Outline of Ken Thurlow CEO?s Paper to The Australian Society for Fish Biology?s Workshop and Conference September, 2008.
Question: What should sustainable recreational fisheries look like in 20 years, and how do we get there from here?
The state?s recreational fishers answer to this question is simple and succinct. We want more of our target species in public waters, and greater access to them.
Now, how we get there may not be as simple. So in paving the way along this pathway, here are our key stepping stones.
1) Currently, and in some cases, we have unnecessary restrictive, unscientific and even punitive methods of management and restricted access, including the so-called sanctuary zones.
2) The notion that one size fits all in terms of management is simply that ? a notion! We propose a use of bioregional management and much greater emphasis on local knowledge.
3) Recreational fishers are unanimous in requiring management based upon sound scientific research with positive leadership and effective communication ? not political expediency!
4) We want to increase suitable habitat by artificial and rehabilitation means, ie, recreational fishers taking a broader role in environmental management.
5) The role of aquaculture should be enhanced and subsidised.
6) We call for the protection of spawning aggregations and spawning sites for species scientifically assessed as recruitment over-fished or when the stock recruitment relationship indicates this type of management is appropriate. The size of the spawning stock allowed to spawn is critical.
7) Stocking programs can clearly provide more fish. (Matt Taylor?s Mulloway Program is a classic example.)
Voluntary buyout of more commercial fishers.
9) Recreational fishers are adamant they want a radical restructure of the ministerially appointed ACoRF to make it truly democratic and truly representative.
In relation to the point we make concerning one size fits all in terms of management, bag limits and legal lengths ? let me clarify.
We have always found it curious that a snapper of 28cms length off the Central Coast of NSW is 7 years old, yet a snapper of the same length on the Far North Coast is only 5 years old. So clearly a case can be made for different legal lengths and different management strategies for different bioregions.
And recreational fishers are keen to take a more proactive role in fisheries management at local and regional levels. It gives a concept of some ownership of the resource.
Inherent in this requirement is that traditional fishing knowledge held by ardent local recreational fishers, (eg. Non-indigenous subsistence fishers), be recorded and documented. We are firmly of the view this expertise and knowledge would be invaluable for use in management decision making processes.
We even endure punitive methods of fisheries management these days. An undersized fish taken outside one of the government?s marine parks will attract a financial penalty of a couple of hundred dollars. The same fish, taken only a few metres away in the marine park will incur a penalty of perhaps thousands of dollars. We believe that?s purely punitive.
And since 1997, we have had imposed upon us, unscientific management tools in the government?s marine parks. As an example, a sanctuary zone that is 5km long and 4km wide around a tiny pimple of rock to protect a handful of Grey Nurse Sharks, that may or may not stopover on their annual winter migration. What?s scientific about that?
We have 56% of the same government marine park made available to commercial prawn trawlers to use every night of each week all year. Yet family off-shore recreational fishers get to use only 0.01% of the same park ? and only for four months of the year. Where is the science in that in terms of conserving the biodiversity?
Regarding access! During the last decade we have witnessed the creep of coastal National Parks and Nature Reserves to the Mean Low Water Mark, thereby restricting vehicular access.
One brief typical example from the South Coast of NSW at Lake Merro. National Parks and Wildlife Service attempted to close off a designated road reserve of several kilometres, giving fishers, vehicular and boat access to the lake. Have they ever attempted to tow a boat and trailer by hand and on foot for kilometres?
So ladies and gentlemen, these issues raise another fundamental question ? just who is managing NSW fisheries? And recreational fishers have strong views about that too! And, they don?t involve the Department of Environment and Climate Change.
So that is what we, as sustainable recreational fishers, consider the fishery should look like in twenty years time, and the stepping stones needed to be taken to get there.
