The commercial fishermen of South West coast Australia have vowed to fight new marine reserve plan that would ban trawl fishing in an area of more than 500,000 square kilometers off the south-west of Australia. Stakeholders have 90 days to respond to a huge marine reserve proposed by the Federal Government stretching from Kangaroo Island, south of Adelaide, to Shark Bay in Western Australia.
The Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishing Industry Association is attending an information session in Adelaide and its executive officer Jeff Moore thinks the size of the planned reserve is excessive. According to him the land only got about 5 percent national parks. He added that these proposals are looking at taking something like 40 per cent of the south-west area.
He also told that the fishing industry is certainly wants to work with the Government through this very truncated 90-day process. Moore said that proposed restrictions on other industries are less restrictive than those on commercial fishing. He said that the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery has actually had very extensive quotas in place since 2007. A CSIRO report recently released shows there are no high-risk species threats to each species that the trawl fishery interacts with.
But the South Australia’s Recreational Fishing Advisory Council said that the proposed reserve will not have as much impact on recreational anglers as the SA Government’s proposed marine parks. The council is pleased that the Government has listened to anglers and not included a popular tuna fishing spot south of Port Lincoln in a planned no-take zone. It furthers says that this plan offers almost no protection, no meaningful protection for South Australia’s unique marine life and particularly the frequent whales that come here for sanctuary.
