My wife and I run Crowdy Bay Charters, our core business being taking people fishing offshore from Crowdy. We have lived in the Manning Valley since 1984, firstly in Taree and in 2005 moved to Crowdy Head, I have been a fisherman here since 1984 starting the charter business in 1997.

You might think that the addition of fish cleaning tables to Crowdy would benefit my business, and you would be right.

However, there is a bigger picture, fishers are not the only users of the harbour at Crowdy, we need to be mindful of all users.

Although the harbour is used by many recreational and three commercial fishers, it is also used by others, including surfers, paddleboarders, kayakers, snorkelers and swimmers.

Historically there was a large commercial fishing fleet operating from Crowdy, some of their catch being retailed from the co-op. Consultation with one of the retired commercial fishers revealed that they elected not to have cleaning tables discharging offal into the harbour for fear of shark attack, as often they would need to enter the water to perform maintenance on their boats. Offal was taken to sea and or used as bait in their fish traps.

The introduction of six fish cleaning tables and the associated offal would have presented an unacceptable shark risk to these users of the harbour. Unlike an estuary like Forster, there is no great tidal flow from the harbour meaning that the offal would not be dispersed. It would be a big ask for the pelicans to deal with it all.

On weekends we can have 50-plus boats launching from Crowdy daily. During the autumn large catches of dolphinfish and mackerel are caught and their fish frames can each be more than a metre long.

Readers may remember the red weed event in the harbour when it took nearly a month to disperse. The offal would be like a large burley pot with the potential to attract sharks into the harbour.

There would also have been traffic flow and parking problems near the fish cleaning tables as fishers would have been unlikely to carry their catch, sometimes 20-plus kilos, from the boat trailer parking area the 300 odd metres to the fish cleaning tables.

Once again congratulations to council for responding to our concerns.