THE fisher at the centre of the Portland Bay gill netting storm says he and his workers and family have had to put up with death threats, intimidation and a “disgraceful” campaign to get rid of them – but he isn’t doing anything to harm the marine life of the area or the recreational fishing sector.

Phil McAdam has spoken out after a campaign to ban netting in the Bay year-round gathers momentum, the Victorian Fisheries Authority having issued a draft Fisheries Notice – open for public comment until Monday – that would see that introduced, as well as a ban on long lines.

While commercial fishers have been relatively quiet as the no netting campaign built up momentum, they have recently begun to come out in defence of their profession.

Local commercial fishers Robbie Davis (last Friday’s Observer) and Andrew Delony (today’s edition) have expressed concerns about what the notice might lead to.

Mr McAdam came to Portland in April, fishing using an Open Fishery Access Licence that he had held for a long time but not really used after having operated using another licence in Port Phillip Bay for 45 years.

Based in Williamstown, that business – catching sardines for the local bait and food markets – stopped when the state government closed Port Phillip Bay last year.

Then Mr McAdam made his next move.

“I activated the ocean access licence under the advice of the VFA,” he said.

“Because I fought the closure of Port Phillip Bay to the death knock and they kept throwing it back at me ‘you’ve got this other licence, why don’t you activate that?’

“We basically had about a year off and gathered our thoughts, then we set up camp down here.

“April 17 was the first date we fished down here.

“We didn’t fish along the shore for quite a while after that.

“We bought property, we’re building a house, but this Fisheries Notice they’re bringing in will basically put me out of business once again.”

 Mr McAdam said he had “two short phone calls” with the VFA since.

“They’re not looking for solutions on my behalf,” he said.

“They meet with the recreationals on a regular basis to get their input but they’re not interested in meeting with commercials at all.”

A VFA spokesman said: “The VFA has regularly engaged with Portland Bay stakeholders, both directly and through the representative bodies for both commercial and recreational fishers.”

That included VRFish for the recreational sector and Seafood Industry Victoria for commercial fishers.

Mr McAdam said he chose Portland Bay because it was sheltered compared to the rest of the coast, but even then had only managed to get out on the water 17 times in the past five months.

He was gill netting, but there were many misconceptions about what he was doing.

“It’s a very effective way of targeting certain fish,” he said.

“It’s like a net across a tennis court – if the ball’s too small it goes through and if the ball’s too big it bounces off.

“You’ve got to have just the right size net.”

Mr McAdam also took aim at claims he was cleaning out fish that recreational fishers might catch.

“The fish that I’m targeting are pike and snook, which are not recreational species,” he said.

“Yes you get the occasional whiting, but not a lot.

“Over 80 per cent of the fish have been non-recreational species.

“Whether I’m fishing out there or not is not going to make any difference to the rec sector whatsoever.”

That was backed by Mr Delony – a long-time Portland commercial fisher who was at the centre of the original 1994 agreement to not net in the Bay at certain times – who said gill nets might only be in the water two hours – “they’re not in there 24 hours a day” – and only caught what swum into them.

“Most of the fish in Portland Bay are migratory as well, snapper and whiting don’t breed here, the only really local fish we’ve got are wrasse,” Mr Delony said.

Mr McAdam said that he had abided by the law – the so-called “gentleman’s agreement” that was actually part of the Fisheries Regulations (see separate story).

“They’ll continue to tell you I’ve broken that agreement, but that’s just an outright lie,” he said.

“I’ve abided by it the whole time I’ve been here but they made me out to be the bad guy, the deal breaker, while in actual fact they are the deal breakers.

“In that agreement (see separate story) it also says the rec sector has got to respect the commercial sector and that is the deal that has been broken, not me fishing.

“It’s just a sad state of affairs.

“I have my daughter working on the boat but she refuses to now because of the intimidation, death threats and cutting up the nets.

“She refuses to come out and I can’t blame her for that.

“It’s not just me, my workers and family have suffered character assassination for this.

“It’s been quite disgraceful, some of the stuff they’ve said.”

Mr McAdam said he would consider legal action where necessary.

Mr Delony said the last fisherman to try netting in the Bay, about 10 years ago, had been threatened as well “and went and did something else”.

Mr McAdam also pointed out that those without fishing equipment had a right to eat fish as well.

“You’ve got these greedy recs that think that every fish in the sea belongs to them,” Mr McAdam said.

“Grandma in the rest home or up on the hill has no right whatsoever to eat fish.”

Mr McAdam said the commercial and recreational sectors could work together.

“But you’ve got these bloody idiots carrying on like a pork chop thinking I’m going to catch every fish in the ocean,” he said.

“Well I’ve been going 46 years and I haven’t got close yet.”