STATE Fisheries has confirmed its commitment to police the lucrative kingfish fishery from Narooma to Eden.
This comes in the wake of allegations made against commercial fishers selling undersize fish at Eden that was made in the Fishing World magazine e-newsletter last week.
Commercial fishers at Bermagui however say doing the wrong thing is not worth risking a licence, their fishery is sustainable and some of the biggest busts and ongoing issues involve recreational fishers.
Either way, Fisheries’ commitment to compliance is timely given large undersize kingfish schools off Montague Island and south of Bermagui at the moment, as well as the busy holiday fishing season coming up.
A Fisheries spokesperson told the Narooma News that the commercial trap and line fishermen of the Far South Coast who target kingfish are subject to an extremely high level of regulation by fisheries officers and have been ever since the fishery developed many years ago.
“Each operator is subject to a number of random inspections per year while fishing in the area between Narooma and Eden, as well as checks by fisheries officers working on the Fisheries Patrol Vessel “Sydney Swan”.
“These inspections are thorough and cover everything from licensing, a boat search, gear legality through to the composition of the catch in terms of species, size and form, whether whole or illegally filleted.
“Commercial operators are checked at sea whilst fishing or in transit, at landing points and at fish receivers.
“There have been 95 compliance actions on the South Coast with respect to kingfish in the last two years including penalty notices, field cautions and prosecutions.”
Meanwhile rumours of proposals to lower the recreational bag limit from five kingfish to two appear to hold some water.
The spokesperson said NSW DPI was undertaking a review of bag and size limits in 2012.
“As part of this process, it is proposed that a discussion paper will go on public exhibition with options and proposals for various changes to the NSW recreational fishing rules.”
Merimbula recreational fishing personality Micah Adams meanwhile has told the Eden Magnet that the Eden trailer boat fishery’s was one of the most sustainable kingfish fraternity’s in the world.
“It’s a fishery where most of the time there’s only two guys and two rods, where else do you see that? These guys are really smart and effective fishermen.”
But he said the fishermen were trailer boats coming to Eden from as far as Port Stephens and Jarvis Bay, and that there may need to put a quota on kingfish, or at least a zoning system, as they do with abalone, to ensure these fish and fishermen were protected.
“Fisheries managers, not the officers are being neglectful, it potentially runs the risk of threatening the fishery,” Mr Adams said.
Regarding a lowering of the limit to two fish, he said he would welcome that move as: “I keep one and feed a lot of people off that.”
Report illegal activity to the Fishers' Watch Phone Line on 1800 043 536 and online at:http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fish eries/compliance/report-illegal-a ctivity
Email a friend