Radio Precis 18/08/04
Ban on net fishing could be extended
A push for a proposed ban on net fishing in Gulf St Vincent could be extended across the state. The Democrats will introduce legislation seeking to ban netting in the Gulf saying it's warranted on environmental grounds.
Democrats fisheries spokesman, Ian Gilfillan, says the part is focusing its attention on the Gulf St Vincent at this stage, but he says other areas may need scrutiny, depending on scientific evidence:
(639ABC 6.30am/8.30am) "I know from my own personal experience at home on Kangaroo Island, Antechamber Bay still hasn't recovered from the ravages of netting but I am not prepared on behalf of the Democrats to bite more than we can chew at this stage. I feel that the process of banning netting in other areas needs to have further study and I'm prepared to be part of that."
(639ABC 7.30am) "I'm certainly not going to rule that out.
I think it's a matter of accurately and impartially assessing feed stocks, the actual livestock itself, the fisheries and of course the effects of what their habitat. If the... if the netting is having a savage effect on certain environments and populations then we must look at that."
President of the West Coast Professional Fishermen's Association, Alan Seuter says the result would be a market shortage of popular species such as Garfish and Tommy Rough and questioned the Democrats claims that netting is environmentally damaging:
(639ABC 6.30am) "There is no such scientific evidence. That is just pitiful on the part of the Democrats I'm afraid. I'd like to see that scientific evidence. I don't believe it exists."
(639ABC 8.30am) "Emotional piffle again. The reality is now that recreational anglers are catching 58% of the fish. The remaining net fishers are taking 10%. Using them as a whipping boy isn't going to solve a problem which is that there are too many people catching too many fish."
The South Australian Fishing Industry Council has hit out at Mr Gilfillan saying he's making ill informed claims, which could threaten small businesses and regional economies.
SAFIC General Manager, Neil McDonald, says Mr Gilfillan should get
out with the fishers and see first hand how net fisheries operate. He says
interstate studies have proven that with advances in technology commercial net fishing is in fact one of the most environmentally responsible
practices:
(639ABC 7.30am) "The use of the types of technology that the industry now has, has very little impact on the marine habitats, such as sea grass beds and that type of thing. The technology of haul net fishing allows the fish to be retained alive in the net and be manually sorted while they're still in the water. So undersized fish or non target fish can be returned to the water immediately."
Neil McDonald, General Manager, SA Fishing Industry Council (639ABC
6.40-6.45) Democrats push for a net ban in Gulf of St Vincent
(Grosser: First on the program to fishing news ... the Democrats' push for a net ban in Gulf of St Vincent, and potentially further afield, has met an angry response from the South Australian Fishing Industry Council
- Democrat Ian Gilfillan proposes legislation to ban netting in the Gulf, saying it's warranted on environmental grounds, but ... Neil McDonald believes Mr Gilfillan is misled) The call by the Democrats is both ill informed and highly inappropriate - it singles net fishers out as an activity that they claim to be environmentally unsensitive [sic] and unacceptable ... quite clearly we refute that ... the Democrats really don't understand what modern net fishing is about ... we're calling for Mr Gilfillan to stop standing in the wings ... throwing rocks at viable small businesses ... asking him to actually get out ... get his feet wet, get on a boat ... see what really does happen ... so he gets first hand understanding of the fact that commercial net fishing is a sustainable, safe, environmentally friendly operation (Grosser: What evidence do you have to show that?) There's a couple of different forms of evidence ... the fact that there has been research done interstate on the use of haul net fishing in estuaries in NSW ... which demonstrate that the use of types of technology that the industry now has, has very little impact on the marine habitats ... in fact they found in NSW ... net fishing in areas associated with sea grass habitat actually increased the density of sea grass ... simply because the action of the nets ... stimulates the growth of the sea grass ... in Victoria what they found was that that type of technology is ... highly environmentally friendly ... it's very selective, using an appropriate net mesh set up; you actually eliminate your ... catch of a lot of the smaller undersized ... species ... the technology of haul net fishing allows the fish to be retained alive in the net ... to be manually sorted while they're still in the water ... undersized fish or non target fish can be returned to the water immediately with a minimum of damage ... a very environmentally benign ... very sensitive operation (Grosser: Is that what happens in South Australia then?) Certainly is - in fact the South Australian industry is the industry that developed this particular style of fishing ... it's been adopted in those other states as being a form of best practice (Grosser: But when there is the discussion about how to preserve South Australia's whiting stocks in particular, wouldn't it help to preserve the fishery, to ban netting?) Not at all - net fishing in itself directly only accounts for about 10% of the total catch of King George whiting ... if what Mr Gilfillan and his advisers are seeking is to reduce the ... level of commercial catch of King George whiting ... then they're definitely aiming in the wrong direction ... at the end of the day the commercial net fishery is not a major producer of King George whiting ... the other issue is that quite clearly while commercial net fishing takes place in in-shore waters, some of them may or may not be near or adjacent to fish nursery areas - the reality is the current net configuration that they use, and they are required to use, was based on some work that was done by SARDI in Coffin Bay which demonstrated that current net mesh design configuration maximised the opportunity for undersized King George whiting to be released unharmed ...
Ted Loveday, National Professional Industry Body, Seafood Services (639ABC
6.45-6.49) Aquaculture to make room for wild catch
(Grosser: ... it's claimed it's unrealistic for the recreational sector to pin its hopes on aquaculture to make more room for wild catch - Ted Loveday ... says the commercial fishing sector will continue to grow in partnership with aquaculture as it lifts its targets to meet increasing demand ... as far as the Gulf of St Vincent Mr Loveday says it's the recreational angler ... not the commercial fisher responsible for taking most of the whiting) If you have a look at the King George whiting in the Adelaide region, 79% of the catch of King George whiting taken in that region is taken by the recreational sector ... 21% by the commercial sector
- the message here is not about who should have the pie, it's about making sure that all impacts on the resource are managed effectively ... it really doesn't serve much purpose at all by one group pointing the finger at the other (Grosser: That's tended to be what's happened hasn't it?) It has happened all around the country ... there are increasing examples of fisheries, particularly the in-shore and populated areas where the recreational catch is far exceeding the commercial catch - the commercial industry ... has never ever argued for explicit access to the resource ... I don't think anyone should be given exclusive access to the resource - it's about making sure that all impacts are managed ... quite frankly the commercial and recreational sector could do much better if they combined their efforts against some of the more serious long term threats on fish stocks, things like modification to environmental flows, water quality degradation, habitat degradation from land based impacts (Grosser: What do you think the ratio between commercial and recreational catch should be?) ... there's been a number of studies done ... the National Recreational Fishing Survey showed that the total catch of individual fish ... we're up in the hundred million animals per year ... Robert Kearney estimated 10 years ago that the recreational catch in Australia was about 50,000 tons ... around about 25% of the total commercial catch, which is quite significant given that there are a limited number of species which both sectors actually share ... reasons of inaccessibility or its geographic location - the bottom line is that all impacts on the resource have to be managed effectively, including the external impacts - we don't want to see people arguing over the size of the pie that's diminishing because of external impacts ...
(Grosser: How much is the fishing pressure likely to increase by both commercial and recreational anglers?) ... I'd like to approach that from a different angle ... the CSIRO have done a study recently which shows that by the year 2020 Australia will need another 80,000 tons of seafood just to meet our domestic demand ... we have heard in the past some suggestion that while harbour fishery should be phased out and replaced with aquaculture and so forth, that's just simply not going to happen - commercial fishing and aquaculture are not competing with each other, we're working together to try and meet the increasing demand for seafood ... we really do need to focus to increase the availability of seafood by 80,000 tons in Australia by the year 2020 ... a huge challenge ... everyone needs to work together to make sure that we continue to manage our wild stocks effectively ... that we take advantage of opportunities to supplement those wild stocks with aquaculture ...
Debate over proposed net fishing ban continues
Debate over a proposed net fishing ban continues to widen, with a warning that any ban would cost tax payers huge sums of money in buy outs. The Democrats will put legislation before State Parliament proposing a ban in Gulf St Vincent saying they'd also consider extending the ban across the State.
Secretary of the State's Marine Scale Net Fishers' Association, Jeff Waite is warning any bans would be extremely costly:
(639ABC 12.30pm) "There's been talk of, if they remove nets, they'll have to buy us out. They need a lot of money, they give the poor river fishermen a paltry sum, they won't do that with marine scale net fishermen because there's a lot of money tied up in this fishery. A lot of money tied up. Do you think it costs nothing to go fishing? Let them try and buy us out, see how much it costs us."
Fines for illegal sale of fish
Fisheries authorities say they are expecting more people to be reported over the next 12 months for illegally selling fish caught off Yorke Peninsula. Primary Industries SA says a man from Ardrossan will face court and a fine of up to $30,000 for the illegal sale of 60 kilos of squid.
PIRSA's Acting Manager of Compliance, Randall Donovan says unlicensed fish sales pose a major threat to the future of the region's fish stocks and he says investigations will continue:
(639ABC 12.30pm) "Unfortunately investigations into illegal sales are quite complex and they're generally lengthy. And in this case it took around 12 months. There are a number of investigations into illegal fish sales on the Yorke Peninsula that are continuing at the moment, and this is the first to produce a result, however more results are expected over the next 12 months."
Randall Donovan, Acting Manager, Compliance Operations, PIRSA (639ABC
9.26-9.32) Fish Watch/Illegal fish sales
(Taylor: You might remember a couple of weeks back now on our morning program we spoke with PIRSA about the new regulations that are coming in with regard to the number of whiting ... recreational fishers can catch and take home ... changes are happening on the 1st of October ... joining us this morning Randall Donovan ... now, you're actually pursuing charges against a man at the moment with fisheries related offences ... that includes the illegal sale of squid; can you tell us a little bit more about
this?) ... I'll give you a bit of background ... for the last 2 years Fish Watch have focussed attention on illegal fish sales ... an area identified as a threat to the fishery in risk assessments undertaken - illegal fish sales are a major threat to the long term sustainability of the marine scale fishery ... investigations into illegal sales ... are quite complex ... generally lengthy ... in this case took around 12 months - there are a number of investigations into illegal fish sales on the Yorke Peninsula that are continuing at the moment ... this is the first to produce a result ... more results are expected over the next 12 months (Taylor: What do you mean by illegal fish sales ...) ... in the Fisheries Act 'sale' ... doesn't necessarily mean straight out a hand over for cash for fish, it also includes exchange or barter or trade for goods and services ... where a person isn't licensed or a commercial fisher who goes out recreationally and catches fish ... then sells them, they're then committing an offence
(Taylor: So this person ... you've actually brought charges against this person I take it ... the charges that have been brought against this person are for selling the item illegally ... it's not illegal per se to sell squid, is it?) It is if you're not licensed (Taylor: Right ... this is a recreational fisher that you've caught in the act of selling product?) That's correct ... he's from Ardrossan, being an ex commercial fishermen, sold 60 kilo of squid ... to a man who resides at Glynde ... the Ardrossan man will face charges relating to the illegal sale of the squid, whereas the Glynde man will face charges relating to the purchase of the squid not taken pursuant to a license (Taylor: And where will those charge be heard
Randall?) We're not sure at this stage ...likely that they'll be heard in Adelaide (Taylor: Obviously Fish Watch is out there - is that the message that's coming out of this?) ... there are a number of investigations into illegal sales that are continuing ... we're hopeful and confident of similar results in the coming 12 months (Taylor: When did you start your investigation into illegal sales in the Yorke Peninsula?) Roughly 2 years ago ... it's something we're starting to focus our attention on, on illegal sales ... these things do take a lot of time (Taylor: Specifically on the Yorke Peninsula or other areas as well?) Yorke Peninsula seems to be the place where we have most information coming from ... we'd like that information to continue ... if anyone out there has any information into illegal sales or any fisheries offences they can contact the Fish Watch number on 1800 065 522 ... we'd much appreciate it (Taylor: So it's basically information from the public that's alerted you to the fact that this is happening is it?) That's correct (Taylor: How do you go about treating whether a call's serious or not?) We investigate all calls ... it'll come out during the investigation whether that information is correct or not (Taylor: What other type of fish do you suspect are being sold
illegally?) On the Yorke Peninsula it's a variety of marine scale species - King George whiting's obviously the most prevalent species that we get information of illegal sales on (Taylor: Why is it the Yorke Peninsula that's so specific?) I'm not sure - I suppose it's the large number of people who reside on the Yorke Peninsula ... (Taylor: ... what effect is ... all these illegal sales having on fish numbers ... is that a problem?) ... under the risk assessment that was undertaken by PIRSA Fish Watch it was identified that illegal fish sales are one of the greatest risks to the fishery (Taylor: Just because of the numbers that are being taken out of the water?) That's correct, yeah (Taylor: What types of fines and penalties are involved ...) Penalties for this type of offence are restricted to a maximum of $30,000, as well as the loss of any seized items ... on this occasion there were items seized, such as the squid themselves, the vessel, the freezer ... fishing rods ... (Taylor: So you might keep that boat ...) That's correct (Taylor: ... that's a fairly stiff penalty then, if that does happen) ... it is ... we hope that it does act as a deterrent (Taylor: Randall, thanks for joining us this morning ...)