Coila service station owner Pete Ward grew up fishing Coila Lake as a youngster and so has a deep connection to the body of water.
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He recalls fishing on the then wooden bridge over the Princes Highway with childhood mate and Bodalla area legend Ian Hockey.
So when he has gone down in recent weeks to check out the dozens and dozens of people prawn fishing in the lake every night, he has been very disappointed with their attitude and behaviour.
“People in this shire are constantly critical of professional fisherman but over summer round Coila Lake we had a new group that make the pros look good and those people are the recreational prawn fisherman,” he said.
“The lake was opened and the prawn stocks replenished and before they had any chance to grow we had pros and recreational people in there absolutely raping it and the powers that be stood by and let it happen.
“There were literally hundreds of people in there every night and the mess left behind on the beach and in the dunes was a bloody disgrace especially from drag nets.”
Mr Ward said he found piles of dead small fish, crabs, octopus and seaweed everywhere as the fishers took what they came for and discarded the rest. Someone had actually thrown three stingrays into the dunes and someone’s dog found them the hard way.
The fishing pressure on Coila Lake only increased when the other well-known prawning lakes in the Narooma Bermagui area opened up after recent rains, freeing their prawns.
The legal limit for prawns is 10 litres per person. Fishermen are allowed to use either drag net, a net dragged between two people, or individual scoop nets.
“All round the local area these people were gloating on the fact that they got X amount of prawns, boasting 10kg, 20kg, 60kg and when you asked them quite simply why, most of them got offended as they obviously see it as their right to destroy the environment they are part of,” he said.
Tuross Head Fishing Cub secretary Max Castle confirmed there had been huge numbers of people prawn fishing in the lake, but he was unaware of problems with people littering or discarding bycatch.
Mr Castle did confirm that Fisheries officers had been down several times in recent weeks, checking licenses and catches.
But Mr Ward said he expected more from Fisheries and the fishermen themselves. He just happens to sell prawns at his service station sourced locally and further afield.
“Seriously, whats wrong with you people that’s making you so greedy when something comes along that’s basically unregulated,” he said.
“It seems that most are financially over-committed and feel over governed so a chance to be in control comes along and people lose sight of common sense.
“I feel that if it was not prawns but tennis balls, mangoes or rotten old socks, if there’s no clear rules then greedy fools will just take because they can. We all have fond memories of catching and cooking fresh prawns at Coila as kids but you locals and tourists alike are determined to make it just that with your behaviour this year. All we ever took was a feed and that was enough.”
