I am no expert but I think some of the posts and what is happening behind closed doors is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction from people who haven’t quite got all the facts about what impact this is actually having on the river and are pushing for their own hidden agenda more than anything!I think it SUSTAINABLE into the FUTURE as it is so I did some calculations and research on this over the last few days from many sources and this is what I have come up with! The main Daly and Katherine river system is “roughly” 500km from the mouth to the escarpment ( I spent an hour using the path ruler on Google earth to find that length!)where it starts and is fed by a extraordinary 53198 square kilometres of catchment area which includes its many tributaries then I Google earthed the distance around the Daly crossing as well as other crossings that are accessible along the river of which I have fished and explored most but definitely not all but I think the cheribin “poaching “ that takes place at these locations is insignificant anyway compared to around the Daly crossing itself! Now from my calculations the rough total that is “poached hard” around the Daly
Daly crossing to Elizabeth creek- 46km
Daly crossing upstream - 25km
That gives me a total of 71km from a river of more than 500km in length which makes it a measly 14.2% but lets just round it off to 15% which is “poached hard“! That leaves 85% of the river which is pretty much protected water to provide sanctuary for the cheribin to live and breed in keeping the lower reaches well stocked year after year! But hey lets add the conservative number of another 500km for its tributaries(and I think that is a truly conservative number it is more likely double maybe triple that) Fish, Fergusson, Cullen, Edith, Flora, Dry, King, Douglas rivers and that’s not even including the hundreds of billabongs! Well that brings the hard fished area to around 7% (and lets be realistic it is probably much less than 7%) of the river! ( if anyone wants to help on some of these tributary lengths by using Google earth it would help in getting some true data happening and some real facts not bullshit)



According to these “facts” the area hard fished by the “cheribin poachers” is pretty much only where the stragglers haven’t made it back over the crossing into the upper reaches by the end of the wet, start of the dry! And all the Laval stage cheribin would be to small to catch in pots anyway!

Now lets get onto some more facts that been researched by “fisheries”





So if this research is right and accurate( it was obtained from fisheries research info, aquaculture research and CSIRO info) the cheribin caught in the dry season is most likely an extremely small percentage of cheribin in the entire system that decide to take residence in this minuscule area of fresh water around the Daly crossing that adult cheribin require to survive! I have fished the Daly many a night early in the wet when there are literally billions of cheribin moving down the river and from the numbers I have seen in those small stretches I think it has a very healthy cheribin population which doesn’t require the drastic measures called on by “doomsayers” looking at taking away another small part of our territory lifestyle until we cant do a bl..dy thing!

Here ,Here, bear some well thought out reasoning there, I was thinking along the same train of logic but you put it much better than I could have.

Cheers Flicker

Well done professor BEAR

You raise a very good couple of points I was born in Katherine and too have witnessed the prolific numbers of cheribin in the Katherine river which is the upper Daly

I am sure that Barra eat other aquaculture such as mullet, perch, archer fish, tarpon, sooties, small barra, rainbow fish, herring, stripy fish, some one stop me, I could go on

Hope you didn't have Dr Jekyll/Hyde aka (Mal) help with the research , It would take all credibility away from it

well done Bear, the NT has no where near the people fishing that the other states have and you can still get a good feed of crabs or prawns from places like the hawksbury river , sydney harbour etc.
some of them places have over 25000 people fishing them on a good weekend and it is accessable all year round.
what dent are the fishos in the NT going to put in the rivers up there.

Top post Bear.

Well done.

Tend to agree with you Bear on Cherabin numbers. They're just shrimp,not slow growing 80 year old deep sea abyss ancient Lobsters living in a crevice.

People seem to be atrributing cherabin use to the lack of fish above Browns. I think the answer is much more simple than that...there's just less fish in the river now due to overfishing, has nothing to do with cherabin...imo of course

jonsey ,overfishing and maybe technology,
look what we have these days, gps, side scan sounders,braided line, better hooks, lure design, 4st motors the list goes on .
the fish cant breed quick enough to keep up.

Good reasoning BEAR. I think live baiter are coping the rough end of the stick with some of AFANTS proposals. I emailed AFANT to let them know this. They said "We are however pretty sure that a majority of Territory fishers will support these proposals", but I am not so sure this is the case ??

I totaly agree with you landlocked, you are spot on the money.

BEAR great post mate

good to see a few facts and research in an argument for a change

Good stuff Bear, nice to see some factual info

Nice few snippets of info there but what about the big picture !! Dont think I saw the words SUSTAINABLE and FUTURE hidden in there anywhere at all.
A few points which need to be added are Darwins estimated population increase
The population of Greater Darwin and Palmerston is projected to increase by 19,000 to 133,000 in 2013, by 39,000 to 154,000 by 2021, an increase of 34 per cent. In 2030 the population is forecast to be 177,000 – an increase of 63,000 from 2006—or 55 per cent. not all will fish but a lot of them probably will
The fishing pressure in a couple of spots is large (not compared to south I know) and it,s only going to increase

The increase in tourist numbers which will probably continue to grow as the goverment spend a motza to make it happen and we need them to come, like it or not, as there a big chunk of the NT's income

The reliable cars and boats that make the longer trips alot easier to do.

The electronic gadgets that everyone now has, just about paint a target on the fish, and the armada of lures and tackle avaliable to throw at a your target is never ending.

The list would go on and on but none of it is in favour of the fish / cherabin or the river which ever one it is.

The wheels on any government department move slowly if at all, so something needs to be started now before the rot sets in and everyone starts the blame game and finger pointing.

Just because there were a squillion red eyes floating down the river, doesn't meen the population is ok, and 18,000 eggs probably meens 180 cherabin will make it to maturity as a 1% survival rate is pretty much standard rate for similar critters in the wild. 53,000 sq Klm's off catchment with bugger all acsess

But the most important thing of all, some of the changes that have been put requested, have been from the traditional owners, from what I can gather (I will stand corrected) who dont seem to want to watch lifeblood of their community die,maybe we need to loose a little to gain alot
Dont forget BLUE MUD BAY ??????? and who will have the final say, and if we can't adapt or change, the outcome may not be good

If we're supposed to be teaching people to limit their catch / fish for the future and to release the breeders then the I and we in this needs to change to we and us as most people learn more more from watching than listening.
None of this is aimed at anyone at all except fishermen!!!!
Rant over, time to hide.

_________________

You said the 2 magic words there Ernie
Sustainability and future
cheers

Top post Ernie

Don't hide, Your post is spot on and you provide a very realistic argument mate. I would not like to see certain types of fishing banned, though if tighter restrictions on what we exploit preserve the fishery for the present and the future, bring it on.