7 Comments

1. Mark Comer on March 4, 2021 at 10:20 am

   Hey Shrek,
   Loved this episode; dock of death. I’ve got an opinion I just wanted to share. So, I live in Tampa, maybe that has something to do with my view, maybe not; we have lots fish. It costs on average $300 in fuel and ice, there’s boat maintenance, scuba gear, guns, etc. That’s a lot of cost…. To make it worth even leaving the dock I better get some fish, ya know? And more importantly I don’t need anyone’s approval, some lefty putting heaps of fertilizer on his/her lawn to keep it pretty and green is doing more harm to the fishery than any of us. The things going actual harm go unaddressed while we get scrutinized for photos, it’s laughable. Also sustainable is just the new iPhone, LOL.

   Reply
   • Shrek on March 5, 2021 at 5:55 am

     Hey Mark! cheers man. Yeah I can see your point; Perception is 100% of peoples reality. Large amounts of fish from multi-day, multi-diver trips could never really be compared to land runoff and other pollutants in our waterways BUT these are not as visual and easy to latch onto. Having identified that though, is the value of sharing these photos on SM worth potential defamation in the public eye? – Shrek

     Reply
2. Jon Stuart on March 5, 2021 at 10:53 am

   We were proudly showing our catches in the 60s, to concern and scorn of others. We learnt that it is more prudent to honour a fish rather than bignote ourselves as fishers. I’m a 67 year old freediving spearo and I have the respect of everyone that knows me because they know I’m not greedy, and fish for the future.
   Modesty is a more wise approach to this.

   Reply
   • Shrek on March 6, 2021 at 2:15 am

     Cheers for sharing your thoughts Jon. I really like to hear the voice of experience come through on these topics!

     Reply
3. Capt Bob Bryant on March 6, 2021 at 2:32 am

   Thank you for contacting me wish I could have submitted sorry I missed it. Look if your legal all is good. Having said that I need all your listeners to know. Enviros and regulators are on social media too. They see the Dock of Death photos and they use them against us. I get it. Fishing is life and having memories to be proud of you trip is important. But know this. A picture of an angler happily showing a prize fish sends a much better message about our sport. I have attended hundreds of fishery meetings and I have seen first hand the scores of enviros there with their laptops and their Arsenault of photos. Our photos. Photos of docks of death.

   In the US NMFS and the councils use these against us all the time.

   Reply
   • Shrek on March 10, 2021 at 3:38 am

     Hey Bob, thanks for leaving your thoughts!

     Reply
4. Andrew on March 24, 2021 at 12:37 am

   Hey mate,

   Just wanted to say thank you for tackling the kill pile issue on your podcast. As with all things hunting and fishing, the vocal minority do seem to carry more weight than they should when it comes to shutting things down, or now cancelling things they don’t like or understand. That said, and I know you touched on it, there’s another message I don’t believe was necessarily conveyed for the positives of having a large harvest as a recreational fisherman. Is it bad to go out and harvest a large amount at a time? Not to be confused with taking a photo of said large harvest… It seems the answer for most is yes – this is a bad thing – however this ignores reasons for larger harvests:
   1. Efficiency. Many people don’t have the time or luxury to be out multiple times a week or even month where its more of a sport than a food gathering exercise. For the person that only gets out every couple of months, gathering a pile of fish for food should in no way be shamed. If our seafood doesn’t come by our own hand, then it’s from a commercial fisherman, which statistically is almost certainly from somewhere else in the world (because we export most of ours) without the same controls we put in place, or the ethics we impose on ourselves. We’re also fortunate to live in the age of great refrigeration, and in fact many things from the ocean benefit from being frozen for a certain period of time, so bagging and freezing doesn’t need to be frowned upon necessarily.
   2. The environment. This might be controversial, but nobody mentioned the resources that go into a single trip, particularly given the kill pile issue is associated with environmental damage. For those that advocate one fish per trip, can they also advocate the amount of fuel, electricity etc consumed for every trip? Let’s take the average scenario of spearing from a boat. Let’s say Brisbane, spearing off Moreton. Fairly common. Before starting out, you want to make sure your boat battery (ies) are charged, so hook them up to the outlet. You then need to drive to the boat ramp – perhaps 30 – 45mins. You have an hour motor to the first spot, perhaps more. Moving around all day. Then everything in reverse on the way back. There are other consumables I’ve not mentioned for the sake of simplicity. The question then is, is it better for the environment to make one trip a month for a relatively large number of fish, or to make 4 trips a week for one fish each time? If you lived next to a headland that you walked to and speared from, perhaps 4 trips for four fish would be better. If you speared offshore each time, perhaps you would reconsider.
   My point is, I believe the message that’s conveyed to the public and the message for spearos doesn’t have to be the same. I believe its warranted for you to mention that it’s ok to spear a pile of fish depending on circumstances, and at the same time, to be mindful of how and where you share that same pile. I also do not advocate making people feel ashamed for taking more than one or two fish at a time, because in many ways, it makes far more sense.

   Just my 2 cents from a couple of points I felt were missing from the argument.

   Cheers,

   Andrew

   Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.