fishing in some areas and in some cases i would definitly support. If a ban were proposed for tuggerah, budgewoi and lake munmorah for 3 years it could only help. Not as sure about bans in the ocean, fish do swim around.

When we have marine parks and other anti fishing agendas such animal rights people to worry about why would you countenence such an idea?

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Fishing closures and bag limits is a very emotive issue, it always has been, but, people need to put their own emotions and agendas aside to actually see the problems, it's easy to just point fingers and say "ban the pros" or "close an area off" but it's not so simple, there are people's livelihoods at stake (both rec and pro) there is environmental concerns, there is future fish stocks to consider, it can't be looked at from a one sided live for now attitude.

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1 hour ago, noelm said:

Fishing closures and bag limits is a very emotive issue, it always has been, but, people need to put their own emotions and agendas aside to actually see the problems, it's easy to just point fingers and say "ban the pros" or "close an area off" but it's not so simple, there are people's livelihoods at stake (both rec and pro) there is environmental concerns, there is future fish stocks to consider, it can't be looked at from a one sided live for now attitude.

Bag limits are generally well accepted and understood by anglers. I'm still not sure why a fisherman would want a complete fishing ban for the whole of Tuggerah and the other two lakes. Even marine parks don't go that far - usually making only 20% no fishing.

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2 hours ago, kingfishbig said:

Bag limits are generally well accepted and understood by anglers. I'm still not sure why a fisherman would want a complete fishing ban for the whole of Tuggerah and the other two lakes. Even marine parks don't go that far - usually making only 20% no fishing.

I wish the minimum legal size was accepted and understood as well.  There is no sufficient control over it.

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Thats very true Noel, people who do the wrong thing should be labelled as "poachers"not fishers, we have a pretty good set of rules in place- unfortunately we have very poor enforcement of those laws, the Kiwis, CAnucks and Yanks all value their outdoor resources more than we do and provide  adequate patroling and enforcement to boot. Getting back to the SA situation, its my understanding that the Rec fisho "lobby"has very little sway there and the pros are pretty much in command . Banning fishing holus bolus in one area is a poor option except perhaps on a seasonal basis to protect spawning stock, the damage to tourism, local business etc caused by lockouts cannot be underestimated and despite the BS ive never seen so called ëcotourism provide anywhere the dollars to a community that good old fishing trips do. Enforce the laws we already have before we add new ones!

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21 hours ago, Koalaboi said:

. Surprisingly, the research quoted in the article states recreational fishers take close to 40% of all snapper caught. Much more than I would have expected.

'

As a South Australian snapper rec fisho I assure you that there are Lies, Damn Lies then Statistics.....

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31 minutes ago, dmck said:

As a South Australian snapper rec fisho I assure you that there are Lies, Damn Lies then Statistics.....

The problem is, do you have documented proof to refute the claim?

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5 hours ago, savit said:

I wish the minimum legal size was accepted and understood as well.  There is no sufficient control over it.

I can't agree more with this man. so true, The amount of people who fish and keep non-legal size is insane. if only they were like us people  here on fishraider who go by the rules.. 

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I feel like a good idea would be to have workers from the fisheries to stand watch at the harbours and boat ramps to do a "check" on the fish fisho's have caught. As stated above, there is not much enforcement. I have rarely seen them and when I do there just cruising on the water... 

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So the big question is whether we will see such closers here in NSW. Anyone who has seen my snapper exploits down here on the far south coast will know the fishery is in big trouble. The once productive snapper grounds suddenly saw a huge increase from rec fishers and comercial alike. Set lines and traps covered these small reefs to the point I've caught under 5 snapper in the last 3 years after hundreds of trips. The inshore reefs of Bermagui are heading in the same way with trap buoys dotted all along the reefs.

As for marine parks, the Batemans Bay marine park is about to undergo the first of its sanctuary removals. The deal has been done, the announcements will be soon public.

Edited by JonD
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8 minutes ago, JonD said:

So the big question is whether we will see such closers here in NSW. Anyone who has seen my snapper exploits down here on the far south coast will know the fishery is in big trouble. The once productive snapper grounds suddenly saw a huge increase from rec fishers and comercial alike. Set lines and traps covered these small reefs to the point I've caught under 5 snapper in the last 3 years after hundreds of trips. The inshore reefs of Bermagui are heading in the same way with trap buoys dotted all along the reefs.

As for marine parks, the Batemans Bay marine park is about to undergo the first of its sanctuary removals. The deal has been done, the announcements will be soon public.

Well that seems odd given that a lot of commercial effort has been removed from NSW with the no of commercial fisherment down to 1000 from over 5000 in the 1990's (NSW now imports 92% of it's seafood). Also I am catching snapper on every trip off Sydney and there are plenty of good reports from other fishermen. And the rec pressure is much greater around Sydney due to the population size.

One person's anecdotes much be treated with caution.

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Quite an interesting topic! 

I have found that this snapper season to be one of the best in years! Almost every trip has been in the double digits and two weeks ago we had the best trip I’ve ever encountered with approximately 100 fish boated. I’ve never seen them so thick in this area! 

We still have trawlers, fish traps and probably more rec anglers than ever before! 

I’m at a loss to explain why! 

But let’s hope the great fishing continues 👍

cheers scratchie

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Rec fishing "issues" vary from place to place, state to state, there is no universal one size fits all solution, most times, nothing is done until its way too late, and drastic measures are introduced (like SA) other times, it's just us whinging the pros caught all "our" fish, a professional fisherman's life is not all sunshine and money, contrary to what some might believe, when it's raining and blowing, we are home in front of the heater, they are out making a living. We rec fishermen tend to be quite selfish in a way, we want it all our way, I have never seen a thread complaining about (say) Abalone fishermen, or lobster fishermen, or the Pilchard fisherman that supplies our bait, simply because most don't care, it doesn't affect us, but mention Snapper, and it's an outrage, we need to be open minded to both sides before anything substantial gets done, and most times, anything substantial hurts, and is not popular.

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