The recent news of number of turtles been found dead on the banks of the Boyne River has outraged the Boyne island resident Jones. He has successfully campaigned Environment Minister Kate Jones to take immediate action by banning commercial netting within the river.
The pressure to push for permanent ban of commercial netting in the river was so increased that Ms Jones announced an interim conservation order, banning net fishing for 60 days near the mouth of the Boyne River, in response to the deaths of 22 green turtles over the past month.
According to the announcement the new ban prohibits net fishing within 1km of the Boyne River mouth. And while the local community may have proverbially won the battle they still not have won the war in assuring permanent protection of the river system against commercial netting. The Minister Mrs Jones said that the community still needs to put pressure on the government and petition the Department of Fisheries to change the zoning so the greater river mouth and estuaries were permanently protected from commercial netting.
She said that putting ban now gives us more time to study the situation and do good work for the community. At the same time Mrs Jones suggest the members of the community to forward their own objections against net fishing within Boyne River to government agencies and Member for Gladstone Liz Cunningham. She has vowed to continue her campaign for a permanent ban, a campaign which can only gain momentum based on valued community support.
