Archived page, "We have come a long way"

When browsing through a second hand book store or rummaging around at a garage sale there is always something about old fishing magazines that grabs my attention.

If the flimsy tattered edges and that strange smell of old paper isn't enough to turn you off, I highly recommend that you take the time to have a read of some of these old fishing articles if you manage to stumble across one.

Just the other day a copy of the June 1968 edition of Anglers' Digest was shown to me and what an eye-opening read it was. One article particularly stood out to me. It was called "Shark Safari". The very title of the article would have conservationists marching in the street now days.

This particular article was in reference to the Perth Offshore Angling Club's annual pilgrimage to Reef Beach, a remote bay 15 miles west of Bremer Bay for a weekend of tournament fishing. The basis for the story revolves around the record number of fish and sharks landed, with the prime target being grey nurse sharks, which are now thankfully protected.

Although an entertaining read, the references to the number of fish caught are frightening and probably go a long way to explaining why recreational fishers can sometimes have a poor perception in the public eye. At times our past practices certainly aren't the best advertisement for our sport.

The article opens like this;

"In 40 hours of fishing during the WA Labor Day weekend at the beginning of March, 90 anglers weighed in more than 10,000lb of fish, including 12 large sharks and about 800 salmon. Club officials - with very good reason - are claiming it as a world record."

10,000lb of fish of in weekend, I hear you saying!!! The article then later goes on to say;

"Fishermen stood in long lines, awaiting their turn at the scales, with several bags full of fish at their feet. Many with only four or five fish did not bother to join the queue to record their catch."

As shocking as these catches sound, I don't blame our fishing forefathers for what they have done in the past. Unfortunately the mentality of catching and killing everything was all that they knew back then. Throwing something back was just never seen as option. Times were much tougher back then and any meat either caught or hunted yourself was important for families to get by. The article did make mention that all fish was kept and excess shared amongst family and the local farmers. This doesn't however make what was done an acceptable practice now days.

Back then our oceans were viewed as a never ending resource, so large they could never be fully exploited. This naivety has thankfully changed, but it has taken the demise of some of our icon species for this to be realised.

After finishing the article I felt an interesting reaction to our past practices. I strangely didn't feel resentment, but a sense of pride for how far we as recreational fishers had come. I could have easily stoped reading in disgust and put the book back on the shelf hoping that no-one would ever read again this disturbing anecdote of how recreational fishers once treated their resource.

The fact is that recreational fishers have learnt from these poor past practices and are now much more environmentally aware. No longer do we kill for the sake of killing, but release a large portion of our fish. Recfishwest and Western Australian anglers have lead the way with the promotion of the release weight.

I honestly believe that recreational fishers are now a well informed group that understands their impact as recreational fishers and make every effort to ensure that what we do is sustainable. I have said it many times before, but I stand by the belief that recreational fishers have a good track record for initiating management reform when it has been required. Recfishwest together with local community anglers have effectively lobbied for management reform such as the Cockburn Sound pink snapper spawning closure and the protection of cobbler in the Swan River. Another recent example that you would have heard me make mention of is the Wilson Inlet pink snapper minimum legal limit increase. These were all initiated and lobbied by recreational fishers despite government initially deeming them unnecessary.

Tournament fishing has also adapted with time. Organisers are moving away from the big weigh-ins to tag and release or only weighing in one of each species. Bream fishers have been a real leader in regards to this changing ethic. Also the concerns for large sharks have seen them removed from the species weighed-in list at the Exmouth Game Fishing Club internationally renowned GAMEX gamefishing competition. A number of other gamefishing tournaments have now followed suit.

Recreational fishers have recognised that some of our past practices for tournament fishing have not been entirely environmentally aware. Just sticking to bag limits and size limits is sometimes not enough. The large gathering of highly proficient fishers can result in localised depletion of stocks.

To help make fishing tournament organisers more aware of their environmental footprint Recfish Australia have just released an accreditation system for fishing competitions called NEATFish - National Environmental Assessment of Tournament Fishing.

The NEATFish standard is a document with a series of questionnaires that develop a simple 1-5 star rating designed to provide tournament organisers with an objective assessment of how well their tournament meets certain environmental, social and economic criteria. I highly recommend that if you have an involvement in tournament fishing that you recommend to you relevant organisers that they go through this process.

The good news is that anyone can download the scoring sheet for free from the Recfish Australia website http://www.recfish.com.au . This is a fantastic initiative for tournament fishing and allows tournament organisers to gauge how their event practices rate with the national standard.

As backwards as some of these old fishing magazines can be in their past fishing practices I was amazed at their forward thinking on some management issues. In the same edition of Anglers' Digest, the title for the editorial was ."We Must Save our Estuaries". What is even more amazing and also frustrating is that after nearly 40 years the very same words are being spoken about our estuaries. The estuaries are the nurseries for many species and are vitally important components of the ecosystem. Unfortunately due to poor catchment management and the high nutrient loads this brings, many of our estuary systems are suffering badly.

Internationally renowned biologist, Professor David Bellamy, said recently:-

"Good anglers are the eyes and ears of waterside wildlife. Without their lobby our rivers would still be used as sewers."

We have all witnessed the terrible algae blooms in the Peel/Harvey along with the problems of the many estuary systems along the south-coast. If only policy change could have resulted from rumblings about this very issue 40 years ago.

I believe recreational fishers have come a long way in our practices in 40 years to a stage now where I honestly believe that we can call ourselves custodians for the environment. At the same time there is also a sense of frustration that issues that have been identified by recreational fishers as requiring policy change get caught up in bureaucracy.

Kane Moyle
Policy Officer

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Even more reason to become a Recfishwest member !!!

In the past few months you would have read about the challenge the Minister for Fisheries has set Recfishwest to boost it's financial membership to ensure future funding security.

There is now even greater incentive to join. Recfishwest in conjunction with Halco Lures have come up with a special offer for every new member - a limited edition Recfishwest Halco Laser Pro 45, while stocks last.

The pattern is brown trout on a gold base and has been designed by our very own lure expert Executive Director, Frank Prokop. This pattern is sure to be dynamite on bream as well as highly versatile from a number of creek and inshore species around WA.

The cost of membership has also been brought down from $22 to $20, making it even easier to join. So for the cost of just $20 you receive a Recfishwest membership and a Halco lure that retails for around $11. Only Recfishwest members will have this little beauty in their tackle box.

Along with the Halco lure, we also have a MT45 Engel (40 litre) fridge/freezer plus bag and slide lock RRP $1,445 kindly donated by Engel fridges to be raffled off amongst Recfishwest members. Also an Okuma rod and reel outfit will be given away as the second prize. These prizes will be drawn on the 17th December.

All the latest offers are on the Recfishwest website at http://www.recfishwest.org.au/MembershipDet.htm

So join your peak representative fishing body now !!



This page last updated on 9 November 2007.