This year, 2010 is the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity, many contributors have made worthy inputs into matters effecting biodiversity whether they be land use issues such as forestry or freshwater management.
However remarkably little comment is made with regard to the marine environment which is certainly the poor cousin in terms of column inches devoted to environmental matters in this state. Mortifying practices continue in the marine environment that people would be truly shocked about if they were to occur on the land. Certainly ethics feature fairly low on the scale to many Tasmanians in their everyday relationship with the sea.
The Tasmanian practice of recreational gillnetting is a destructive an unnecessary fishing method that has unacceptable impact on non-target species such as seabirds and marine mammals as well as other non-target species of fish.
Many of these species are fully protected under state and Commonwealth legislation but die as a result of their entanglement with recreational gillnets. While in commercial fisheries there are programs in place to mitigate the impacts on non- target species, there are for all practical purposes none with regard recreational fishers.
There are effectively few fish havens within in the state and the present Bartlett Government has no plans to implement any new marine reserves for any other part of Tasmania.
Without a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of reserves, Tasmania has no insurance policy in place for the protection of scalefish species in this state. Therefore recreational gillnetting cannot in anyway be justified.
It is particularly galling that the Tasmanian Government cites a lack of information on the impact of recreational gillnetting on fish stocks and its impacts on marine biodiversity overall as its reason for not banning the practice. For start it does not fund sufficient research to adequately asses such impacts and it is never likely to fund the research to a scale that would provide a comprehensive and scientifically adequate assessment.
The use of recreational gillnets even on the targeted fish species has negative impacts on the viability of fish stocks within Tasmania.
Long ago recreational gillnets were banned in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales (where it is considered a wasteful and unsustainable fishing practice).
Until our state outlaws this fishing technique for recreational fishers, any attempts to claim that we have in place an effective fisheries management system that conforms to sound ecosystem based management principles is entirely laughable.
Recently recreational fishermen have criticised commercial fishers for the current state of the Tasmanian rock lobster fishery and accuse the industry of being entirely to blame. Consistently the tone of the material circulated rejects the notion that recreational fishers share any responsibility for the decline of rock lobster in Tasmania. Their arguments are entirely selfish and unscientific and show clearly that they are unwilling to take their fair share of responsibility for the decline of this species.
In 1995, there were 8500 licensed recreational rock lobster fishermen in Tasmania, in 2010 there are 21,500 licensed recreational rock lobster fishers. The number of recreational fishers has more than doubled in the last fifteen years and so has the killing power of modern fishing aids (fish plotters, GPS, dry suits and in general larger boats) which mean that they can access the targeted species far more easily than recreational fishers of the past. In many parts of the east coast of Tasmania mature rock lobsters are rarely sighted.
The Tasmanian Government needs to greatly reduce the take of rock lobster if the future of this species is to be secured. This may include moratoriums on fishing rock lobster on parts of the coastline where this keystone species has a very shaky hold.
Better yet would be the creation of some permanent conservation areas for the protection of this species and other marine wildlife through the establishment of marine reserves. Tasmania’s current management approach is entirely inadequate.
