FEDERAL Environment Minister Tony Burke is under fire in the mainstream media for “selling out” to foreign green groups over his plans to lock up vast areas of the Coral Sea to commercial fishing.
An article on The Australian newspaper’s website today reports that Queensland’s peak commercial fishing group has accused the federal Government of “pandering to ‘green’ ideology” by proposing to close half of the 989,842 sq km Coral Sea Marine Reserve to commercial fishing operations, including trawling.
Trawling, along with long-lining, is internationally recognised as having poor environmental credentials, and is associated with significant bycatch and destruction of coral and reef areas.
The Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA) told The Australian that the proposed reserve was a “sell-out to the lobbying efforts of the US-based global environment group the PEW foundation”.
Regular readers of fishingworld.com.au will know that PEW and various other anti-fishing groups have been pushing hard for a complete ban on all fishing – commercial and recreational – in the Coral Sea.
Tony Burke ruled out a total ban during a meeting with Fisho last year – see full details HERE – and has publicly expressed interest in developing rec-only areas, as well as C&R-only fisheries, within the Coral Sea Marine Reserve.
Public submissions to the Coral Sea plan close on February 24.
The Australian’s report reveals that QSIA plans to make a submission “calling for the establishment of a 3000sq km zone inside the marine park where trawlers would be able to operate”.
QSIA chief executive Winston Harris said the government should accept the compromise, as trawler operators were able to fish in 10 per cent of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, The Australian reported.
The Australian’s report did not address recreational fishing concerns with unsustainable commercial fishing methods.
The head of the peak national recreational fishing group told Fisho today said that while the no-compromise push for a total lock-up of the Coral Sea by groups such as PEW was “extremist”, Australian anglers expected this area to be protected from destructive and unsustainable activities.
“We’d like to see the Coral Sea become an internationally recognised sportfishery where anglers can experience some of the best fishing on the planet,” Australian Fishing Trade Association (AFTA) CEO Allan Hansard said.
“Well-managed recreational fishing can have positive benefits to the environment and the community at large.
“Australian anglers don’t support the unsustainable commercial exploitation of oceanic resources but neither do we subscribe to the hard-core ‘lock it up’ mentality espoused by overseas groups such as PEW.
“Anglers are the true guardians of our marine resources and we see this Coral Sea plan as having great potential to develop the basis of a fantastically sustainable sportfishery,” Hansard said.
AFTA and other rec-fishing organizations would lobby the Government to develop sportfishing opportunities in the Coral Sea, and other important fisheries, Hansard said.
This would include developing policies based on respecting and protecting fish and fish habitat but realising also the huge economic and social benefits that recreational fishing can bring.
“This is the great challenge and opportunity now facing the federal Government,” Hansard said. “And we are looking forward to engaging with the minister and his advisers to take these ideas and policies forward.”
Read the full media report on this latest development on the ongoing Coral Sea saga HERE.
