North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

AFANT recently provided a submission to the federal Department of the Environment on the Port Melville project on the Tiwi islands. AFANT believes the Tiwi Islands and surrounding coastal waters are a popular and iconic location for the recreational fishermen of the Northern Territory and must not be placed at risk. Read our full submission below.

http://afant.com.au/wp-content/uploads/ ... lville.pdf

Hello, they were popular and iconic before the general population got locked out of most of it unless you paying customer and before the commercial only zones got foisted upon us.

Woops I am not in AFANT I will leave it to them to watch out for me.

The southern side still is very popular ...surely your not advocating that storing 30 million litres of diesel fuel without an EIS in an area prone to cyclonic events is a good thing?......imagine the impacts on recreational fishing and the environmental damage a spill would create.

Commentary like that useless tripe does nothing to help our sport

Was there a non factual post on this thread by a mike sombody that got deleted before I read it ?

Nope just a autocorrect on the phone.

Those statements are certainty not factual. In no way was AFANT responsible for recreational fishermen being locked out of the northern side of the Tiwi's and in fact we managed the permit system for years when the government refused to do so. As for the commercial only areas, we are actively working with government to get that situation reversed.

AM & ghound I make the same offer to you I make to every other recreational fishermen on this forum. If you have problem with how AFANT represents recreational fishing interest you are more than welcome to come along and represent your views as a recreational fishermen at not only AFANT meetings but at all the relevant Management Advisory Committee meetings and other stakeholder meetings. Bear in mind these are all volunteer positions in which you will have to donate considerable amounts of your free time including weeknights and weekends at considerable financial cost to yourself in terms of travel and accommodation costs. You will not see any public praise for your time and effort in fact the only reward you will get is the warm glowing feeling that comes from knowing you are doing your bit to protect and enhance recreational fishing for yourself and future generations in the territory.

In fact there is a meeting on today that I recommend you attend on developing the North's fishing industries.

Presenter: Dr Rik Buckworth, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere
When: Thursday July 16th at 3.15 pm
Where: CSIRO Seminar Room, 564 Vanderlin Drive, Berrimah


I am always happy to take constructive criticism, ideas or direction from recreational fishermen. I have an open door policy and my phone numbers and e-mail address is readily available for anybody for wants to contact me. However I have only a small amount of patience for negative comments from recreational fishermen who contribute nothing themselves to improve the future of recreational fishing in the NT and actively criticise those who do. This type of negative culture is unacceptable and I have no patience or time for it.

Well said Tristan.

Tristan I really don't want to get into a he said I said thing so this will be it for me but you have got me off the fence on AFANT thing at least, you can have the last rant.

Good to see AFANT working on this, 99% on here would want to know what is going on out there.

Frustration re what has happened at the Tiwis is understandable, but I can't see how AFANT is to blame. Better off giving the Blue Mud Bay judges a serve, maybe you can find them on FB

Tristan
The common mistake you constantly make is thinking that I or anyone else should give two I s...ts what you think. I voice my concerns to people that I think matter. My hope is that sometime soon AFANT and the CLP will become redundant. With each passing stuff up we move closer to realising that hope.

Jimmy

Constructive criticism is needed, not detraction.

People can either be part of the solution or part of the problem, yarda yarda ...

Thanks again Tristan for posting.

tristan.sloan wrote:The southern side still is very popular ...surely your not advocating that storing 30 million litres of diesel fuel without an EIS in an area prone to cyclonic events is a good thing?......imagine the impacts on recreational fishing and the environmental damage a spill would create.

Commentary like that useless tripe does nothing to help our sport

Good on you for submitting. This particular development has the potential to set some very nasty precedent given how murky and un-transparent this has all been.

We face a rough road regarding environmental protection in the future up here so can I ask if AFANT is reaching out to other NGO's with an environmental interest to form alliances with a common goal of environmental protection? Fishing has its place in a bigger picture issue as I see it.

Cheers.

G'day Rug, yes AFANT is most definitely working with other NGO's on environmental issues principally the environmental defenders officer, the environment centre NT and the Australian marine conservation society. I firmly believe we are stronger when we stand together on issues such as Port Melville and other environmental concerns.

I agree Tristan.

Like it of not, AFANT is THE organisation that the govt sees as representing fishos.
It’s the same everywhere, govt rely on such associations and interested parties to gain feedback and proposals.

Simply put, individuals can react as much as they like but Govt wont place anywhere as much importance on the input of an individual as they will on organisations like afant.

I’ve only been here for 10 years but I still have no idea why people bag the poop out of them at every opportunity I would love to hear why afant are seen as the bad guys.
Is it prior history or something else that have brought it on, or is it just seen as unterritorian?

This (and previous govts) don’t give a rats about the environment up here. Look at they way they just dismiss the spills from several mine sites.
I worked for the NSW EPA and they have a completely different approach to the NT govt. It was driven by govt policies
If something like this fuel dump was built in NSW, the people responsible would be in prison and would have to return the place to how it was originally.
Its not just an accident waiting to happen, it is inevitable that there will be a spill and a major one..

Unfortunately the NT epa is a toothless tiger. (NSW was the same until the public jacked up and demanded action- cant see that happening up here)