just a matter of time, suprised more havent been busted, i say sell his boat and all his fishing gear, no excuse for it especially being part of a club too

i hope they make a real good example of him and throw the book at him with the full force of the law its pricks like that that kill it for us responsible fishers!

At least he stuck to the new bag limits.

GO BLUES.

interested to see the results

Good point Paully.

GO BLUES.

So much for there $100 fine they were originally totting around..

Have to agree with mako in the selling of his boat, would be a very harsh punishment. Good to see that the boat was confiscated by fisheries to send a bit of a message to all!

A whopping big fine to get his boat back i reckon, as well as a year of being a VFLO??

 Hope the boat belonged to him and not a mate or his dad.......

thats good, glad they're catching people that do the wrong thing. even tho we might not like the ban coz we cant catch the fish during that time it's important that we have it and that we look after the threated fish species. great catch for the fisheries that day.

That sort of action will just lead to the government considering stricter actions eventually.

What if he honestly didnt know the new rules?, it does happen.
If he had caught more dhufish the punishment he is getting would be more fitting. Sounds like a first offence so a fine would be more suitable.
The more money they can get thru busting people the more they will be out looking. We need more people with commonsense working in law enforcement instead of following the rules to a T.
Its just not as black and white as most people see it, but keeping it that way is ALOT simpler when you want to make money!
Im fairly sure most of us fisherman have broken the rules at some stage by accident and learnt from it.
Just my cynical opinion because I dont support the fisheries dept !!

is a pain sitting and waiting for the ban to be over, but there sure are other things to fish besides dhuie or snapper etc.  Old fart and I  need a fix (just like every other responsible fisho) but we'll use the boat for squidding, whiting etc., and heaven behold might even go for a cruise up the river even though when I mention that little excersion, all I gate make with quite a few blue words, "its a bloody fishing boat, go on a cruise if you want to see the river."

Saw on the NZ programme, the fisheries their take the boat, towed away at the boat owners expense, yes agree hope the book is thrown at him.

It was only a matter of time!!!!

Fully agree also.....regardless of what your opinion is of the Fisheries Dept or the new laws....ignorance is no excuse.

I read its automatic $5000 fine for the first offence $10,000 for the second.

Whether he knew about the laws or not he will say he did,nt know

i agree with you Jim , fark all avertising has been done on the new rules and regs specially if u dont watch tv or get the paper

Every boat owner should have got one in the mail IMO , best way to reach them,,

Has the name of the person(s) involved been made public yet Stoinka?

 As of December 16, One Dhuie per person or a boat limit of 2.

ummm reality check...this bloke is not alone. Only differenec between this and the other offences that happen every day is this "wound is still fresh" so it makes a "GREAT STORY". No need to make an example of this bloke when it happens every day. He will be dealt with by due process, same as if u received a multanova speeding infringement....

a bit differant from speeding tho, was a beat up when that bloke got done for the marron recently...

If you guys out there think you understand all the new rules good on you. I was down at the fisheries the other day for over an hour speaking with some of the senior inspectors; we had a good old chat. It is clear that the rules are not as what is in the latest print. It seems that there is more updates to be put in place yet however due to the fact that we are not allowed to catch demersal fish at the moment they are in no rush to correct the demersal  rule, but rather catch up on the new rules on what we can catch now.

Classic is western king wrasse one book will tell you it is a parrot fish another will tell you it’s a wrasse. The inspectors will go back to the family name and make there judgment from there. I don’t think every fisherperson out there will have that knowledge or experience on all the different types of parrot fish out there. There are only four parrot fish that are banded from what we discussed the other day. Dhufish I don’t think there is any excuse.

it had to happen , people are breaking the rules all the time and this person has got caught, how many have got away with it so far and how many more will run the gauntlet. i feel that he got his just deserts as there has been plenty of advertising about the ban on tv as well as in the paper

they were the only decent fish he caught all year. Should he still be penilised for his catch. Me think not.

I own a boat in rockingham (fully registered) and didnt see buggar all in the post, cant trust whats in the paper cause they print it wrong or whatever, the leaflets fisheries have are outdated before they have hit the streets.
I havent read all the rules and probably wont, but I do have a fair idea of the changes.

If any of you guys caught a 10kg Dhuie from your favourite landbased spot would you honestly let it go? And if you get caught with it, do you have all your fishing gear confiscated by fisheries and get a $5000 dollar fine and possibly a criminal record? Some officers could let you off with a fair warning and others may go out of their way to nail you.

You get your car confiscated if you dont have your licence,
But the punishment for catching two fish during the ban is more like being caught drink driving for the second time.

We need the rules of course, you cant argue with that

i prob wouldnt know about the new rules, fly in fly out guys miss a bit of the local news etc....

not saying he didnt know but they need to clarify what excactly the new bloody rules are and make it alot more well known in my opinion.

yep id throw it back, rules are rules and we can rant and rave as much as we want (as i have been) but in the end deal with it, if you love your fishing and respect the fish youll suck it up and deal with the rules! Its funny cos if it was a pinky or a black ass there wouldnt be this rant about it but cos its a dhui everyone is erupting! In the end its a fish that is on a list of other species that are not to be caught for 2 months!

Not sure about everbody elses thoughts, but i think that if you own a boat and go fishing it is your responsiblity to learn and know the rules and obey by them. Ignorance is no excuse!! JMO

i heard that if you are a native of the land you are still allowed to catch the fish providing it is of the native nature

dhui in 30m from a dug out canoe

If you honestly didnt know, how is that being ignorant?

I dont wanna put across a bad vibe but im just letting you know whats going thru my head.

Well, as a fisher, you are obligated to keep up to date with the regs. Failing to do so, that would be being ignorant.

Its a real pity they didn't bring in a fishing license for everyone and use the opportunity to ensure a minimum level of familiarity with current regs, practises, fish ID and how to stay up to date.

As Till asks,I think most of us and then all we interact with in the fishing scene knew of these bans and laws,but I think a lot of people including me are fed up with the government and the way they go about things.some areas get a more favorable hearing than others,where as apart from this site and meeting in a club or bar and whinging about stuff we do nothing,hence my support of Tills comment,the government is doing this all the time to the ordinary people/jersey

Fisheries have done stuffed all advertising, if a major change is made in the rules and regulations all fishos should be sent a pamphlet containing what rules have changed not every person in western australia has a tv or gets the newspaper , fisheries in my opinion have not done there job well on this , the only places i have seen the news of the ban is on the tv for 20 seconds n the paper ONE weekend..  as a fisher u cant keep on top of every bloody rule cuz sometimes fisheries dont even know whats going on. i rang up a few monnths back an they could not even tell me the outstanding rules. 

Have we,that is the people who regularly see this site,If we think back,before the liberals got in,it was a ban on the V5 this included Dhu Fish and it was meant to start around the same time,since the that was labour,since the libs are in,we  had license fees of all kinds suggested, including specie specific ones.the Never More said he would drop the species license,and instead of a 3/4 month ban a two month one,15 November through 15 December,but also said 21 spices,  but clearly I think every one knew it included Dhu fish.Although I think that all pollies are the lowest life form including human excrement,I do not think the fisheries should be held accountable for this situation,(I dont think much of them either) but I do not see how anyone could say they were not aware of the bans and new rules.

Those of you who think I have no respect for our elected representitives,you are right I don't jersey

I can drive down the road - get caught for speeding and cop a $150 fine, "potentially" i could cause numerous fatalities & injury to innocent people but if i go and catch a couple of dhuies out of season i could recieve a fine of $5000 - WTF

I dont agree with what the guy did but people do alot worse and get fined alot less

"and then the fight started"

Trent

Why are people so bloody dumb. There is only one problem with this and that is the fine for this offence should be $20,000 and lose of boat, equipment and car. Greedy, arrogant, selfish Dickheads like this fool are one of the main reasons these new rules have been implemented. If people followed the rules and did the right thing there would be fish for everyone.
As a boat owner and Recreational fisherman it our responsibility to know the rules. I received a copy of the rules by post, as did all the other boat owners I know so there's no excuse not to know the rules, ignorance is not an excuse.

I dont recall getting anything in the post re the new rules but even if I didn't go on this site I would be well aware of the rules by now, there has been enough on tv and in the papers on radio etc, He must have been living in another state or country for the past 12 months to say he didn't know (and we dont know if that's his defence) either that or he just moved here but even then no excuse realy there's been enough publicity about it.

Rules are rules

Back in 2003 I went fishing with my brother in law off the coast of South Africa and for 6 months he was trying to catch “red’s” [our version of snapper] fish. But their sizes and numbers declined over past 5 years the old club members were saying even the picks on the brag board showed this and that it was a result of overfishing in the area by rec-fishermen and long liners. On this day we landed on a school of red fish when In a space of 35 min we ran out of bait. It was good fun must say.

At one point we changed our traces from 2 hooks to 5 and we would catch fish on all 5 hooks. When we ran out of bait we cut our rags in small strips and put them on the hooks even caught fish on this. On my last cast I caught a Tailor [shad] and we used this as bait on 4kg gear for fun it so happened that the 3 and 4kg fished moved in lots of fun all round. On this day I saw that some people on board have no respect of preserving for tomorrow we ended up leaving this spot to return back to land as the arguments started to end up with a knife fight.

Parks board walked in as we launched the boat and asked to climb on board for inspection. Out of the 6 of us 4 ended in jail for having over their bag limit the skipper  lost he’s boat with all the tackle and the Willis Jeep that I pulled he’s  boat with. Parks board there have more power than policemen!

These 4 ended in court next morning with bail at R20 000.00 [about 3400 oz $] after the court case the boat was sold on an auction all gear the Jeep and what did my brother in law have to show for it nothing he got nothing. The 4 gentlemen sold their cars and houses to pay the lawyers to try everything not going to jail lost their jobs 2 got off with community service and 2 got 6 months behind bars.

So it might not be in Australia where it happened but it sure sends a message to all fishermen and you can imagine how they felt after losing everything and for WHAT? For under an hour of fun and bags of fish to fill the freezer not worth it I can vote for that. Rules are rules stick to it fishing is for fun.

comments like mine or people like myself which are the problem. Its all you fish crazy buggers like quite a few before me here that are the problem. Catching far more fish than they need. The sooner a tag system comes in the better. Like no more than 10 table fish per year, yeah that would stuff most of ya would'nt it. I say save the fish from all you greedy bastards out there then share them with every one equily with tags.

realistically the bloke broke the law. what ever the fine is he has to cop it sweet and maybe others that are thinking about doing the same may now think twice. Out Wide , i dont think a comment like your last one was realy called for , up till now it has been a civil discussion , lets just keep it that way . 

on ya faulkners! weve seen what happens when we get shitty nappies on this site! crap id love to see the guys face if he got on this site and read this thread! a priceless picture for sure! anyway stuff the dhuis go the whiting hehe!

I havent received shit all in the post blackbetty dont know what ur on about mate

Some may have received notifications re the new restrictions but non boat licenced fishers wouldn't have... More the reason for a fishing licence or registration for all fishers be it boating or landbased... If registered then everyone would be notified!!
Cheers,
David

The bans good for me, might bring more fish in close:)
I try not to break the rules, and as long as fishing isnt banned by peta or whoever im happy!

you know whats at stake . he could have gone down the fish shop and got his dhuie because after all its only us guys who cant go fishing . if your a pro the DOP says go for your life and take whatever comes up .And thats the way they want it 

Yea agreed, do the crime do the time. Get over it.

the only grinners in this bullshit law are the pros. They and the fisheries are treating mugs like you and rodrat with contempt. So you just stay home and do what the dof demand you to do while the pros clean up. You are the KNOBS. 

Enough of the personal remarks fellas otherwise I will close the thread.

and a leaflet from fisheries fell out onto my lap, first bit of advertising i have seen from them, but i stand corrected, they have at least done some advertising, still they definately could have done more...

That have been placed here by members of this site show the vast separation of ideas within the fishing community,some say fine him/them the max, some say its rough he got caught as the Fisheries are to blame for lack of advertising the rules,some say many things,but I see the frustration many of us are feeling and to some degree,the concern over the fish stocks generally.Its unfortunate that this person was caught,as he and perhaps others who offer all sorts of excuses for their actions would have continued to fish where as the vast majority of people do the right thing,at least try too

I think the ban is for the long term benefit of all fishers. I also believe it should have been done years ago as the Dhu fish and others,(when was the last time any one caught a Gummy/Whiskery shark,) I and others used to regularly catch them.Look at what happened to the Blue Manner crabs in Cockburn and Mandurah,over fishing?

Over fishing is the blame,certainly not from the recreational angler although some were responsible for over fishing (we all know stories) this includes my-selfe.certainly the way fish are caught ,in my view, netting,trawlers and stattic nets both catch indiscrtimatly, I was told this last week of 80 undersize Dhu fish landed that were netted,but this is acceptable as by catch,how many of you go to super market fish counters and see  undersize Red Emporer,Snapper,and others,the excuse offerd is that they are caught out side the state were the size is defferent? jersey,i know of a person who supposedly built a two story holiday house on selling the fish he caught,but he was not a profeessional

Hi All, This is my first post, but I have learnt a lot from the site since moving from Melbourne 3 months ago, and hopefully will learn a bit more over the years. I am not condoning the actions of this fisherperson, but does anyone know if they were in fact from WA? I had not heard of a Dhufish before moving to WA, now (after Dec 15th) it is a goal to join the local brotherhood by actually catching one. If someone travels from the East and wanted to go fishing I think they would struggle, like some of us have in the past few months, to get our head around the changes the govt keeps bringing up. I am not condoning, or offering an excuse, because as responsible fishers you need to make it your business to learn local regs, I am offering a perspective that has not been raised in this thread so far.

Saddles 

The majority of anglers that "do the wrong thing" are well aware of it imo, the minority amount not so but they still need to know the rules!

In any sport or recreational activity its up to us to seek out and follow the rules & regs and keep up to date!

I agree more promotion of the final changes would of been better "but" its definately not an excuse to break the law what so ever!

i,ve moved to perth 6 months ago from sydney and since being here there has been more than enough adverts about the ban i am not of native aus origin but i was born here i support the law and do agree that you have to abide by it but why can commercial fishers still be allowed to fish for them when they are the ones that do more harm to the fish stocks than anyone else and proberly send them overseas and the goverment ban us recreational fishes that catch fish to feed our families i think the ban should be on how mutch they can catch rather than how mutch i can feed my family sorry if im wrong but that is what i think 

Im sorry but ignorance is no excuse in any area of law. You would of had to have been hiding under a rock not to know about the changes. You would of had to have not walked into a tackle shop, boat shop, service station, listened to the radio, talked to a fishing mate, read a paper, or watched the news. I have been amazed at how many non fishing persons have spoken to me about the changes.

The government/fisheries have stated that the penalties for breach of the new regulations would be severe. I feel that the penalties for breaking the fishing laws sould not be decided by the court but be specified in the regulations. That way people would recognise straight up the cost of non compliance. It would see everyone being dealt with evenly. The penalties would be an in your face deterrant.

I believe that the loss of boat for a first offence is too much in my opinion. Maybe confiscate the boat till a severe fine ($5,000) is paid. For second offences then fine and confiscate the boat, hold boat long period i.e. 6 months (Offender to pay storage costs on collection). Third offence then confiscation of boat and boat sold. The money raised used for fisheries education and research. However, what ever the penalties  they should be publicly stated so all know the cost for not following the rules.

The governemnt has an accurate data base with all the registered boat owners and should use this to carry out a mail out. As long as detaililng the need of a boat anglers licence, it could also contain all the latest accurate changes to the fishing regulations.

The blokes done the wrong thing, but I watched the TV shows The Force and Border Security, and when you see the penalty for different crimes it doesn't stack up.

One bloke exporting  30 snakes and lizards in socks in a  suitcase to Thailand got a 15 month suspended sentence. One 19 year old kid drinking a beer in the street in Mandurah got a $200 fine, a woman importing cocaine got 4 years jail.Now lose your boat for catching a fish. Does that seem right?

The question in my mind is if it is OK to fine someone if he "should" have seen the new rules "somewhere". There is no certainty to it. Too much grey for me.

You know you can all go around in circles here  and get no where the bottom line is as i see it this : It is our responsibility to check out the regulations where ever we fish either on the fishery's website or at one of their offices  no excuses . When we plan a fishing trip whether it be to Albany or exmouth i still get all the information print it out and make sure we know what we can and can not catch.I know this was only Bunbury but it is the same thing. we knew they were coming out with new regs.  Do you think that in shark bay they would let you off if you had too many snapper on board because you could not be bothered doing your home work.  ignorance is no excuse. they have changed their rules also this year from last year . What i am trying to say is whether there is too much grey in our rules or not they are quite simple to understand. if not ask your local bait and tackle shop i am sure they would help you out.   Like others have said you do the crime you do the time no excuses in my book for  being lazy not ignorant. 

Sandy   

I have nothing to add to the comments as far as the gentleman caught with the fish goes. Everything that can be said seems to have been said.

I will say for myself, I don't read newspapers or watch commercial television. If it wasn't for groups like this one I wouldn't have known anything about the new rules. As soon as I got wind of the idea that rules had changed I got myself onto the fisheries website and learnt all I could to keep myself out of trouble.

I don't think there was enough done to make sure that fishers knew the new rules but in the end I feel it is up to me to keep myself up to date with any new rules, be it on the water or on the road rather than expecting the authorities to do it for me.

Thank you Fishwrecked for giving us all this forum so that we have the opportunity to find out that these laws are coming and to educate ourselves before we land ourselves in real trouble.