Tuesday 24 February 2009

Collecting Pipis at Venus Bay Beaches

In a comment to another post, estatenubertwoer wrote about the illegal collection of pipis at Venus Bay beaches.

Gday Guys,
Just discovered the Blog and was wondering if you may be able to assist.

Pipies are being removed in and local authorities seem completely disinterested in enforcing bag limits.

This is the kind of thing i'm talking about; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBydoI69jYE

I'm deeply concerned at the way the bag limits are not being enforced. Pipies are being removed in commerical amounts and sold in melbourne fish markets. This is depleating resources and damaging the local eco system.

Has this been raised before, Does anyone else in town share my concerns?

Here is a link to Fish Victoria's site with an article on the subject.

It states that pipis are only allowed to be collected between Beach No1 and Beach No5, and only up to a limit of 5 litres per person per day. You must have a valid fishing licence and the pipis must be for personal use and not sold to anyone else.

I note that the comments in the YouTube video linked to above indicate that the people in the video haven't done anything illegal, but it's right to raise the issue to make people aware of the problem in general.

Members of the public who witness or are aware of illegal fishing should call the 24-hour reporting line 13-FISH (13-3474).

Monday 9 February 2009

Victorian Bushfires - Radio and TV Networks

With all the devastation and loss of life and property around Victoria, we have been very fortunate to have been spared from the bushfires here in this part of South Gippsland.

Thoughts go out to all those who have lost loved-ones and homes.

ABC Radio is the official emergency broadcaster. 774AM and 828AM are the only options available locally due to the fire damage to the Mt Tassie transmitter which has cut the ABC Local Radio FM stations as well as ABC, SBS, Prime and WIN TV stations (both analogue and digital signals). Southern Cross 10 is the only TV station currently broadcasting in the Latrobe Valley, South and (I assume East) Gippsland. Some people may be able to receive metropolitan analogue TV stations.

At the moment, repair crews are unable to go to the Mt Tassie transmitter to assess the damage as the area is still not safe. Prime TV advised that it was not yet known when service will be restored. It may be days or even weeks.

Of course, priority must be given to dealing with the continuing fire threat and ensuring people's safety, ABC radio seems to be the best way to keep up to date with the latest fire information.

Update (10/2/09): Prime and WIN are back on air. SBS and ABC1 and ABC2 are still off air in Gippsland.