The Victorian Government Departments have been undergoing a re-shuffle. Fisheries will no longer be part of the commercial focus but will be integrated with a larger organization which will also contain conservation interests. This may or may not be a good thing for us, but only time will tell.

In the shorter term, a new Executive Director of Fisheries has been appointed. His name is Ross McGowan. There was a special meeting of the round table, with the express purpose of meeting and greeting. Just about all of the 28 members attended.

There was very little time for individuals at the meeting but I mentioned the spearfishing sector, suggested it may have been marginalized over the years and recommended that in the future the roundtable consider ways that we might gain the goals of getting:
1. access to more waters,
2. access to more species and
3. a bigger slice of the recreational licence cash pie.

When you summarize the goals in this way, its surprising how close it is to what other sectors want.

The next meeting of the Roundtable is due in September, when I plan to make some preliminary suggestions on how we may work to achieve the goals.


Ric

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Ric Fallu started spearfishing in Pt Phillip in the early 1960s, and never really stopped