Know the rules — no excuses!

NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling

www.fishotopia.com

Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law, and we have fisheries regulations for a reason. Take the time to learn and understand them.

Recreational fishing has certainly changed in my half century-plus as a keen angler. Sure, the gear and techniques have evolved over time — often dramatically. But it’s changes in the rules and regulations I notice most, not to mention massive shifts in the attitudes of grass roots anglers.

When I was a kid, only to reproduce in peace, and bag limits reduce the overall catch, as well as helping to “share” fish stocks more equitably between stakeholders. (Although, that’s a bit of a joke if the commercial sector aren’t a handful of species had minimum size limits, and I’d never heard of bag limits!

Minimum and maximum lengths for different species are usually measured to the tail tips, but check the rules where you fish for any variations to this system.

There are also rules governing the harvesting of many invertebrates, such as prawns, whether intended to be eaten or used as bait.

Your “bag limit” in those days was dictated by the size of said bag, and you could usually squeeze a couple more in if you tried hard enough.

An angler’s prowess in those days was measured on the basis of how many fish he or she could catch and kill. Catch and release was virtually unknown, especially in saltwater scenarios. If you caught it and it was big enough to eat and a desirable table fish, it was kept… Simple as that.

Times have indeed changed. In most Australian jurisdictions there are size and bag limits for the vast majority of species these days, along with all sorts of seasonal closures, gear restrictions and so on.

In the eyes of some, our sport is now over-regulated. I can see their argument, and in a few isolated instances, I might even be inclined to agree to a certain extent. But overall, I welcome the tighter and more complex restrictions we all operate under these days.

When I was born, at the end of the 1950s, Australia’s population was less than 10 million souls, and a decent road network was yet to reach many regional areas. Today, we number in excess of 26 million, and there are far fewer places that still lie off the beaten track. Had we continued with the laid-back, “she’ll be right” attitudes of the 1960s, I reckon there’d be precious few fish left to catch today!

Fact is, size restrictions, bag limits and seasonal or spatial closures are (or should be!) imposed for very good, science-based reasons. The primary aim of minimum size limits is to allow fish to spawn at least once before potentially being harvested. Maximum size limits, although much less widespread, are arguably an even more important tool, as they protect big breeders that have survived long enough to grow large, and which carry especially strong genes that will greatly benefit fish stocks in the future.

Closed seasons allow certain fish some respite similarly constrained by quotas or other catch limits!)

We can certainly argue the toss over specific rules, and oppose certain proposed changes — and we should, if we feel we have the facts and the science on our side — but we also need to understand that the regulations are primarily there to improve our fishing experience, and to share the resource more fairly. Those are very sound reasons for having rules, and for sticking to them.

Keeping up with current fisheries regulations is certainly a much tougher job these days than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and I sometimes end up a little confused like everyone else, but that’s no excuse for doing the wrong thing. As anglers, it’s incumbent upon us to know the rules, and to abide by them at all times. Ignorance never has been and never will be an excuse.