Cheats Hit By Tough Penalties
THE SUNDAY AGE
Saturday September 9, 1995
TWO Portland men, apprehended by Casterton police, recently were fined $40,000 each in the Adelaide Magistrate's Court after pleading guilty to taking 259 abalone from South Australian coastal waters in June last year.
The case illustrates how seriously the authorities are taking illegal activities by unlicensed and amateur fishermen.
A significant section of the amateur fishing community must accept a share of the blame, and the August edition of `The Victorian Fisheries Newsletter' list of 79 convictions for offences in Victoria this year already is an indication of the number of cheats and poachers, and the effect they are having on fish stocks in general.
The infringements have resulted in fines up to $5000, plus one jail sentence of four months, and confiscations of boats and equipment, which can include a car if it is seen to have been involved. Illegal netting at night is rife in several areas and bream anglers who regularly fish the Werribee River often find footprints on the bed of a stretch of water a day or two after reports have been released of good catches there.
And similar situations occur in the Gippsland estuaries when the bream are heard to be on.
Just as snapper enthusiasts were breathing sighs of relief when Port Phillip was closed to commercial scallop fishing on 25 August until further notice, a new threat has appeared.
As reported in `The Age' (3 Sept) it is a large, predatory starfish, and its favorite foods are abalone, oysters, mussels and scallops.
The abalone attaches itself securely to flat areas of rock by means of its tough underside, or foot, but it can move about, albeit very slowly. Oysters and mussels are fixed and grow in clumps, but scallops are all separate individuals and most people are unaware they can actually swim.
The scallop can raise itself from the bottom by closing its shell quickly and expelling the seawater with enough force to push it up well clear of the sea bed.
When the scallop hears or senses a dredge approaching it attempts to escape but weakens after a few bursts and soon tires, dropping back to the bottom to be scooped up when the dredge catches up to it.
It has always been a hazardous existence for scallops and now it looks as if they will have this starfish, which has already wreaked havoc among the shellfish in Tasmania's Derwent River area, to contend with as well.
A record Murray cod: Our favorite big freshwater fish is surely the Murray cod, for which the open season ended at midnight on 31 August. But veteran cod anglers Bert Deutscher, 80, of Jeparit, and his brother Reg, 79, from Minyip, decided to fish the last day at Lake Charlegrark, near Goroke. They used a bardi grub, the top cod bait, which was dropped 130 metres from shore.
At midday a very heavy fish picked up the grub and Bert gaffed a 35-kilogram cod. It is being claimed as a Victorian record.
© 1995 THE SUNDAY AGE