Australian authority is up to review the scientific basis of marine parks and put money on the table to reduce the size of the commercial fishing fleet. The planned shake-up follows a sustained decline in seafood production in NSW to below 20,000 tonnes a year, well down from an output of about 30,000 tonnes 20 years ago. Even the volume of locally caught fish going through the Sydney Fish Market has fallen significantly from the late 1990s, partly due to the locking up of parts of the coast in marine parks and fishing no-go zones.
NSW has five marine parks, along with a number of aquatic reserves – about 10 in Sydney alone – with tight controls on the extent of both commercial and recreational fishing. The opposition’s primary industry and energy spokesman, Duncan Gay, described the limits on fishing in marine parks and reserves as ”voodoo environmentalism” because of the lack of scientific rigour surrounding much of the assessments.
The main part of the Coalition’s policy is to commit $16 million to help more commercial fishermen leave the industry, putting the remaining industry and fishing resource on a more viable footing. According to Gay this policy goes a long way to ensuring that the industry remains viable and that the NSW public can keep eating fresh local seafood.
