Fishing News

TOURNAMENT veteran Warren Carter has beaten the best bream fishers in Australia to win the 2016 Mercury Cup and collect a cheque for $1000. “I came second last year so it’s definitely nice to go one better, and it was a surprise because it was so close,” Warren said. The Mercury Cup is decided on performances in the ABT’s Costa …

THE Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources continues to work collaboratively with the Queensland Government to determine the origin of the outbreak of white spot disease in prawn farms in southeast Queensland. Deputy Secretary Lyn O’Connell said media commentary suggesting a definitive cause of the disease outbreak had been found was not correct. “The department continues to investigate …

  Current disease control activities BIOSECURITY Queensland has completed decontamination and destocking on one of the three confirmed properties infected with white spot disease. Work continues on the second and third property and is expected to be completed this week. To date, about 700,000 litres of chlorine have been used to decontaminate 34 ponds as well as other water channels and …

[First published on www.abc.net.au] RECREATIONAL fishers have renewed calls for a ban on the importation of uncooked prawns after the discovery of the devastating white spot disease in Queensland prawns. Australia had been the only major prawn-growing country free of the highly contagious white spot virus, until it was found earlier this month on prawn farms between Brisbane and the Gold …

FIGURES released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority show continued dedicated compliance patrols, a new patrol vessel and co-ordinated multi-agency surveillance operations detected more than 500 illegal recreational fishing offences in the marine park over the past year. In 2015-16, 532 illegal recreational fishing offences were detected among 1240 reported breaches of Commonwealth and state laws in the …

MARITIME Border Command within the Australian Border Force, together with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, apprehended a Vietnamese fishing vessel on Thursday, November 3, 2016 near the Saumarez Reefs, about 180 nautical miles northeast of Gladstone. An MBC surveillance aircraft spotted the illegal foreign fishing vessel about 200 nautical miles inside the Australian exclusive economic zone. HMAS Maitland was tasked to …

IN excellent news for Australian fish stocks, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority has confirmed the midwater super trawler, the Geelong Star, which has been operating in Australian waters since April 2015, is no longer under Australian jurisdiction. Inquiries about the decision to leave Australian waters or future fishing operations of the Geelong Star should be directed to the operator. The Geelong Star …

Mr Hansard, who also runs the Government-funded Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation, said net fishing in NSW would be targeted next year after reforms in the commercial sector were completed. This would centre on the Hawkesbury River, the Central Coast and in the Shoalhaven River. “It’s not that recreational fishers are against commercial fishers, no,” Mr Hansard said. “We need to …

TWO recreational fishers from Townsville who were found with eight times the legal possession limit of red claw have each been fined $3500. Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol district officer Robert Ibell said officers found 798 red claw tails in a freezer at a Kidston Dam (far north Queensland) campsite in June 2015. “The possession limit for red claw is …

The annual barramundi closed season along Queensland’s East coast will be effective from midday on 1 November 2016 through to midday on 1 February 2017. Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol district officer Tony Loader said the closed season applies to all commercial and recreational fishers. “Fisheries officers will be stepping up surveillance during the barramundi closed season to protect this …