GAME fishers are reporting a distinct lack of baitfish on the NSW South Coast as the Geelong Star begins working the area.
Fishing Edge TV presenter Lee Rayner this week posted an image to Facebook of the freezer ship working its way down the continental shelf off the far south coast of NSW.
“Firstly they assured us they wouldn’t be fishing in daylight hours and would stay away from these areas in weeks leading up to gamefishing tournaments (Bermagui Bluewater Tournament is only a few weeks away),” Rayner said yesterday.
Back in early December 2015, Fisho reported that supertrawler negotiations had kicked off in Canberra between rec fishing groups, AFMA, Seafish Tasmania (owners of the Geelong Star) and the Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Senator Anne Ruston.
These “clear the air” style talks were designed to outline each group’s concerns and keep all parties communicating amicably, as these style of talks had failed in the past.
Rayner’s thoughts have been echoed by other recreational fishing representatives present at the meeting such as Allan Hansard from the Australian Fishing Trade Association (AFTA). “They promised to stay away from the big tournaments. Bermagui bluewater tournament starts on the 23rd January,” Hansard said.
The big talking point to come out of these talks was that Seafish Tasmania voluntarily declared it wouldn’t fish management zone 7 (Barrenjoey to Fraser Island) of the small pelagic fishery.
Senator Anne Ruston hailed the talks as a victory for rec fishos while fellow Liberal and Port Stephens MP, Bob Baldwin, used social media to spruik the outcome.
However, while Bob Baldwin’s local seat will be spared, anyone who follows the game fishing scene in NSW knows that from December to April the NSW South Coast is one of the most productive areas.
The Geelong Star has also been banned from fishing in waters deeper than the 700m mark (see the Small Pelagic Fishery map here). This essentially means the Geelong Star must fish in the thin strip of water between the three nautical mile mark (the closest a commonwealth-licensed vessel is permitted to fish to shore in Australia) and the edge of the continental shelf, which on the NSW South Coast runs very close to the coast (only 12 miles from Bermagui). This seems very strange considering that the original supertrawler (the FV Margiris, later renamed the Abel Tasman) ran the line with the public that the fishery was nearly three million square kilometres and that we would never even see the ship.
It would appear AFMA has promised Seafish Tasmania the most productive strip along the inside of the shelf. The Geelong Star has no choice but to fish inside the shelf on the these productive grounds and right on top of game fishermen during the height of the season.
An AFMA spokesperson had the following response.
The requirement that mid-water trawlers are not allowed to fish in waters deeper than 700m – the Deepwater Closure requirement – has been in place since 2007. The Deepwater Closure was originally implemented to protect deepwater species such as orange roughy. Given small pelagic species are fished in shallower water, often between 100 and 300 metres deep, the Deepwater Closure has minimal effect on mid-water trawl fishing in the SPF.
Information about the 700m closure has been publicly available for many years and the map presented at the meeting of 1 December 2015 between SPFIA and key recreational fishing representatives provided a summary of current spatial management measures applied by AFMA.
Furthermore, research indicates that sustainable commercial fishing for Small Pelagic Fishery species in Australian waters has only minor impacts on other parts of the ecosystem, as alternative food sources exist for large predator species like tunas.
More to follow.
