TASMANIAN FISHING

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We have a new fisheries Minister.... After another cabinet reshuffle, Tasmania has another new fisheries Minister Jo Palmer - this time with little knowledge of the portfolio.

The previous Minister, Guy Barnett fished - in both fresh and saltwater, and did his best to understand what he was responsible for from the grass roots to the commercial sector. Unfortunately he didn’t do what I wanted him to do, but he did listen. I believe it is a loss. Much of this is due to a small pool of capable politicians capable of fulfilling Ministerial roles. Simply put we do not have enough qualified members of parliament.

Jo Palmer - a Legislative Councillor, will do her best and I wish her well. She has many advisers around her and they will also do their best. I hope she engages with recreational fishers at every chance and seeks to learn how valuable a sector WE are. It will be difficult.

Recreational fishers contribute an enormous amount to the Tasmanian economy and I think we are undervalued by fishery managers. When resource sharing arrangements are discussed it always seems to me that managers think the commercial sector should be first. I completely disagree.

First should be the environment, then indigenous and recreational fishers, and then the commercial sector.

In my opinion there should be more recreational only areas, particularly those areas close to larger populations. Some fish should be recreational onlyor the total commercial capture capped. These species could be King George whiting and yellowtail kingfish.

One very big area of ongoing concern to me is calamari and it is being very heavily fished by the commercial sector - particularly in the North. This is ongoing, and whilst there is a planned reduction and commercial licence arrangement to come in that will not happen this year. Undoubtedly the Northern zone will get very heavily fish again, with little to no constraint outside a seasonal closure. Managers and scientists know this area is overfisher and depleting, but are doing too little too late. This has been too common in Tasmania.

Rock lobster is also to the fore with arrangements currently under discussion. Once again is has had a huge reduction in biomass - much of that due to overfishing. There has been some effort to rebuild the

East Coast to above 20% of its original biomass, but this has had little effect and much more drastic action should be taken to do the stock rebuild quicker. It is unlikely any manager or Government will endorse a fast-track to rebuild to say 30% quickly.

But some good news. I am amazed at what Tasmania keeps throwing up. Recreational fishers are an extraordinary collection of talent these days and I think much better tooled up than ever.

In the personal toolbox is so much that helps anglers catch more these days. Think of bigger boats, better fish finders, better gear, braided lines, extraordinarily sharp hooks, Youtube, Facebook pages dedicated to every species, funky lures, jigs Navionics charts, GPS and more. This issue demonstrates how anglers these days use all those tools to have fun on the water and catch some cracking fish.

We have bluefin like almost never before, the best bream fishery in Australia, an emerging snapper fishery, the biggest King George whiting, great calamari, Tasmanian trumpeter and more.

Get out and fish this winter as it can often be better than summer.

Mike Stevens