How we filled out the user survey for Pt Stephen's Marine Park

COMMUNITY AND VISITOR QUESTIONNAIRE : Port Stephens and Great Lakes Marine Park

Fishers have been seeking guidance from ECOfishers in relation to filling out the Marine Parks Authority?s ?Community and Visitor Questionnaire?.

The response that any person gives in this questionnaire is a matter for that person.

For what it is worth, here is my response:

Question 1
Mark on the map the areas I want to use and activities that I will want participate in there:

I am going put a ring around the whole park because all of this is important to me and my activities. I will tick all of the activities because I am engaged in them all or I might be at some stage in the future. (except for jet skis!!!).

Question 2
Five key values of marine parks:
1.   Sustainable fishing everywhere in the park.
2.   Conservation with sustainable use for everybody everywhere in the park. (I oppose preservation with lockouts as promoted by the extreme green movement)
3.   Full and unrestricted access to all of the park for fishing and other sustainable activities
4.   A ban on the discharge of inadequately treated industrial waste, human waste and urban storm water run off in marine parks. This includes waste from fish farming.
5.   A ban on unsustainable mass extraction fishing methods throughout the park

Question 3
Ways of accessing the park:
I will tick them all. (I don?t ride horses but I might want to learn one day)
In ?other?, I will put ?canoe or any other transport I choose?.

Question 4
Boat ramps:
Guess what they want to do here!!!
I will put: ?I use all boat ramps including any natural launching sites and I value them all equally? in every space available.

Question 5
Activities:

I will tick them all except ?jet skis?. I will add more activities than shown here to be consistent with those activities that I marked on the map.

As I am apparently a new class of citizen called a ?visitor?, I will indicate that I participate in these activities daily when on holidays and weekly or perhaps monthly at other times.

Comments:

I will write:
?   I strongly object to the politicisation of environmental issues.
?   The State Government was not given a mandate by the people of NSW to implement the policies of the Greens when they were elected.
?    It is immoral to introduce people unfriendly conservation ideologies of the extreme green movement in exchange for their preferences at election time.? These ideologies are un-Australian, have little basis in science and, consequently, I will not respect or recognize them.
?   I believe that the MPA has a preconceived agenda and that the consultative process is pure tokenism as has been clearly demonstrated at Cape Byron and other marine parks. If the MPA does not respect the consultative process, I will not respect this marine park.
?   Visitors have as much right to access and enjoy marine parks as locals and the question that allows responses to be segregated in this way may be used in a discriminatory manner. This was the case at Lord Howe Island where spear-fishers were excluded from the marine park on the basis of local submissions only, while the overall count in their favour was selectively ignored.
?   The design of this survey demonstrates that the MPA is ignorant of the natural world and has no feel for the interrelationship between outdoor people and THEIR environment. Two examples: Firstly, the MPA has no idea how important mobility is to the fishing community. Fishers are mobile because fish are predominantly migratory. Secondly, the MPA doesn?t seem to understand that people may want to explore new activities in new places at some stage in the future. Questions like ?mark your favorite spot? ignore these fundamental issues.
?   The question regarding boat ramps suggests that the MPA has a preconceived agenda to close down less popular ramps. This is an unacceptable situation for all fishers and is a direct attack on their rights and freedoms for inconsequential conservational gains.
?   The Cape Byron Marine Park has five sewage outlets that regularly discharge untreated sewage directly into the park. I cannot take this Government?s commitment to the environment seriously while ever this situation continues.
?   There is little chance that this Government will ever lift its game. It is almost certain that this marine park will be more remembered more for its direct attack on people?s rights and freedoms than it will be for its contribution to conservation of the environment.

Further comments:

I believe that the commissioning of this survey at this stage of the process is an insult to the intelligence of outdoor Australians and demonstrates the Authority's ignorance of the interrelationship between people and THEIR environment.

The implied position of the MPA is that they will find out what most people want to keep from this survey so that they can lock up the rest.

Surveys of this kind are routinely misused. For example, at Byron Bay the MPA had no idea where the offshore reefs were and they used the information from the user survey to find them and subsequently lock them all up in sanctuary zones.

These surveys are inherently biased as many people do not respond to them.

The MPA and their extreme greenie mates have deliberately put us between a rock and a hard place. If we respond they benefit from the information we give them and lock us out. If we don?t, they say we don?t care and lock us out anyway.

I propose that we respond and see if they CAN lock us out.

Rod Burston
ECOfishers
?Conservation with a difference. We make people part of the solution?