Why blame the Asians?

[bushido]

Sorry Guys,
I had no intenions of getting involved in the whale thread and it was closed before I got the chance to comment on a comment that was made in that thread, about Asians destroying our fisheries.
as most here know I ran a barra guiding charters in FNQ. During the time I worked up there I lost count of the times Iv stood on the jetty at Hinchinbrook and watched live reef fish being unloaded from AUSTRALIAN FISHING BOATS destin for the Asian seafood market, hundreds of live reef fish at a time, and not always of legal size. every now and then one would get busted (more like a slap on the wrist) for under size fish.
These boats would come in on almost a daily basis and keep in mind this is only one of dozens of unloading ports in FNQ and the top end. So I guess my point is before we jump on the Asians for destroying our Aussie fish stocks, maybe we had better get our own house in order. Food for thought

Cheers Samurai

[Squidgee_Man]

Whether its Aussies fishing ashore for recreation or on boats selling catches for the market you are always going to get some that break the fishing laws, and i agree they should sort their crap out, or fisheries should anyway. But id have to say these practices would have to be a drop in the ocean compared to the illegal activities of foreign fishing vessels from SE Asia in this country. Anyway the Navy, Customs and Coastwatch can hardly make a dent in the capture of these foreigners let alone concentrate on our own countrymen contributing to the problem, its a losing battle we are fighting and its quite frustrating. A coastguard would be a great help, though wouldnt totally fix the problem, just improve it. They things i saw serving on Patrol boats in FNQ and the NT made me so angry, and the fact that they dont give a crap makes things worse.

The only member of the crew that go to court are the Masters, the crew get a nice motel and feed and a flight home. And just go on a new boat to come over and do it all again. Serving on a particular Patrol Boat out of Cairns our boat caught the same master illegally fishing in Aus waters 5 times within a 2 and a half year period, that speaks for itself really. Very very concerning.

[Salmo]

a lot of those fish Bashido are going live (eg cod, Coral trout, finger mark, red emperior, jacks) because they look so good in the fish tanks up in southeast asia.....rich people look before they eat...some species brings top dollars

What makes me laugh is that Austrlia has increased our net import of cheap "FISH-N-CHIPS" quality fish like 'river perch' etc from Vietnam and China, all full of pollution residues and E. Coli... I read some where recently we imported the same amount of cheap fish in weight as our total exports in finfish and lobsters (in weight not dollar value)....now thats food for thought

I was given some niffy wall charts of all the economically important Aussie fish species the other day...been put out by Food Standards Aus I think.....they look very nice (and expensive) hope to see a few hanging in the local fish and chips shops soon.....