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NEWS
Port Phillip Bay fishing bans -- Update
Anglers mobilising as VRFish comes under fireThe dust may have settled but recreational anglers are only just shaping-up after a passionate public meeting last week (March 26) to discuss unsustainable commercial netting in poor old Corio Bay and potentially the whole of Port Phillip Bay.
The Friends of Corio Action Group (FOCAG) has thanked the estimated 450 concerned anglers who came to voice their support for commercial netting bans on the bay. The throng filled the room and spilled outside St Albans Park Football Club.
The speeches of high-profile Melbourne anglers David Kramer, Lee Rayner and Geoff Wilson were very well received. Not so that from the state-government-funded VRFish, the supposed Victorian recreational fishing peak body.
The new GM of VRFish, Dallas D'Silva, came under fire for conflicting policy in respect of supposedly representing recreational anglers while also supporting commercial fishing as it now exists on Corio Bay.
VRFish represents 700,000-plus Victorian anglers, but D’Silva took a contrary view to the room on the issue of netting as it now stands, pointing out the potential magnitude of compensation, telling the locals that funds are needed elsewhere, while also saying more science is needed despite existing science to hand.
Meantime, the FOCAG made the sad point that 70 per cent of all netting in Port Phillip Bay is concentrated on their turf, with the ‘pros’ operating day and night not far from shore, as a flock of pelicans snap up the tide of juvenile fish stripped from the local area.
Certainly, the citizen science is in. Locals with generations of fishing experience on the peninsula have had enough. Their catches from piers and boats in the area are unacceptably low and a mere shadow of their former glory.
FOCAG have hit out in social media at VRFish and say they are just puppets of the government and do not represent recreational fishermen. The fuse does seem to be lit. The campaign to ban netting in Corio Bay is gaining support and media attention.
Now local angling lobby group Futurefish, which has backing from our good friend and angling celebrity Paul Worsteling, has extended the frontline with the launch of a campaign to ban commercial net fishing on the whole of Port Phillip Bay.
A rally calling for the support of all concerned recreational fishers will be held at Spring St, Parliament House, on 27/07/14. Clearly, Victorian anglers have reached breaking point over the poor fishing in Corio Bay. See the controversial speech by the state government-funded VRFish below and keep up to speed at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Corio-Bay-Action-Group/208010909343052.
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