I NEVER thought I would get to the point that I had to write this. As a responsible recreational angler for over 40 years, I have stuck by government imposed size and bag limits, fisheries closures to allow for spawning aggregations and been involved in scientific fish tagging programmes to name but a few aspects of my fishing life.
I have always stuck by the rules but last Friday sealed the day that I became an anarchist in relation to fisheries management. On Friday, federal Environment Minister Tony Burke proclaimed a huge area of Australia’s waters as a series of marine parks around the country.
While green groups will no doubt be dancing in the streets over the move, what about recreational anglers in all this? Commercial fishers will be precluded from fishing in these areas as well, but they will receive financial compensation for the exclusion – up $100 million worth, what’s the story for recreational anglers? You got a giant kick up the arse, that’s what!
Friday’s proclamation caps personally, a three year long series of supposed negotiations with the minister and his department.
Unfortunately my report card scores the minister a complete and utter fail for this sham of a process. If there was real science behind the move, I could have lived with that, however, it is not and never has been about science. It’s about political payback to the green lobby for the ability of federal Labor to govern this country. It’s about the power that overseas funded green groups have over the minister and his department and the absolute treachery and goalpost changing tactics they used to get this through.
The spin and plain untruths of the green lobby has been breathtaking, but the most startling thing I think, has been the conduct of minister Burke. He has even insisted recreational anglers are unaffected by these MPA’s. A total bare faced lie I say!
Areas of the Coral Sea, the Rottnest Trench and Geographe Bay are just three areas where recreational anglers are very much affected, and the minister knows it too. There are plenty of other examples out there but these ones in particular are the worst.
He doesn’t have the courage to own up to these ones and recreational anglers, the little guys in this game, have found it impossible through the media scrum to get the message out.
Once the minister released a draft of this plan, leaders of the Australian fishing community, including myself, met again with the minister in Canberra to try and thrash out a plan to fix the major sticking points of concern to recreational fishermen.
In that meeting, minister Burke admitted to us that he had made a mistake over the Rottnest Trench decision and stated that he would get back to us once he had a chance to have a look at the situation. Shock and horror, he didn’t and has locked us out of an area that we have fished since the late 1940s.
Guess what minister, today I have said “enough”. No amount of green paint on a map is going to stop me or many others here in WA fishing this area. No science, no lock out I say.
Tell me who is going to police the area, located over 40 nautical miles off the coast? Are you going to run aircraft around a little square in the ocean to catch us out? At what cost to the taxpayer? Patrol boats might be another option open to you, but who then will stop all the illegal boats that are freely entering our waters on a daily basis? I forgot, your government tore down laws that effectively stopped the boats and has left us with almost no border protection – well done Labor. Your green mates are very pleased though.
Minister, today I say to you, stick your MPA’s where they fit, you can’t and won’t be able to stop me in practice. I will see you out there some time!
