Are bream a commercial species in W.A

LakeConjolaFish · #1 06-02-2003, 12:57 AM

Are bream a commercial species in W.A?

Are they sold in fresh fish shops as they are all up and down the eastern side of Australia.......it always amazes me looking into fish shop windows of the undersized bream that are sitting on ice for sale.

How can you educate the public not to take undersize fish when they see a dollar amount put on there heads.

Craig_S · #2 06-02-2003, 01:17 AM

To be honest Jim I've never seen one in a shop (i dont go into em much) but I do know we have a pro netter operating in the Blackwood River. This has been the subject of a fair amount of debate over here and also a fair amount of agitation (Go Hard Ira!) to get the licence bought out or removed.

beefaman · #3 06-02-2003, 02:23 AM

Any seafood retailer in Brisbane has Bream for sale, and Jim is right, there is lots and lots of undersized, and not just a little under, we are talking total length of 15 cm in some cases.
These are being netted and then sold! It is a licence to catch fish, not rape and pillage our fish population! What gets me is the winter whiting they sell here, some of them aren't even big enuff to use as bait, let alone fillet and eat!

LakeConjolaFish · #4 06-02-2003, 02:27 AM

Your right Beefaman can you imagine the bones in those little whiting that they market?

How come they are allowed to catch & market bream that are 6" long that haven't had a spawning run yet?

Ben Scott · #5 06-02-2003, 02:29 AM

I work in a shop called Farm Freash and I am in charge of the seafood bar. We do get Black Bream in sometimes , They sell well as they are a knowen species. Something like Dolphan fish would be hard to sell as it is not knowen. They are suposed to throw the undersized one's back but they don't.
If it realy pisses you of you can dob the shop in to fisheries. I was working on a Shark boat once and they told me that fisheries does a check at the Perth fish markets once in a blue moon.
He also told me that the last time they checked they found a Grey Nurse Shark and they where happy and left. The offenders got away with it as there is nothing in writting to tell them not to catch then even though they are a protected. That sux.

beefaman · #6 06-02-2003, 02:39 AM

The bones in them wouldn't even be big enough to choke you! It is ridiculous to say the least, and the problem with winter whiting is they don't have a size or bag limit.

I know they are prolific, but if the current trend continues, we will see them become a rarer caught fish.

Dale · #7 06-02-2003, 06:44 AM

G'day bream blokes, yep, blackies certainly are sold commercially here. While they are not targeted specifically, if the opportunity presents itself then the pro's wont think twice about wrapping them up in a net, a la Augusta style.

Cheers
Dale
(still fingerling

)

torvic · #8 09-02-2003, 04:57 AM

Yea I've seen lots of small/undersized bream frozen the ice around here.

What really got me going though was a whole stack of cobbler I saw in a 1.5x1.5 (roughly) container. Was at the fish market in Canningvale yesterday and that was a pretty big shock, no wonder the cobbler are disappearing.

They should stop commercial fishing in rivers entirely, theres plenty of better eating fish out in teh ocean.

LakeConjolaFish · #9 09-02-2003, 05:01 AM

Torvic,

You have to tell us what a cobbler is?

I gather your not talking about a gypsy shoe repairer

madfish · #10 09-02-2003, 06:27 AM

I lived in Perth about 15 years ago and saw the biggest Blackie I've ever seen in the fish markets oneday, would of gone 6lb and there were heaps of them. At that stage there were still pros netting the Swan for bream I dont know if there still there. I'm totally opposed to anybody netting inland waters, it sucks big time.
madfish

torvic · #11 09-02-2003, 06:33 AM

Hehe LCF I dont know if your joking or not

Anyway, a cobbler looks like a fish with a head of a catfish and body of an eel. Its got 3 spikes on the head that HURTS and you really wouldnt like being spiked by one.

Spoke to some old timers and they said back in their time you could walk along claremont jetty where there are sand flats and see schools of these fish cruising around. They are a long fish than get up to 50 cm easily and are pretty damn scary

Now though its lucky if you see one cruising around by itself...

LakeConjolaFish · #12 09-02-2003, 06:48 AM

I looked them up in a book, there also know as what I know them as "eel tailed catfish".

I have never heard of the name cobbler before funny how different states can be so different isn't it.

Here at Lake Conjola I have seen them dead floating on top of the water after severe flooding and no joke fair dinkum they where nearly 3' long absolutely huge.

They are a quite common catch here (smaller ones) at night time fishing for bream.

They also sell them here in aquarium shops for pets and I have been stung by them and its roughly about twice as painful as a bad lizard spike. Definately not a pleasant experience.

torvic · #13 09-02-2003, 07:31 AM

Yah I can understand why they put them in aquariums. I put a small baby one in one once, it was soooo cute. It would play with the baitfish and duck down and hide into tiny spaces. I'd have a cobbler in a tank rather than goldfish any day.