Thank You to all who attended our public meeting last night. Special thanks to our mayor, Darren Lyons and Liberal candidate for Geelong Paula Kontelj, for speaking, and supporting the concerns and views of tens of thousands of locals.Thanks to other speakers, David Kramer, Gary Keer, Steve Threlfal, Geoff Wilson and Gordon Skanlen. Overall a very successful night with approximately 250 people. During the meeting an incident was unfolding in Corio Bay Inner harbour. During the twilight yacht races of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club a racing yacht got caught up in a mesh net in Stingaree Bay off limeburners. The owners Jen and Brenton, and crew had no idea what stopped their yacht dead in the water. Looking behind their yacht they noticed a rope with a small buoy. Brenton stripped off and dived overboard with a dolphin torch and saw that a net was wrapped around the keel and prop. After calls on the radio for help to RGYC, an inflatable was sent to help. The inflatable went over to two 8m aluminium commercial boats about 400m away and asked for help. The commercial fishermen declined to help stating that for insurance purposes they were not allowed to. The yacht was stranded for an hour until finally the commercial boat rafted up and cut the net. Brenton and Jen were furious. They and most members of the RGYC they spoke to had no idea that netting was still being conducted in Corio Bay. Well now they do. Brenton and Jen did some searching on the internet and contacted us on this page this morning. We educated them on some facts and met them at the RGYC in the afternoon and watched the yacht being slipped out of the water. There is some damage and Brenton and Jen are shocked and determined to ban nets now. The commercial boat registrations have been noted.We gave them a copy of our documentary DVD part 1 to learn some more facts and spread the word. The RGYC will have a presentation to educate all members that netting does still happen in Corio Bay.It is amazing how many people do not know that wild fish harvesting on an industrial scale still occurs in the bay,and are shocked when they find out. It has been Corio Bays worst best kept secret for too long. It is up to all of us to expose the truth. When people see the DVD they can ask themselves is this the way we want our fish caught? These are not friendly sustainable methods. Jen contacted the Geelong Adertiser this morning and was told by 3 separate journalists someone would arrive at 3pm to get a story and take some photos. Jen said the journalists she spoke to all sounded excited and keen to report this incident. At 345pm no journalist arrived and she ph only to be told no one was available.This was a front page opportunity missed by the Geelong Advertiser. It would appear the subject matter contravened editorial policy. Stay tuned. this incident story and the repercussions are not over by a long shot.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:24:36 +0000
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