More restocking of Recreational Fishing Havens: Tuross Lake still missing out
NSW DPI Fisheries report that Even More Flatties Stocked! saying:
Thousands more juvenile dusky flathead have now been stocked into the St Georges Basin Recreational Fishing Haven, bringing the total number of these highly popular sportfish released by DPI on the NSW South Coast over the past month or so to 75,000!
The most recent stocking event saw 22,000 flathead fingerlings released into the Basin, following on from successful stockings in the Basin, Conjola and Burrill RFHs.
These fish will be monitored by DPI researchers with the help of volunteer citizen scientists. This work is designed to evaluate the growth of the fish, their movements and impact of fish releases on the recreational fishery.
We’re hoping to stock more estuaries along the NSW coast with dusky flathead as the production of these highly popular sportfish expands.
And we’d like to say a big thank you to all those involved in this exciting project, which will provide a huge boost to recreational fishing opportunities on the NSW South Coast.
These stocking events are a great example of your fishing fees at work! Contributing funds were also provided under the NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy. Meanwhile the latest edition of the Recreational Fishing Alliance of NSW newsletter says "Despite Tuross Lake on the South Coast being a Recreational Fishing Haven (secured with angler licence money!) and a trophy flathead fishery, it got no fish in the recent stocking. "According to a NSW Department of Primary Industries spokesperson under the current guidelines, fish stocking is prohibited within NSW Marine Parks and Tuross Lake is within the Batemans Marine Park so it currently cannot be stocked.
"There seems to be a lack of commonsense in this. If DPI won't allow restocking because Tuross Lake is within a marine park then it means they think restocking does environmental damage. If it does environmental damage then why are they restocking other recreational fishing havens like Burrill and Conjola?
"Tuross Lake is one of the South Coast's most popular recreational fishing destinations... attracting anglers from Canberra and Sydney. The waterway is the location of an annual Flathead and Bream competition with 250 entrants, a site for multiple interclub fishing tournaments and a widely publicised (even by DPI) location for family recreational fishing that brings thousands of anglers to Tuross Lake every year."
