Crayfish Stock Assesment At Queenscliff, Vic

[Ian Williams]

For anyone interested in attending a workshop where Fisheries Victoria present on overview of the past cray season and compare it to what they have predicted. It is a combined meeting where individuals or groups within the commercial and recreational sector can put forward their perceptions of how they saw it.



Traditionally, we as recreationals are always outnumbered by Fisheries Officers, Commercial Fishermen or Co-Management people which is partly why we seem to face uphill battles within the Fishery.



The information gleened from this will be used for the Lobster Forum later in the year. In the Westrern Zone, we have been pushing to have the bag limit returned back to 4 per day but although stocks have improved, they won't give it back. Even though our quota allotment has since more than doubled beyond what the estimates of past recreational take were and included the 4 per day bag limit. Your attendance might help.



It is during working hours but for anyone with time up their sleeve and enjoys crayfish as a sport both historically or educationally it is a good day. A good lunch is provided but you will have to phone or email an acceptance to attend on the day.



I haven't seen the new complex at Queenscliff so I'm hoping for a little sticky beak during lunch time or breaks.



Thursday 14 July 10am-4pm, Primary Industries Research Queenscliff Centre, 2a Bellarine Highway, Queenscliff, Victoria.



If you intend to participate in the crayfish assessment workshop, please register by notifying:-

David Hobday (03) 52 580256 (david.hobday@dpi.vic.gov.au)

or Rhonda Flint (03) 52 580255 (rhonda.flint@dpi.vic.gov.au)

or David Reilly (03) 52 580250 (david.reilly@dpi.vic.gov.au)

[glen]

Thanks for the tip Ian. I didn't realise these meetings were open to recreational fisherman. Is there a limit on how many people may attend?



Cheers, Glen

[Ian Williams]

Theoretically, no limit, but off course with limitations.



The actual wording of the invitation has the followings.



"The 2005 assessments are approaching fast and I am inviting rock lobster and giant crab access license holders/operators, recreational and environmental stakeholders, managers and industry representatives to participate in these workshops. Previously, nominations to attend the assessments were sought only from the peak bodies".



In essence they have opened it up to all commercial fisherman and operators and subsequently recreationals as well, since 2003.



I've rung David Hobday and while the meeting (or venue) can't accomodate big numbers, it is open to the public. The target participants are those who can contribute on a personal or group level as to crayfish numbers or changes seen over the past season(s). Normally, the total number of attendees was in the order of 20-30 of which there may be 2 possibly 3 recreational people. Best I can say is for those interested to register or contact David for more details.



For those who can't make it I would welcome any feedback that can be presented on their behalf. It doesn't have to be how many you caught because how many you didn't or couldn't catch or keep (Eg. too small, weather to rough, late winter, over potted, bad viz etc), help give an overall picture of the fishery from their point of view.

[glen]

thanks ian,



do they hold similar meetings for finfish or squid? if so, please let us know.



cheers, glen

[Jazman]

Thanks Ian, I had no idea such a meeting existed. Do they have one every year?

I SCUBA dive for crays quite a bit over the warmer months, and I'd be very interested in attending the meeting, but I'm not sure I could make it during the day on a Thursday. In any case, I'll speak to some of my diving buddies over the weekend, and I'll try and come up with some general feedback on our cray fishing experiences over the past few seasons. Certainly compared with two summers ago, last summer was a fairly poor one for us. I reckon we found a greater number of crays last summer, majority of which were undersized, compared to finding lower numbers of crays in previous seasons, but which were generally larger in size . I'll put something together over the weekend and post it early next week. Would you need to know the specific locations etc (I'm not sure how keen we would be about divulging too much of this type of info, especially if commercial cray fishermen will be attending the meeting).

Thanks for making us aware of this.

Jaz

PS I assume from your interest in this subject that you dive for crays?

[Ian Williams]

Hi Jazman.



Yes this has been an annual. There is an informative handout given before-hand as well as a results report made after.



No need for any specific locations. Keep it vague as you like. Normally what we report is matched with commercial or Fisheries officers bag checks etc. For example when we reported that it seemed more potting was now being done at the Heads and in shallow waters, this was confirmed because they are favouring red colored crays (Asian market) over the whites (deeper water).



These days I don't normally have time to dive so my interest lately is as a VRFish and SDFV rep trying to claw back or stave off changes promoted by the commercials or Fisheries.



Ian



(Glen. I'm not sure for other species except abalone.)

[Jazman]

Hi Ian,

Sorry this has been so long in coming, I hope its not too late to be of use.

Last summer's crayfish season we predominantly dived in 2-6m of water along the west coast of Victoria (west of Lorne), and found very few legal sized crays amongst many juveniles. This is in contrast to what we have observed in previous years, that is fewer crays but which were of a larger size. The waters we dive in are quite heavily pot-fished, and have been for many years, so I'm not sure if our observation reflects increased shallow-water potting by commercial fishers, or increased recreational fishing pressure (or another factor entirely). We do not encounter large numbers of fellow recreational SCUBA divers working from the shore, but we do see a few. We have never encountered fisheries officers in many years of diving this area of coastline, and I am convinced that should someone choose to exceed bag limits/take undersized crays, they could do so in relative safety since the presence of fisheries inspectors is non existent. Since we were diving from the shore, the areas we dive are prone to heavy seas, and I would estimate that on 30% of trips made we did not dive due to the swell/shore break being too large to dive safely. I would estimate that a further 10% of our trips were unproductive due to bad viz, likely due to heavy seas in the days/weeks preceding the calm days when we chose to dive. I would estimate that of the legal sized crayfish that we did encounter, approximately 30-40% were 'uncatchable' due to being unaccessible in deep caves, ledges etc.



This is probably not especially relevant to the cray fishing meeting, but we have also noticed a steady decline in the numbers of abalone, especially legal sized abalone, which we occasionally target as a bycatch to crayfish.



Good luck in the meeting and let us know how you fare

Regards

Jason

[Ian Williams]

Thanks Jazman. Picked up last thing before heading off to Queenscliffand included in with reports.



Generally the overall combined summary was that this season was a bit ordinary with weather against us (and commercials) in January and February. Experienced divers could still get a cray or two with success more likely from those in very shallow water away from the commercial pots. There were plenty of cray for commercial going out to deeper waters for white crays while the fishermen targeting inshore reefs (for reds) struggled about from competition between themselves. This of course encroaches on the recreational divers or snorklers ability to catch crays. It's further compounded as some of their's and our fishing area was swallowed up by Marine Parks. By the way we trying to get nooses and blunt hooks legalised for those deep ledges but Fisheries have tied it to being able to have a good estimate of the recreational catch. As also mentioned earlier, this is again despite our Western Zone quota allocation being more than double the previous official estimate and also based on a bag limit of 4. This is where being out numbered at meetings doesn't help.

[glen]

Thanks Ian for being there and representing Vic recreational fishers,



Keep up the good work,



Cheers, Glen <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[Jazman]

Fantastic work Ian!

<img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Thanks for letting us know what happened in the meeting and please keep us informed of further developments. It would certainly improve the likelihood of catching crays if nooses were legalised, as I understand it they are legal in western australia.

Cheers

Jaz

[supersquid]

took me a while to read this post, every time I hear or see the word crayfish I get a bad case of the drools <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wh' />