This year the weather was considerably more favourable to us. Kid’s Fishing Days were run covering coastal, estuarine, fresh water and impoundments. These events were attended by 1283 kids, 308 instructors and coaches and 554 parents and carers. Each child attending received tackle specific to the local conditions. There were taught how to both use that tackle and care for it. On the days, lunch was provided and varied from the traditional sausage sizzle to red claw on the barbie caught that day.

It is impossible to pick out a group that had the most fun. Smiles were enormous on all the faces. In this report I have included a selection of the individual reports from events. From the photos you can see that there was a large cross section of children covering, boys and girls, indigenous and also those from socially, physically and emotionally disadvantaged sectors. For those last three groups, these days are probably the most important.

As an aside, modules from our Level 1 Instructor’s course, that include the templates on which our kid’s fishing days are run have this year been included in the national angler education resource database.

Sunfish Queensland wishes to acknowledge the valuable support provided by the provision of this grant funding. Educating our next generations on the valuable resource that they need to protect is extremely important. Equally important is the ability to pass traditional knowledge and skills onto children that may not have those in their family networks that are able to do so, given the changing demographics in our society. We also can’t forget the tremendous opportunities provided for families with children who have difficult circumstances. These families are discovering a pastime that they can enjoy as a unit, irrespective of physical or emotional disadvantages.

Kids Fishing Day area the jewel of Sunfish’s activities. These young minds soak up all the skills and messages that can be delivered to them. We certainly appreciate that Fisheries Queensland also acknowledge the value in nurturing this conduit back into communities by continuing to support this program.

As you can see from some of the emails that have been included, these communities look forward to these events every year. It is a great testament to our volunteers that they keep their enthusiasm going year after year.

Feedback from attendees, parents, carers, coaches and instructors was unanimously supportive and constructive. In that vein I need to forward on the thanks to Fisheries Queensland and the Minister that were directed through us on the value of this program to their communities.

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A group of very concerned recreational fishers got their boats ready on Friday and met at Blue Fins Fishing Club Inala to voice their significant worries about reductions to their existing catch possession limits and then proceeded to convoy onto the Premiers electorate office in Richlands.

Recreational fishers have been supporting the current Sustainable Fisheries Strategy. They, like many others, including Fisheries Queensland believe that the current fisheries management protocols are many years past being overhauled. The current system is strongly based on an antiquated perception that there are never too many harvesters on the water. We now have a commercial fishing industry that has far too many operators that are using their licences only during spawning aggregations to top up their other incomes because there are too many of them to all have profitable fishing businesses.

What was expected was that a line wold be drawn in the sand and for each species the existing data would be used to calculate current catch share amongst all sectors: commercial, recreational, indigenous and conservation (theirs stay in the water?). If a species was then identified as in trouble everyone would take an equal hit based on their catch share.

However, in the last week it has become apparent that within Fisheries Queensland there is a separate personal agenda being driven very forcefully to reallocate a considerable portion of the existing recreational catch to the commercial sector before the starting gate has even opened. Small meetings have been held across the state where total possession limits of 3 mud crabs or 15 fish of a species have been very heavily pushed by Fisheries Qld staff. This contradicts the information put out by the department in the discussion papers.

Grassroots recreational fishers are so concerned that they will be breaking proposed rules in order to put a decent feed of fish on the table for their families that they presented a letter to the Premier’s office outlining their concerns. Given that this information has only been available for little more than a week, the turnout of more than 30 boats and at least 70 fishers on a weekday indicates just how distressed many of them are. I expect that this sentiment will only increase across the state in the weeks to come,

For further information please contact Martin Cowling on 0427 011 507