Dramatic video shows boats fleeing illegal fishing bust
Vision released showing a raid on boats fishing illegally inside a marine sanctuary last yearThe Victorian Fisheries Authority has released dramatic footage of dozens of recreational fishing boats caught inside a marine sanctuary that netted tens of thousands of dollars in fines, despite half the boats attempting to flee.
The three-minute video, taken from a drone in November last year as fisheries officers swoop in by boat and jet ski, shows boats attempting to flee from inside the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay once their skippers realised what was going on.
However, little did they know that plainclothes fisheries officers had slipped in among them and recorded more than 50 boat registration details – two of them recreational charter boats – before the raid took place.
According to the VFA, the boats were attracted to a snapper spawning aggregation inside the marine sanctuary’s boundary. The sanctuary, marked by a string of yellow buoys and featuring reefs, bommies and sandy patches with seagrass, runs along the shoreline from Sandringham to Beaumaris.
The vision shows that as soon the fisheries patrol boat enters the sanctuary and instructs boats to remain where they are, about half the skippers immediately flee the area at high speed as other fisheries officers approach via jet ski.
According to the VFA, it eventually caught up with all the boats fishing inside the sanctuary and handed out 82 fines worth more than $25,000.
Fisheries officers were tipped off by the public that boats were entering the marine sanctuary to fish.
The VFA said it had increased its surveillance of the sanctuary, and few boats had fished inside its boundary since the raid.
The VFA’s Victorian Recreational Fishing Guide smartphone app includes a section called “Can I fish here?” that uses the phone’s GPS location to work out if a boat is inside a marine sanctuary.
The app will either flag you are okay to fish, approaching a marine sanctuary or inside its boundary.
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