The Hindu Business Line : Catch a fish and let it go...

Jason Harris holds against the bright morning sunlight a gleaming fish that first-time angler Sarbjit Dhaliwal has caught, and places a measuring scale against the writhing captive. "It's a Silver Bream, 21 cm," he announces before adding, to the dismay of the excited Sardarji, "it will have to be put back into the river."

"Accha, koi bat nahin," Dhaliwal, from The Tribune, Chandigarh, resigns himself to the loss of his prize catch, as Harris, captain of the boat, explains the rules of the game.

On board a leisure boat on the Tweed River in New South Wales, Australia, a group of Indian journalists get a good taste of law enforcement Down Under, and how tourism and recreation are intertwined with sustainable development and research.

In Australia, a recreational fishing licence can be had for just A$ 30 (Rs 1,000) a year, but you've got to play by the rules. You can't catch more than 20 fish a day. You can catch only the adult fish; the little ones, like Sarbjit's, will have to be thrown back into the water.

In the State of Queensland, if you catch a female crab, you must let it go. New South Wales is slightly more liberal. You may keep the female crab, provided it is not pregnant. There are also bans against catching certain types of fish, such as trout, during the spawning season.

These rules, as Harris explains, are necessary as recreational fishing and crabbing are becoming popular in Australia, especially among tourists. Japanese tourists, in particular, love them.

There are two types of crabs to catch. First are the small ones that burrow into the mud in a shallow river. These you catch to use as bait for fish. Then there are the large edible crabs. You must be careful with them — otherwise they could easily make a meal of your finger before you make a meal of them.

On board the Catch-a-crab, we sailed down the shallow river admiring the lovely mangrove forests and the feeding pelicans and gulls. The birds swarmed close to the boat, eager for free lunch, but there were surprises along the way. Once, for instance, when Harris held up a silver fish the screeching gulls merely circled the boat, without making a dive for the food.

"Not hungry?" Harris wondered aloud, but the mystery was solved the next second. Higher up, an eagle — the king of the skies — was gliding about, keenly eyeing the fish. No other bird dared make a dash for the royal meal. Soon the fish was flung into the water and the eagle grabbed it before flying off to the trees.

Meanwhile, the boat made its rendezvous with the crabs. Each of us was given a cycle-pump-like device to catch the crab. You plunge the device into the riverbed, suck up some mud and pump it out. Out comes the crab (sometimes) along with the mud.

Twenty-five men working for 25 minutes — that makes it about 10 man-hours — bring up a kilogram of crabs. But before they can be fixed to the fishing hooks there is another little hunt — for the trapped edible crabs. Five traps have caught some ten crabs.

Harris picked one up and began explaining its anatomy. But only a handful, mostly vegetarians, stopped to listen. The rest hurried to the seafood lunch on offer aboard the boat. No prizes for guessing the menu. Crabs.

But one crucial question remained to be answered. Down the river and into the forests, how would anyone know if you violated the rules of recreational fishing?

You're strictly advised not to fish for trouble here. "There are inspectors and you don't know when they would come," explained Harris. If they catch you with, say, a pregnant female crab or a baby abalone, you had it... massive fines and confiscation of the boat.

Penalties are ruthlessly levied. Recently a 36-year-old man was sentenced by the Bega Local Court to one month's imprisonment and an additional fine of A$ 6,820, for possessing more than the allowed quantity of fish.

The Department of Primary Industries of Australia (in-charge of fisheries) even has plans to convert recreational fishing into a source of data for research. If you catch an undersize fish, tag it before releasing into the water. In the future, the person who catches such a (legally) tagged fish gets a reward. The idea is to keep track of these fish and their habitat.

An example of sustainable tourism is the recently-approved three-year A$ 369,000 (Rs 1.3 crore) pilot programme of the Recreational Fishing Trusts to create six small artificial reefs in Botany Bay in New South Wales. The reefs, consisting of 180 concrete ball modules, will create new fish habitats. The programme will help provide vital information on the role of artificial reefs as a fisheries enhancement tool. So, the message is clear. Play by the rules, there's plenty of fun to be had (except if you are fish or crab). Violate, and you are in for trouble, big time.

Picture by the author