Primary Industries and Water Minister David Llewellyn in his letter mentioned that there are 22,000 Tasmanians who hold fishing licences, they can use it in al occasion, weekend and holiday that their pastime can continue uninterrupted and unimpeded. His letter showed that the Lennon government has pledged never to agree to the latest recommendations of Tasmania’s main planning body, the Resource Planning and Development Commission, to establish 14 new marine reserves in the southeast.
The RPDC was given the job by the State Government in the first place of recommending appropriate marine parks under its own marine protection strategy. Last year the RPDC in its report proposed the creation of 45 new marine reserves around the Bruny bioregion, covering an area of 38,407 hectares of coastal reefs and offshore rocks and bays.
But the proposal was discussed with fishing community and government and in the final report the RPDC had slashed the number of recommended Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) from 45 to just 14, and their total area by 69 per cent to just 12,072ha. IN the final list there are 14 which include no-take zones around the popular fishing spots of Hippolyte Rocks and Fortescue Bay on the Tasman Peninsula, the focus of much of the original controversy, though of greatly diminished size and scale.
Simon Cooper, the executive commissioner of the RPDC, told that the 14 recommended areas (create) as lean a system (of MPAs) as the Commission could determine whilst still complying with the terms of reference and the (Government’s own) Tasmanian Marine Protected Areas Strategy,” the final RPDC report pointedly states.
