ORIGINALLY from a fishing family in Tweed Heads, I was amazed when I first arrived in Fingal Bay in 1974, at the fishing and seafood gathering opportunities offered around my new home in Port Stephens.
Never had I gathered abalone, which at the time could be found in every underwater crack and crevice from Fingal Island south to Birubi.
The abalone were so available they could be collected in rock pools.
Squidding was also new to me as I had never seen a squid jig and was somewhat skeptical, because of its odd shape, at its ability to catch anything at all.
Tossing the jig into the quiet protected bays from Fingal to Rocky Point I could not believe when a heavy weight started pulling on my line – a big green-eyed squid.
Over the following years the squid became welcome in the kitchen with the head dispatched to the freezer as fantastic bait for snapper and mulloway.
Unfortunately, abalone and squid have one thing in common – they have all but disappeared!
Once being in great numbers both are just about gone.
The first question, of course, is why?
Abalone died out some years ago, around 2001, when perkinsus – a parasitic disease that affects molluscs such as oysters, clams and abalone – attacked our local stocks.
The parasite acted incredibly swiftly.
One week we had an excellent population of abalone, the next week they were wiped out.
A mystery surrounds the disappearance of squid.
It is common knowledge along our coastline that squid numbers have plummeted.
Occasionally I still report a rare catch but nothing like it was.
It was not uncommon to catch half a bucket of calamari squid over the sea grass in Shoal Bay or in the Government Hole on Fingal Island.
I could always catch squid from Fingal south.
No answer has been forthcoming for the demise of squid although there seems to be a common issue with poor water quality.
Could water quality be a contributing factor for the current tragedy that is occurring within our turtle population?
At this stage no answers to the death of up to 70 turtles is forthcoming.
I will keep you well informed as soon as I can get some answers.
This brings me to another major concern: are we about to lose our pipi population off Stockton Beach?
Recent reports I am receiving from the residents of Anna Bay suggest an overconcentration of effort of commercial pipi gatherers on the beach.
During the night, in the cover of darkness, trucks of gatherers from further north are stripping the beach of pipis, which have only recently returned after a period when it was difficult to gather enough to go fishing.
What amazes me, is that what the commercial gatherers are doing is completely legal and within the laws of NSW Fisheries! It seems to me that the biggest threat to the sustainability of our natural marine resources in Port Stephens is coming from those who we entrust to protect them.
So what can be done?
Current NSW Fisheries laws, that control the harvesting of pipis, do not protect beaches from a concentration of effort which results in the wiping out of a natural resource.
In other words – the law needs to change.
It can be done.
The answer is through political channels.
We did it in the case of eliminating “witches hats” from Port Stephens and we can do it again.
I just think it strange that we, as a community, need to continually battle to protect our resources when state agencies have been put in place to do exactly that.
We have been through this all before with pipis and I was hoping that we could move on.
Obviously not.
By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
