PEOPLE defecating in bushes, dogs injured by discarded fishing hooks, rubbish everywhere and abuse hurled at boat owners passing fishing lines in the boating channel. This is the new reality for the hundreds of people who own properties at the exclusive Martha Cove marina development.
Owners and nearby residents have had enough, with 1000 signing a petition started a week ago to enforce a ban on fishing in the Martha Cove marina.
The News understands that an environmental management plan for Martha Cove stipulates that there can be no fishing within the marina (the land and waterway at the marina are owned by the owners corporation), or on the public boardwalks.
But one of the petition organisers, Georgia Symmons, says enforcement problems and lack of accountability meant people were flouting the rules.
“There is a bit of confusion over what can you do in the marina, who is the responsible body and who polices it, and trying to pin somebody down to get an answer is difficult,” she said.
“I tried talking to Fisheries, but got nowhere, I tried the council and I tried the body corporate, but I just got passed back and forth.”
A Fisheries Victoria spokesman said it was aware of concerns about fishing in the area, but that a recent patrol had found “100 per cent compliance” from fishers.
“The vast majority of fishers do the right thing, and we encourage everyone to always take their waste with them or discard it in bins at fishing locations,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said many of the fishers targeting the marina area were after yellowtail scad – a popular fish in Vietnamese cuisine – and mackerel, both which have bag limits of 40 each and are abundant in the waters around the cove.
However, Symmons said she had watched people take large bags brimming with fish, who when questioned, said they were planning to catch and release.
“But I never saw them release any,” she said.
Resident and former president of the Martha Cove Owners Corporation, Stuart Cox, said the sheer number of people coming to Martha Cove to fish was creating the problems.
“There are always people on the boardwalk, and last night there were at least 60 people all fishing on the breakwater, this morning they were all there again,” he said.
“But there are no toilets so they go in the bushes, and they cast their lines out where the boats come in and out of the channel – it’s only a matter of time before someone’s expensive boat gets a fishing line wrapped around the engine.
“I even heard that one of the security guards who tried to have a word had a knife pulled on him.”
Symmons said she walks the boardwalks around the marina almost daily, and sees the fishing litter left behind.
“I know of at least two dogs that have been injured by hooks – one lost its eye, and I have even had someone cast their line as I was walking by and nearly hook me in the eye the other day,” she said.
“And the rubbish they leave, there’s always toilet paper and excrement in the bushes and waterway, and just the other day someone had left an old chair on the boardwalk after using it to sit and fish, no consideration for other people using the boardwalks.
“It’s not enjoyable anymore, there are just too many fishers and it only takes a few of them to do the wrong thing to ruin it for everyone.”
Symmons said it was clear the environmental management plan was not working.
“At one end of the marina is a fish ladder used to encourage fish breeding in the marina, but then there’s extensive fishing near the mouth of the marina every single day,” she said.
“What sort of environmental management plan is that,” she said.
Resident Julie Sharpe said she had lived on the canal for 13 years, and the problems with fishing rubbish and bad behaviour were becoming worse.
“When we first moved in it wasn’t happening, it was lovely, but gradually over the years more and more people fishing, between 40 to 100 a day,” she said.
“It’s at the point now where I don’t look out my window because I don’t want to watch them doing the wrong thing.”
According to the environment management plan for the parent title at Martha Cove, there can be no fishing in the waterway.
It also states that the owners corporation is responsible for “education” material around the fishing ban, and monitoring fishing in the waterway via CCTV and visual inspections.
But Cox said enforcement required a “cooperative” approach between the state government, the council and the police”.
He also called on Parks Victoria to “lift their game” in regards to regular spot checks.
Cox said owners are planning to meet this week with the council, state government representatives and the police to try to strengthen enforcement of the ban.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 27 September 2022
