Australian anglers first became aware of the US-based Pew environment organisation in mid 2009. The group, then headed up by veteran eco-campaigner Imogen Zethoven, had released a glossy brochure calling for the Coral Sea, to the east of northern Queensland, to be declared “the world’s largest no take marine park”.
Fishing World followed up initial reports on this proposal with lengthy interviews with Zethoven, which detailed Pew’s “no compromise” stance on recreational fishing. See HERE for details.
These interviews, published in September 2009 on the Fishing World website, sparked significant concerns amongst the recreational fishing community and resulted in public meetings and vocal opposition to any large scale fishing bans.
At that stage, however, the rec fishing sector was disparate and fragmented with no effective voice or strategies.
Fishing World then arranged an interview with then federal environment minister Peter Garrett. The minister indicated he was not necessarily considering implementing a total fishing closure on all fishing in the Coral Sea. See HERE for details.
Fisho editor Jim Harnwell with former Environment Minister Peter Garrett.
Around that time, however, Garrett and the federal Labor government declared the Coral Sea a “conservation zone”, a move heralded by Pew and other anti-fishing groups as being the precursor to full marine park status.
Pew activists then initiated an extended media and publicity campaign aimed at “educating” the Australian public about its marine park plans. This involved large billboards at Canberra airport (presumedly aimed at federal politicians arriving at the national capital), TV ads featuring a talking fish, press ads and advocacy campaigns by well-known celebrities and public figures.
Pew also used its considerable resources to help fund the campaigns of smaller environment groups (notably the Australian Marine Conservation Society) and was instrumental in developing and funding so-called grassroots organisations including The Big Blue Army, which was active on various social media platforms.
At the time, it was estimated that Pew had a budget of $10 million for its various marine park campaigns.
During this time the recreational fishing sector, although still fragmented and largely ineffective at developing any coherent policies or opposition to the Pew campaigns, was becoming increasingly concerned about the ramifications of large scale fishing bans in the Coral Sea (as well as other areas earmarked by Pew, notably the south-west of WA).
The Australian Fishing Trade Association (AFTA) was the only national organization with the funds and resources to mount an effective campaign against Pew but at that time suffered from ineffective leadership.
However, AFTA did engage in a contentious campaign in the 2010 federal election, opposing the federal Labor government and its Green allies. See HERE for details.
As it turned out, Labor formed a minority government following this election and remained in power.
Following this, AFTA appointed experienced lobbyist Allan Hansard as CEO. Hansard initiated contact with new environment minister Tony Burke and began a process of engagement and discussion over the marine park issue. Initial discussions were positive with Burke ruling out the total closures advocated by Pew and accepting angler suggestions about proactive management strategies including C&R zones and “wilderness fishing areas. See HERE for details.
Extensive national consultations then followed culminating in the production by the Government of a draft zoning plan. This draft was welcomed and supported by the angling fraternity. See HERE for details.
However, this draft plan was strongly critized by environment groups. Burke, doubtless under considerable pressure from the Australian Greens, which had entered into a deal with the Labor party to form minority government after the 2010 poll, ended up producing a final plan which banned anglers from more than 2.3 million square kilometres of Australian waters. He also distanced himself from initiatives such as wilderness zones and C&R fisheries that he had previously supported.
This final plan was lauded as a “major victory” by Pew and other environment groups but caused significant disquiet and anger amongst the rec fishing community.
While all this was going on, Hansard had achieved what many consider to be an impossible task by successfully developing national organisations representing anglers. The Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF) and Keep Australia Fishing (KAF) took the lead advocacy and lobbying roles over the marine parks issue (as well as other issues of national and state importance).
Coalition Senator Richard Colbeck
This included ongoing discussions with the government and the bureaucracy as well as high-level meetings with senior Opposition figures including shadow environment minister Greg Hunt, fisheries spokesman Richard Colbeck and Nationals stalwart Ron Boswell (now retired). These discussions with the alternative government revealed significant support for the angling sector. Considering the Labor Government was then in serious electoral strife, the establishment of good relations with the Opposition was considered a priority.
Retired Nationals Senator Ron Boswell.
Around this time the Government introduced its marine parks Bill to the lower house where it passed by one vote.
It then moved to the Senate where it was subject to disallowance processes.
At this stage the Government was put into complete disarray by moves by former PM Kevin Rudd to unseat his rival Julia Gillard. This created an unprecedented crisis, which eventually saw Gillard removed from office and replaced by the divisive and controversial Rudd.
The resulting chaos of this chain of events saw the Government’s marine parks bill languish in the Senate. Rudd then called an election for September 7, 2013. All polls signalled a clear win by the Opposition.
Lobbying efforts by ARFF and KAF intensified during the election campaign but Pew and other groups seemed to be confident they had achieved their goals and were relatively quiet on the political front.
The campaign by the rec fishing sector reached its zenith in late August 2013 when Opposition leader Tony Abbott made an appearance at the AFTA tackle show and publicly declared his support for the rec fishing sector. Abbott also pledged to overturn any fishing bans in proposed marine parks. See HERE for details.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, then Opposition leader, walking into AFTA 2013 tackle show with AFTA CEO Allan Hansard (right).
At this stage, ARFF, AFTA and KAF launched high profile campaigns supporting the federal Coalition in the upcoming poll. See here for details: http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/fishing-issues-get-mainstream-coverage, http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/keep-australia-fishing-launches-election-campaign and http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/video-keep-australia-fishing-helps-voters-decide.
The Coalition ended up winning a landslide victory following the September 7 poll with Environment Minister Greg Hunt subsequently honouring pre-election pledges by scrapping the former government’s marine parks plans and announcing a “review and structure”. See HERE for details.
At a parliamentary breakfast organised by ARFF following the Coalition taking power, senior Labor figures admitted they needed to “rethink” their marine park policies and better engage with the rec fishing sector.
The Pew organisation has also privately admitted it “made mistakes” in its campaign strategies. Imogen Zethoven, the main architect of its failed Coral Sea plans, now no longer works for Pew in Australia.
The upshot of this is that the Australian recreational fishing sector recorded a major victory against a powerful and wealthy international environment organization in defeating plans for massive no-take areas in the Coral Sea and other locations. This outcome has attracted international interest, with angling groups in North America and Europe signalling moves to use the ARFF/AFTA strategies in their own battles against anti-fishing forces.
While it’s true that since the 2013 election little has been heard on the marine parks front, Fisho understands that the Abbott Government is set to release details of its marine protection plans.
This release is expected imminently.
The details of these plans are as yet largely unknown but it is expected that the recreational fishing sector will not be faced with lockouts anywhere near that proposed by the former Labor government and – thankfully – nothing at all like that proposed by Pew.
While this outcome will doubtless be widely applauded, many anglers are now concerned that things don’t go too far the other way. For instance, it would not be beneficial to the angling sector to see large scale industrial fishing in the Coral Sea or major industrial developments in the Kimberley.
If that sort of scenario unfolded – and at this stage there’s no evidence to say that it would or wouldn’t – the challenge facing groups like ARFF would be to walk something of a tightrope. ARFF would need to support the Abbott Government in allowing Australian anglers to retain reasonable access to important fisheries while also lobbying hard to ensure the marine environment is not degraded by inappropriate industrial fishing activities or unsustainable development.
It would indeed be an interesting – albeit somewhat ironic – outcome if anglers and environment groups, including Pew, ended up working together on these issues …
Time will doubtless reveal all.
Jim Harnwell has been the editor of Fishing World since 1995. He has covered the marine parks issue for the past several years.
