>That may be true, but you still won't be able to pass them onto anyone
>else as they won't have the appropriate permit. There was only a short
>period of time to apply for them after the legislation came in. I'm sure
>that if ten years later you still had a given banned fish that usually
>lives five years that you may be in trouble. It'd be interesting for
>those of you entangled in this debate to look into the SA legislation as
>I'm sure ANCA has. It may well be a sign of what's to come.
A similar permit system was introduced in Queensland for Cichlid Keepers at
about the same time as the SA legislation. I'm still the proud owner of
permit no 1156 (although somewhat expired). This permit allowed me to keep
exotic fishes not listed on the 8 schedule to the Fisheries regulations
1977. This permit was the last one that I was issued with (1984). However,
the only people who knew that you had to have a permit were members of
Aquarium Societies. All those other poor souls out there that were keeping,
breeding and selling Cichlids didn't know a damn thing about them. They just
kept on keeping, breeding and selling ;-)
Eventually Noel Haysom and the Qld Fisheries Department saw how stupid the
system was and gave it all away as a waste of time, energy and money. As far
as I know nobody in South Australia is wanting for any Australian, PNG
species or any other exotics currently available in Australia, you just cant
buy them in retail stores (unless you know the proprietor of course). Those
that want them have got them and I assume this will continue despite any
Government intervention ~ smart fishkeepers will just keep it all quite. If
memory serves me right, I think Ian Kirkgaarde (probably wrong spelling) was
the instigator of that fiasco in South Australia. (later on I think he
became the director or something like that?)
Lets face it, Governments usually only react to bad publicity or overly
ambitious Academic Bureaucrats and Departmental Greenies with a personal axe
to grind or seeking long term employment. This is what I mean about how
stupid this whole situation is. People have been keeping exotic fishes in
Australia since the turn of the century. My Grandfather (bless his soul)
kept white clouds and paradise fish in converted kerosine drums in the late
1920 - 30's and people have been keeping and breeding them ever since. Yet
today it is illegal to import female paradise fish. I've never seen any
reports of feral populations anywhere in Australia.
Adrian.
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Adrian R. Tappin
"Home of the Rainbowfish"
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm
http://www.angfa.org/rainbowfish/home.htm
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