Network for Sustainable Fishing (NSF)
Urban Coast of the GBRMP
6 April, 2011.
An informal e-network of
people having interests in fishing
and support industries along the
urban coast of the GBRMP
OVER-ARCHING CONCERNS
The on-going depletion of
inshore fish stocks from
Rockhampton to Cooktown,
Fisheries QLD (FQ)
apparently in denial ,
GBRMPA apparently
powerless to intervene.
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Following recognition that the inshore fish
stocks of the GBRMP are depleted, stocks are
managed such that:
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they are rebuilt and maintained at resilient levels,
greater use is made of Net Free Areas such that
allowable catches are allocated to provide
optimum economic and biodiversity benefits to
local communities, and
all negative impacts of fishing on non-target
species are minimized.
Barramundi
Blue threadfin
Fingermark
King threadfin
Grey mackerel (left)
1.
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Government recognizing:
that inshore fish stocks are
overfished and declining, and
the value of rebuilding these
stocks and allowing communities
to make the best sustainable use
of their local fishing grounds.
/continued
2.
An overhaul of the East
Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery
(ECIFF) regulations, to allow
inshore fish stocks to rebuild
incl. adequate protection of
spawning stocks and nursery
grounds (This will help lead to
higher value, sustainable catches
and boost local economies.)
3.
Minimal impact on nontarget species
Something is killing our turtles and vets have
shown it is not plastic bags. Here are seven of
the many dead turtles all washed ashore at or
near Wonga Beach , FNQ, 2006 – Apr 2011, all
were photographed by the same person.
Fishing nets do
drown turtles;
many people, incl.
some local pro
fishers, believe nets
are responsible for
many of the deaths.
Dugong along the GBRMP urban coast
are at around 3% of their 1960 numbers
yet are regularly found stranded,
sometimes with tail hacked off and/or
bellies slit. The new ‘in-attendance’
regulation of gillnets is ineffective when
netters can be asleep in their boat bunks
or even 400m from a net and wide awake.
Tail hacked off probably
to aid release from net
Bellies slit open and weighed down to
make them sink – not illegal hunting!
The rare, endemic Australian snubfin dolphin (left) occurring only in
shallow, inshore tropical waters in N. Australia and Qld, is at high risk from
netting. A pod was wiped out by shark nets at Ellis Beach near Cairns,
(Ross, DEWHA website). The Indo-pacific humpback, top right, (possibly a
2nd endemic species) also only found inshore, is also placed at risk by netting.
Humpback whales, incl.
Migaloo, on the grey
mackerel spawning
grounds when offshore
netters were operating.
Humpback whales, left, photographed in the presence of a fisheries officer
and within 300m of netters using 600m of netting. It is just a matter of time!
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Two decades of dealing with FQ has ended in
stalemate and public disenchantment.
Input from the recreational and charter fishing
sectors, although requested by FQ, has been
largely ignored in favour of commercial
interests and to the detriment of fish stocks.
It is time to make these concerns an election
issue and press for changes:
in government policy towards fishing,
 within FQ and
 to ECIFF regulations.
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The EPBC Act 1999 under which export fisheries
must be assessed to determine whether they can
be declared as approved Wildlife Trading
Operations,
Federal Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable
Management of Fisheries,
The Independent Review of QLD’s ECIFF
undertaken in 2008 at the request of the Federal
Minister for the Environment
The Conditions and Recommendations placed on the
ECIFF by the Federal Minister before it could be declared
an approved WTO
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lack of species-specific catch data,
gillnet fishing effort data insufficient for management,
inadequate data on net interactions with marine mammals,
very limited knowledge of the sustainable levels of catch,
risky indicators of stock abundance /sustainability,
risky level of precaution adopted,
some species at high risk of localised depletion,
depletions not always obvious when fishery assessments are
based on methods used,
some significant gaps in a number of important areas,
lack of level of flexibility required for a World Heritage Area,
need to reduce complexity and ensure sustainability of species,
need for a fundamental rethink of the management approach.
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As a priority DPI&F should … seek broad public
and scientific input on the use of spatial
management … to reduce the potential for
localised depletion of key species ... (findings to be
implemented by 31 Dec. 2010 (any progress???)
Spanish mackerel, a line-only
species, netted on one of their
spawning patches
Showing near-ripe eggs from a linefished SM caught the same week, nearby
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The NSF “Review of
Concerns ...” publ. on
line by Fishers for
Conservation (FFC),
Aug. 2010, 62pp. (see
opposite) considered the
new regulations and
outlined why they will
fail to halt the decline in
inshore species, and
considered
the fishery should not be
declared an approved
WTO in 2012 unless
further changes are made.
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that iconic inshore fish stocks are depleted,
the need to afford greater protection to breeding
stock, breeding grounds and nursery areas,
the need to naturally rebuild local fish stocks
(not re-stocking with fingerlings),
the need for communities to make the best
economic use of recovered fisheries e.g. through
booming recreational fishing and tourism near urban centres, or
mackerel being sold in prime condition as line caught table fish and
not as cat food because of gluts in a boom-and-bust netting bonanza.
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Provision of additional short-term funding for a
Qld Fisheries Review whereby world leaders in
fisheries management review FQ and the ECIFF,
The Review to develop and introduce an optimal
management framework whereby commercial
fishing effort is managed on a appropriately fine
spatial scale,
Key positions within FQ to be re-advertised
(incumbents may re-apply),
Formation of a Recreational & Charter Fishing
Branch within FQ.
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Smooth and partially smooth waters around
key urban and tourism centres to be declared
line fishing only (both commercial & rec), i.e.
Urban & Tourism Net Free Areas,
All mackerel to be line only species with all
by-catch of netted mackerel to be promptly
discarded at sea (to close the loophole),
Restriction of netting effort by individuals
on an appropriately fine spatial scale to
encourage better husbandry of resources.
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Further information is available from your local NSF
co-ordinator and at www.ffc.org.au; see also
www.sunfishqld.com.au.
Please circulate this presentation on your local
networks, and to clubs, local schools and especially
your local politicians, in this an election year.
Additional NSF co-ordinators for areas not already
covered are welcomed, please contact one of us.
There is no copyright to this presentation, you are
free to adjust, cut and paste under the name of your
own organisation or network as you may wish.
You can help make a difference, please make the time
to do so.
/References
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EPBC Act 1999, Section 303FN requires export fisheries to be managed in an
ecologically sustainable way and approved as Wildlife Trading Operations,
Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries’, Ed. 2
(2007); see: www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/publications/pubs/guidelines.pdf;
The Independent Review of QLD ECIFF undertaken for the Federal Minister,
31/10/2008; see: www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/qld/east-coast-finfish/index.html;
Conditions and recommendations placed on the ECIFF by the Federal
Minister before it could be declared an approved WTO in 2009; see:
www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/qld/east-coast-finfish/index.html
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NSF, 2010. A review of concerns relating to the offshore gillnet fishery in the
inshore waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in relation to the
Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries with
recommendations for early intervention. Ed. David Cook, NSF. Publ. Fishers
for Conservation, 62pp; see: www.ffc.org.au/ Grey_Mackerel.html#latest