According to the information available professional fishermen were not involve in the death of three dugong found dead in a net near Cairns. Industry spokesman Michael Gardner said that he is very much sure that this net and this dugong have nothing whatsoever to do with commercial fishermen. He added that there were many people in the Cairns region probably realize what is going on with the deliberate killing of dugong but whenever an incident like this involves a net commercial fishermen can still suffer some collateral damage.
Gardner is a President of the Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA) has called on authorities to take action on the deliberate netting of dugong. He informed that it is confirmed that the net involved was not a type used by commercial fishermen. He said that this wasteful, untargeted killing makes a mockery of State and federal Government attempts to protect dugong.
Gardner is of view that such incident is an insult to commercial fishermen who have been banned from working in a number of productive fishing grounds, had nets restricted and accepted a range of onerous fishing rules to reduce the risk of accidentally catching even a single dugong in a net anywhere in the State.
