thanks. letter has been written and sent to . this is not good enough it needs stopping if enough of us fishos that care about where we can fish then we've a chance.

Word has it amongst the pros that it is already a done deal and some have already built traps, these are unlike the traps from when they were used some 20 years back but have a sealed PVC pipe on the top to hold the netting up, same as a float on a mesh net. but still have a steel bottom that destroys the coral each time it lands on it.

Listening to the interview on ABC radio this morning it was quoted that they lose 205 of the fish they hook to sharks, what utter crap, one of my sons worked on the same wetliners for the last 3 years and never has he stated a figure that high and if it was then why don't they move away to another spot the same as we do.

Barotrauma stuffs most of the fish caught in traps, hence the better price paid for line caught fish. What happens to the undersize fish or don't they catch them because if the survive getting dragged up from a great depth then they won't survive the gauntlet with the sharks on the way back down.

If allowed to go ahead with the so called trial then they should have to run under the same conditions the northern trap fishery has, no fishing inside of the 100 metre line which effectively puts them off the snapper schooling grounds and away from the major shark areas

Another proposal was they reopen the northern shark fishery that was closed in 2005?, who would want to apply for a licence now that the price of shark fin has fallen dramatically to next to bugger all compared to what it was when I fished up there, the quality of sharks are too tough for the local market so a lot of groundwork would have to be done to prove it was viable. We recs would welcome it but it would take years for the reduction in numbers to affect Exmouth and Carnarvon areas

Yes I will email in my responses because I and a lot of my fishermen and ex fishermen friends are dead against it

on a trap boat for while out from Onslow  Please Please no traps south of the current line.

email sent 

 Where's rec fish on this surly they know nearly all of their members will be venomounlsy uposed to this as a stakeholder what input have they had so far if any

 Oops didn't read the first bit my bad .but recfish has to get this out there and not just canarvan.

 What is the matter with these boofheads ????

 What happened on the east coast when they allowed fish traps close to populated areas ? The king fish and a huge by catch were put under enormous pressure. With the quick growth rate of kingfish we all know they have made a great comeback. Will that be the same for the slow growing reef fish ? I doubt it.

Very bad news for all in the areas invovled. MORONS in parliment should be ashamed. 

 I think recfish should send the details out to all its members via email etc this is way more important than fishing reports amd as for the fisheries dept what more could you expect. breeding condition crays last year what next 457 workers with dynamite f@ck yhese are the clowns in charge of management

 I believe reccfishwest will be emailing details. It only takes 2 minutes to pen a letter.

 and just so everyone is aware- this counts for all regions from SHARK BAY TO EXMOUTH.

So even if your not really concerned about carnarvon and gnaraloo... this will affect most people who fish the north west

Can all of those who read this and agree with stopping the reintroduction of fishtraps to the Gascoyne and I think the Exmouth region please email your thoughts as soon as possible as submissions close on the 24th Feb

This will complete stuff the quality of fishing right over the whole region, not just the deeper water species but also the baldchin, coral trout and shallow reef fish as well by being able to drop a trap and leave it for hour then retrieve it where as they cannot spend time in close to line fish the area.

They were trying to get this through on the quiet I reckon

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/About-Us/Public-Comment/Pages/default.aspx

Its not even posted on the fisheries "open for public comment" page!!

This town has already lost sooo many people the last 2 years due to various factors, and some of us are just hanging in because of the fishing and lifestyle. If this gets through you can say goodbye to a whole lot more people, including my family!

 Dooma can you post the video of the undersized reds being released out of a trap in the kimberlies. 

Word has it that our honourable member of parliament Vince Catania has receive plenty of emails that warn him that his eat at the next election isn't as secure as he would like unless something is done and very rapidly

 Still haven't seen any pdf form yet can't see how they can do anything without a consultation period if this is about the shark problem make a market for it shark nuggets burgers what ever

 I can't say it enough guys, this isn't just a localised Carnarvon issue- it will affect the whole north west. Carnarvonite is 100% correct- shallow, mid depth, it's all under immediate threat. And it seems (no public announcements, not even open for comment to the public for comment on the fisheries website) that this is all being rushed through, and for good reason- the people behind this don't want anyone to know until it's too late

you say they can't do anything without a consultation period- your 100% correct, but that consultation period is open RIGHT NOW and closes on 24 February and hardly anyone is aware... If you don't spend 10 minutes of your time sending 3 key emails- recfishwest, fisheries minister baston and fisheries direct, it will be too late

please guys, do your bit and have your say, even if your not a regular north west fisherman as this has the potential to cause unknown damage. 

 Email sent

 Email sent. 

Good work

 Email sent, this is bollocks. Pandering to the pros, weak as piss ministers. 

  I see one address but you mention 3 Rockhopper. I work for a larger company with many keen fishos and would be happy to send it out to the boys. Can only try at this late stage. Don't know anyone in Canarvon that fishes but that doesn't matter.

Email sent and thread forwarded to non forum mates

Have anyone got the other emails?
Pissing me off.

Email sent.

A third world fishing method to advantage a few business men and disadvantage the general fishing public. I live in Carnarvon, came here for the fishing. The town is in a nosedive with people leaving. This won't help.

wasn't it the fish traps back in the 50's/60's through to the 80's, that decimated the shark bay pinky stocks??
I remember seeing one on display in Denham somewhere, when I was a kid (late 80's), and I remember the locals saying how much they destroyed stocks, as if they ever lost a trap, it was a never-ending death cycle.

fish would swim in, eventually die, and become bait/burley for the next fish. so on, and so on.

 Anyone looking to read the proposal you can find it on the western angler forum. General fishing disussion. There is a link to it at the bottom of the post about it.

After reading it yes it is scary.  Implementing a total allowable catch for all scalefish other than pink snapper  and removing there restrictions on fishing time and gear will probably have a big impact on inshore stocks.  This is already a done deal  as of 1st sept 2015.    So there will probably be a big impact even without traps. With traps who knows what could happen?  Email will be sent.   

 I'm friends with Bob Maumill on face book and have sent him the following message. He was absolutely awesome putting pressure and asking the right questions when the Cockburn fish kill occured as some of you know is his stomping ground. I'll copy any replies I get here.

 Hi Bob,

I'm not sure if you are aware that there is going to be a reintroduction of fish traps to the Gascoyne region for commercial fishermen. From what I've also heard the restrictions that have been in place for times to fish and allowable gear have been lifted. This will have a huge impact on the fishery up there and in a lot of local opinion decimate the fish stocks. Public consultation in my opinion was almost non existent. I would love your feed back on this and as I know you are very good on issues like this any pressure to bear on the relevant ministers. Regards Andrew

A fish trap will fall apart after a while if it is made of steel wont it?
There was a trap boat fishing out of Coral Bay in the late 80s, I don't know if there was more but the fishing was pretty good back then. How many boats and traps will be out there.
Exclusion zones are what is needed if they are going to push these changes through without enough consultation from rec anglers

there is 45 licences' for the Gascoyne fisheries currently fished on about 15 boats. if it gets through it opens it to all licences. the current proposal has unrestricted trap numbers. that could mean there may be down the track any number of traps.

 I trap fished out of Broome in the early 90s all our traps were fitted with anodes to stop them rusting so when you lose one they last for a bloody long time and keep catching , fisheries did however bring in a rule that at the end of each trip you had to tie the door open so if they got run over an lost the fish could escape biggest problem we had was the sail powered Indonisian fishing boats they would pull as much rope as they could then cut them off and keep the floats and rope for there long lines , I remember loosing 5 traps one trip and back then I was on a share fishing agreement so we had to pay a percentage of costs . There are still a few trap boats working out of Broome but have little to no effect on rec fishing due to exclusion zones and distance of shore  to find deep water where the main target Goldban snapper live , the area above however would be a different story . 

there was a few out of Broome then,

 Hi guys, as a charter & commerical fisherman out of coral bay I could not think of a worse thing to happen to a fishery that a great many of the members and there families enjoy. I don't think I can send anymore emails than I have and I don't usually get on these forums but I believe that we can not do enough to stop this as it could be a death sentence for a great holiday & fishing destenation.

Carnarvonite, See you in a few weeks as both Boats will be heading down for refit.

Dane, seaforce charters

 Why has the post been deleted? 

 Ch3cking with Quobba. I will take it under my name depending on the issue. This is important.

 this is extremely devasating.......emaiils sent.

 What's the story why has this and the other posts referring to this shut down??

Keep the emails coming in because we cannot let this happen even if a whisper that's going around says it was a done deal regardless of the consultation period

https://www.change.org/p/northwest-mp-wa-gov-au-no-fish-traps-for-the-gascoyne?recruiter=489308890

signed that. And will pull my finger out and write an email too.

Worked on a Snapper trap boat out of SWRocks NSW in the late 90's so have seen first hand what they are capable of catching=not good.  

Might be an idea to list the relevant emails?
I can only find Matts in this thread.

Ken Bassett?
Vince Catania?

This part of the proposal staggers me.

2.5 Number of traps permitted
It is proposed that there be no limit to the number of traps used. This will provide operators with the flexibility to trial the number of traps which suits
their fishing operations.

 Bit concerned that the op now thinks it's nothing to worry about. 

More to it than that I reckon dodgy

 Done 

 dodgy... you couldnt be more wrong mate, wont go into it, but trust me

https://www.change.org/p/northwest-mp-wa-gov-au-no-fish-traps-for-the-gascoyne?recruiter=490106006&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

guys, please sign this petition, its one of the key steps as well as keep the letters flowing to Matt and Minister Baston

Looks like we may have a 2 week extension to the "consultation" period!

 But still no mention on the fisheries web site how can you extend the public consolidation period when you haven't even advertised it 

Email sent

The latest issue of our local paper the Mandurah mail has an alarming story on page 20
The article is titled "Inquiry targets Anglers"

The intro to the article outlines how the dept of productivity is going to conduct a review into "all aspects of rectreational fishing"

It further states that the enquiry will cover all fisheries users, recreational, professional, customary and professional with the stated aim of improving fishing regulation without compromising policy objectives.

Now, the point of my post is this, as has been mentioned above there doesn't appear to be any news of these proposed changes on the fisheries site.
perhaps, just perhaps we are looking in the wrong place. Could it be that this department of bastards with nothing to do to justify their employment have come up with this idea to explain just why they get paid for sitting on their nice soft chairs all day.

Further through the article it goes on to explain that the wide enquiry will be wide ranging as the limited marine resources would need to be shared among different users and managed in a way that ensures Australians can enjoy and get the most value from them.

Which in my interpretation means that we have got to get the pros involved in harvesting (read rape and pillage) these stocks of fish.

Could both these things be connected, Hmmm, yeah yeah so I'm a conspiracy freak. But after working for the government for quite some time I have seen bigger shitty moves involving the private sector and gov departments.

No you say, just look at the IT contracts that FSH signed. Did any one get caned for it, Arrrh no your honour, no sir it's just business as usual for gov departments.

Out of 80 odd mill I'm sure there is enough for a good back hander to some one.

If I could scan and paste up the article I would but the fact of the matter is I don't know how, so if some one could post a link to the article I think F/W members would be quite shocked by it and just may be think like I do both things are linked.

That sound more like the big commercial players are using their power to get dept of productivity to tell dept of fisheries who gets what. Wouldn't think dept of productivity gives a toss about rec fishers. Maybe a new thread on this would be appropriate to keep these two seperate

Hopefully I haven't missed the cutoff.

consultation period has been extended out till the 9th march so there is still time to get on board.

Public meeting to discuss fish traps trial

Thursday, 25 February 2016

Discussions about industry-proposed trial
No decision will be made until the views of all parties are taken into account
Consultation closes on March 10, 2016
The Department of Fisheries will host a public meeting in Carnarvon on Thursday, March 3 to receive feedback on commercial fishing sector proposals to trial the use of fish traps.

Fisheries Minister Ken Baston said the commercial fishermen had approached the State Government in January about a trial because they were worried about the impact of shark depredation (bite-offs) on their line-caught fish and had suggested traps as a supplementary method of fishing.

This had caused widespread concern about the impact of the traps on fish stocks and recreational fishing.

"I want to make it clear that no decision has been made on the trap trial," Mr Baston said.

"The consultation period has been extended to March 10, 2016 so there is an opportunity for all points of view to be heard."

Representatives from the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council, the peak body for commercial fishing; and Recfishwest, representing the recreational fishing sector, are invited to the meeting. A Department of Fisheries research scientist will also attend.

The use of fish traps was widespread in the Gascoyne region from the late 1950s until the late 1980s. Traps were phased out to minimise conflict between the commercial line and trap sectors and because the large traps used at the time resulted in scale-loss.

Today, the Gascoyne demersal scalefish fishery is quota managed, with a limit on the amount of fish commercial fishers can land each year regardless of the fishing method.

The proposal is based on the same trap design used in two existing fish trap fisheries operating off the Pilbara and Kimberley coastline. These fisheries supply high-quality fresh fish to the Western Australian domestic market. They use modern fish traps and excellent handling techniques.

The public meeting will be held at 5.30pm on Thursday, March 3 in The Woolshed Room at the Carnarvon Civic Centre.

Fact File
For more information, visit http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/About-Us/Public-Comment/Pages/default.aspx
Minister's office - 6552 5400​

 Over 400 local Carnarvon fishermen and women attended tonights meeting . The overwhelming repsonse was that the traps should be knocked on the head.

1. Fisheries are pro-traps...produced a series of ridiculous statistics to show that they are good managers of fish stocks

2. The proponent spoke quite well and acknowledged the the real problem was the sharks

3. Recfishwest stated that 300 emails have been sent...to be honest that is a disappointing number and I expect that the vast majority on this site need to respond before March 10  THIS IS URGENT

4. All the old fishing pros are against the fish traps

5. A lot of questions went unanswered, Fisheries are under fire for their performance

Was at the meeting and a lot of our questions went unanswered, either they didn't know the answer or they were not prepared to set themselves up as the one who gave the game away.

In my opinion the decision had already been made but with the growing amount of groundswell against it has made Fisheries have second thoughts. One of Fisheries blokes admitted he was one of the ones who had the power to sign for the endorsements to allow trapping once the minister had signed off on it but said he won't be signing it, which I think is a good sign. How his mates feel as they weren't there is another matter.

Local member Vince Catania was presented with a petition with 4000 signatures, this may not be enough so all please send in your emails and if you see a petition sign it

300 signatures is just plain shit. You had more people attend the hearing. A bit suss that recfishwest haven't fired off an email to all its members for support. A lot of guys I know that fish (but aren't on here) don't even know about this issue. Surely someone somewhere can give this thing a bit of air time? Get it into the media?

i find it unbelievable in this day and age that there is no market for shark meat. Look at the shit they allow to be turned into meat pies, and tell me shark meat isn't better than that! Why the fuck can't fisheries reverse the protection measures on sharks??? They are CLEARLY no longer under any threats of being endangered, and I would go as far as say they're numbers are unbalancing the ecosystem. Think how many fish are required to keep all the Sharks fed...

 I have circulated this info amongst fisherfolk on this subject. We can't assume the bastards won't do this state wide ! All of our voices count, even if i am 2000 K's away i feel the need to put it out there. only got 12 signatures, but if every one was able to do the same our voice would be much greater.

And the minister has actually responded ? Wouldn't be him of course, but at least i know my message has been sent. 

 WE FISH AND WE VOTE !!!

Stick it right up em'

well it did make it into the news john

so it might be having an impact out there
hezzy
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-04/carnarvon-fish-trap-plan-sparks-anger/7222658

The one hand over to Vince Catania had 4000 signatures, there are still more to come in from Denham, Coral Bay and Exmouth. They are expected to add at least another 2500 to 3000 more plus the online one through Vince's page, so quite a few people have done their bit but we still need plenty more. So if you haven't emailed or the petition that Cruzy mentioned earlier in this thread so please get off your arse now and do it as this will affect those who fish from Steep Point through to Exmouth and all spots inbetween

Any more news on this front ? It is ominously quiet.

 Nothing official released yet, except I've heard along the grape vine that fisheries were pretty embarrassed with how the meeting went, and that possibly the scientist that attended has/will be requesting reps from fisheries to accompany the pro boats to see for themselves if/how bad the sharks really are.

in my opinion this should have happened before a trapping proposal even got this far! 

The last report I read states this area is medium to high risk from overfishing, and yet fisheries gave the pros an extra 100 tonne of bicatch to go along with the trapping.... WTF??