Went down to Flinders today for a surf, beautiful summer's day here in Melbourne, about 27C glassy, clean, very small but loads of fun.

While taking my board off the roof I see a group of about 8 people proceed to take their diving gear down the beach. Pretty obvious what they were doing - seen similar groups down the beach raping our shores of abalone, limpits, sea urchins and anything else that's alive all of my life. While paddling out, I spot another group of about 8 people who got the idea before the others and paddled real close to them to see their booty of abalone they were taking. Asked one of them what they were doing and informed them that it was a marine park and that what they were doing was illegal. He said "solly (sic), didn't know", to which I replied "don't say sorry to me, say it to your children - when there is nothing left for them."

After a couple of hours I return back to the beach and see the first group returning to their car. Annoyed, I said "what did you get - abalone" to which they replied "no abalone, just some fish". Told them that it's a marine park and that you can't do that here and was told, as I expected, to f'ck off.

They took off in their cars and ten or so minutes later I left. I proceeding up the hill, towards Flinders and I see all these flashing lights, and guess who was camped up the top of the hill watching the whole thing unfold with binoculars - A whole F'cking squad of fisheries rangers. I made sure I stopped at the scene just to eyeball the guy who told me to f'ck off 10 minutes earlier and just let off a cheeky gentle smirk.

Got to love it. The only time I've ever seen fishery rangers prior to this was when they walked up Inverloch peir asking if everyone has fishing licences. Was great to see them doing what they are supposed to be doing, rather than just raising revenue the easy way.

No doubt they get a slap on the wrist like they mostly do around here. Although last few years there have been a few larger fines, mostly when done in association with commercial activities (e.g. selling to restaurants).

You should get the Fisheries number and make the call yourself next time you see it. Make sure they're on the ball.

I was down vicco over the xmas new year period freediving-spearfishing with a mate from geelong who is a marine biologist,We went to killarney? and as we were getting our gear on we noticed someone who had way more abalone than the legal limit and my mate promptly rang the number and informed them and they even knew who he was talking about, So the fisheries are pretty onto it down there..
Good to see

The number to ring fisheries, in Vic anyway, is 13 Fish. Easy to remember.

Great post Oliver, hopefully all their equipment was seized in addition to their vehicle. Could be a costly cab ride back to town I reckon!