A REPORT calling for more marine parks off the Top End has met with an angry reaction from the Northern Territory’s fishos.
With the issue making front page news in the Top End, Fisheries Minister Kon Vatskalis has also shared the concerns of Territorians. He says the Australian Marine Conservation Society has misrepresented its wish-list of no-go areas as a scientific report. (For more click here.)
The AMCS has called for the no-go, no-take areas around the Territory coastline as part of a submission to the Federal Government on marine conservation zones.
Vatskalis told the ABC the Territory has the most sustainable fishery in the nation and the society should have done more research before it called for fishing bans.
“I am very angry when they come out and portray as a report their submission to the minister,” he said.
“(There is) no scientific basis behind it, nothing at all, it’s a wish-list.
“Might as well, all of us, get out of the Territory and the last one turn out the light.
“That is not the idea.
“The idea is, yes we go fishing but we do manage our fishing sustainably.”
Vatskalis says he will only accept Canberra’s proposed single conservation zone.
Country Liberals Senator for the NT Nigel Scullion and the Federal Member for Solomon Natasha Griggs have also publicly stated they will fight against lock-out zones in Territory coastal waters.
“This idea by The Australian Marine Conservation Society to establish 12 “no-go no-take” zones off the NT coast is just absurd,” Senator Scullion said.
“The green groups behind this push won’t stop until all waters are covered by no go zones and they will destroy both recreational and the important commercial fishing industry.”
“I don’t want the future of recreational fishing in the Territory to be the sacrificial lamb in any power deals between the Greens and Labor,” Natasha Griggs said.
“As a Territorian I do not want to see any threat to the enjoyment of recreational fishing in the Northern Territory – it is our way of life.”
The Australian Marine Conservation Society has identified sites it wants designated as marine parks as: Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Fog Bay, Van Diemen Rise, the Pinnacles of Cobourg Peninsula, Limmen Bight and Groote Eylandt.
Fisho will keep you up to date on further developments.
