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).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I think pipi collecting should be made completely illegal at venus bay.When you walk along the beach there are numerous people with hidden buckets, digging implements etc. They are also on the look out for inspectors and ringing along the beach to warn.

Unknown said...

I visited VB last year for Pipi collection last year, with fishing license and no tools. I saw few beach facilities hence visitors feeling very boring. They have no other choice of recreational activities except digging....! Local residents are not friendly now i understand why. But they don't communicate with visitors like in other places of interest, just look at them like enemies.