North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

New NT fishing regs were made legislation last night with a couple of surprises ...

*Limit reduced to only one barra per person
*All livebait fishing banned within rivers
*Small permanently closed sections on upper South and East Alligator Rivers

Bit of a surprise!

Good one Matt.

The Thylacine was better, ,, Although this did start to get the blood boiling a bit

Just realised what day it is

So does this mean the whole thing was a hoax from the get go? Even at the AFANT meeting, phew pretty elaborate hoax though (with even Giles and Willelm in on it.)

Yeah we got you good AM

Excellent news Tristan so if the barras aren't on duty at the Moyles from tommorrow I can still go out and get my bag limit of golden snapper heads at emu shoals unless the Sharks want those as well.

You sure can mate!.....well at least until mid April until the new regs come in, then it's just down to three goldie heads unless the taxmen want those as well

tristan.sloan wrote:Yeah we got you good AM

So I take it Lorna is still open for the time being?

Lats wrote:

tristan.sloan wrote:Yeah we got you good AM

So I take it Lorna is still open for the time being?

yep Lats ,,,But there'll be nothing left after my trip tonight

Interesting to hear on the radio today a proposal with AFANTs support re the proposed position monitoring of commercial fishing vessels.The idea is for a signal would be sent out to authorities if the vessel entered restricted waters - aboriginal waters,restricted fishing areas etc
The commercial mob were not keen on the idea given that some Cowboys have been exposed in recent years.unfortunately the recreational sector also has some who have the same mentality

tangles wrote:Interesting to hear on the radio today a proposal with AFANTs support re the proposed position monitoring of commercial fishing vessels.The idea is for a signal would be sent out to authorities if the vessel entered restricted waters - aboriginal waters,restricted fishing areas etc
The commercial mob were not keen on the idea given that some Cowboys have been exposed in recent years.unfortunately the recreational sector also has some who have the same mentality

This is already in place in QLD. It would be an easy system to install and all commercial vessels in my view should have them. It would knock a few cow boys out of the system. And believe me there are a few there.

As stated though, it would need to be set up to only signal when in closed waters. Other wise the pro's will argue about loss of marks and fishing grounds privacy ect.

Its called VMS (vessel monitoring system) which sends GPS data via the ship's navigation system to a satellite and then down to a central monitoring system on Qld coast.

It's primary aim was for zone protection in Great Barrier Reef for GBRMPA although its used for other waters as well.

If VMS not working (say switched off or faulty) vessel is deemed to have committed an offence. No opportunity for pros to fiddle the system.

Pros argued similar things about privacy etc to no avail.

VMS monitors position at all times and gives real-time positions and not just when vessel enters restricted waters.

Another downside for pros was that because there was satellite stuff on the vessel, the pro was required to hold international qualifications in satellite communications even though the installation was automatic. That meant fishing downtime, training costs, travel costs for quals training.

System works though and is accepted (even if grudgingly) now.

That's right Ronje, its been in place in dozens of fisheries for many years now in Oz and is extremely effective in ensuring fishermen adhere to fishing closures both location wise and seasonally as well as helping with marine safety events.

I don't think the requirement for holding satellite qualifications is still in place though, from my memory it was discontinued years ago right before it was introduced into the eastern long line fishery. These days it is simply installed by a qualified technician with the skipper only required to have a basic radio operators licenc and the VMS must be active at all time otherwise the vessel is required to return to port.

Here is a document explaining it
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j ... K56KRSCp6w

Sounds a bit like the Sacker Trackers that my company has installed on all thier work cars