A quick reminder that yabby traps are prohibited for use by recreational fishers in all NSW waters to help prevent inadvertent capture of native wildlife. Do your bit to save our native aquatic wildlife and do not use ‘opera house’ style yabby traps. Instead, eco-friendly open pyramid lift nets or hoop nets should be used as alternatives to yabby traps …
Read More »Do the right thing for the environment and fishing
With summer finally here, it is likely that popular fishing locations will start to see an increase in fishing activity and in some cases, unfortunately, that means more litter and lost fishing gear. Fishing related litter has not only been identified as an important environmental threat in NSW, but it can contribute to poor recreational fishing social licence amongst the …
Read More »Illegal Net seized after tip-off from public
Illegal Net seized after tip-off from public. A 200m mesh net has been seized following information from the public. The net was recovered from the Batemans Marine Park in the Batemans Bay (Clyde River) Habitat Protection Zone. Netting is prohibited in the Clyde River. The net was hidden below the surface and had no visible floats, the informant encountered the …
Read More »Small lures – big fish
Hi everyone, here we are at the end of 2022 already! The months have flown by so fast and we’re now into the summer fishing season. We are still in a La Niña phase of weather – in fact, this will be the third summer in a row of this type of pattern – which means higher-than-average rainfall, and this …
Read More »Illegal fishing under the cover of darkness won’t save you!
Fisheries Officers from the Statewide Operations and Investigations Group and the Far North Coast Zone with support from the local Clarence Region Boating Safety Officer of NSW Roads and Maritime recently staged an operation to monitor illegal mud crab fishing activity taking place in the Toumbaal Creek at Sandon, NSW. Toumbaal Creek is a tributary of the Sandon River and …
Read More »Shark 593 tracker
Meet Shark 593 ! White Shark, Male, 379cm long at time of capture Tagged with Acoustic and Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags (PSAT) on 23/05/21, at Lennox Head, NSW via SMART drumline, Total distance travelled while tagged: 10,420km, average daily distance: 87km Maximum depth: 640m, average depth: 85m Shark 593 was our most nomadic shark, travelling a staggering 10,420km – as …
Read More »Broken vessel exclusion zone
Due to high releases from Hume Dam, the yellow chain buoy barrier used to mark the vessel exclusion zone on the Murray River directly downstream of Hume Dam wall, has broken. Persons and vessel operators are advised to stay well clear of the area as the broken chain buoy barrier is laying against the riverbanks on either side of the …
Read More »Abusive fisher on Manning River gets an expensive lesson
Abusive fisher on the Manning River gets an expensive lesson! On the 28th September 2021 Fisheries Officers were patrolling the Manning River in the Wallis Lake District on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. Fisheries Officers observed two illegal nets, one cast net and one monofilament net, on the banks of the river. While seizing the nets a man came down …
Read More »How to catch sand whiting
Hi everyone, November on the Gold Coast is when some of our favourite fish start to fire up, and that includes sand or summer whiting. These incredibly prolific fish are distributed along the east coast of Australia, from Cape York south to Tasmania. They spawn two to three times at river mouths and surf zones during September to April and …
Read More »Man convicted for abusing Fisheries Officer on social media
Last week, a Murwillumbah man was found guilty of two charges of abusing a Fisheries Officer after posting himself on social media using offensive and abusive language towards a NSW Fisheries Officer. He now has a conviction and must pay almost $4000 in fines and costs as a result of his behaviour. Everyone is entitled to courtesy and respect while …
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