Hello,

I received the bottom email from a good mate, and beach fishing partner, of mine in Queensland today.  In essence, he wants as many people as possible to sign a petition to stop/modify commercial netting of migrating schools of fish just near the beach on Moreton Island.  I added a first-hand account of my experience with this practice north of Noosa, as also set out below.

I am certainly not an advocate of banning commercial fishing, just sensible management in certain places that have a high recreational fishing value.  I believe this may have been done in WA in the past?

It would be appreciated if you could have a look at the information and if you consider it worthwhile, help him out.  I understand there is a minimum number of “signatures” required to get it heard in Parliament.

Thanks.

Mick   

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Hello,

Attached is a photograph of commercial fishing near Double Island Point recently. 

It was during the school holiday period where recreational fishing (mums, dads, kids and mates) was at a peak.  I am sure the catch from these people would have been a fraction of the “net full”, and unfortunately the recreational catch was fairly poor over the period.

It was really depressing to see the amount of dead juvenile fish just discarded back into the surf as the commercial guys couldn’t take undersized fish (understandably).  Unfortunately, most of the young fish didn’t survive due to the time taken to clean the net and the only beneficiaries were the packs of sharks that came in close to the beach, in the middle of school holidays, to “clean up” the by-catch.

Regards,

Michael

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Hi all,

I have visited Moreton Island a few times, and love the natural beauty of the place.  A significant part of the allure has been the beach fishing on the Island.  Over the past 10-15 years the fishing has progressively become worse on the island and it is a common belief that the commercial netting of the migrating schools of fish is the major contributor to the decline in fish being caught.

I would appreciate 2 minutes of your time to sign a QLD Government e-petition to stop or at least reduce Commercial fishing over at Moreton.

For those of you who have been to Moreton and seen the commercial fishermen off the beach, you will know how frustrating it is to watch the netters shoot a net around a school of whiting whilst you have none in the bucket.  Don’t start me on the wastage of by-catch and juvenile fish dying on the beach etc. etc.
Click on the link below and it will take a few minutes to sign this, and hopefully Moreton can get back to being a haven for recreational fishermen.

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petitions

This petition closes on 28th Feb’14 – no time to waste.

We have the opportunity to lobby the government to ban the commercial fishing on the island.  This will relieve the pressure on the fish stocks and in a few short years return the island to being a viable location to catch a few fish and to teach our own kids to fish.

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may support this cause.

Thanks

John C

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