A SOUTHERN JEWEL

摘要

WHEN A SERIES of 30 designated recreational fishing areas (RFAs or 'fishing havens' as the government spin doctors love to call them) were created in NSW estuaries earlier this decade, die move was met with enthusiasm by that state's army of anglers.At the time, it was touted as the first round of a process that would ultimately see commercial netting and harvesting curtailed in many more of our vulnerable estuaries. As it turned out, that promise was hollow. No more RFAs have been created, and a few of the original ones have eroded, while more and more sanctuaries and no-take zones spring up each year to limit our sport. But at least we still have most of those original recreational fishing areas! Within a year or two of the creation of these 'havens', fishing results began to improve dramatically. One of the first species to show the benefits of getting the nets out was the ever-popular dusky flathead. Flattie numbers and average sizes grew faster than most of us had dared to expect. Also, mulloway or jewfish began turning up in anglers' catches at places like St Georges Basin (south of Jervis Bay), where they'd been practically unknown for years. Whiting populations improved. Mullet numbers went ballistic, and a few more bream made it past legal size before ending up in a net. The RFAs clearly worked.