Disgraced supertrawler Geelong Star leaves the country

A day after World Fisheries Day, The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has confirmed that the controversial factory trawler and death ship, the Geelong Star, has left Australian waters.

The mid-water trawler has been operating here since April 2015, but is no longer under Australian jurisdiction, meaning it has departed the country.

It's been reported that the ship actually left local waters on October 31 and AIS tacking shows it's now off the coastline of South Africa, between Pot Elizabeth and Cape Town, where super trawlers targeting baitfish have had a devastating impact on those unregulated fisheries in the past.

Enquiries about the decision to leave Australian waters or future fishing operations of the Geelong Star should be directed to the operator, AFMA says. That operator is Seafish Tasmania.

From May 1, 2016, more than one million square kilometres of additional offshore waters near southern and eastern Australia were opened up to mid-water trawling in the Small Pelagic Fishery (SPF).

This means factory trawlers like the controversial Geelong Star, dubbed The Death Ship for its shocking catch record including dolphins, albatross, seals and at least one whale shark, could cast a much wider net regarding where it fishes.

AFMA has maintained that the SPF mid-water trawler posed a low risk to deep water species such as orange roughy and gulper sharks and decided that many of the current closures are not required to protect these species during SPF trawler operations.

The Geelong Star was not currently subject to any investigation by AFMA for breaches of Commonwealth fishing regulations, the fishing authority says.

However, the ship has never been out of hot water, with seal, dolphin, whale shark and albatross deaths among all the shark and marlin by-catch.

Another unresolved issue has been the concern about localised depletion of  baitfish stocks — the slimy mackerel, jack mackerel and redbait that the ship was targeting.

On November 19, 2016, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a review of the Geelong Star super trawler's vessel management plan has been released by the federal government, but it failed to address the concerns of tourism bodies and recreational fishers.

The regional catch limits were not been altered, despite great public concern that the Geelong Star's fishing habits would lead to localised depletion of baitfish.

"Whether the boat fishes all the fish out of the sea or not, there's an
increased perception that it is fishing there and recreational fishers
don't want to go there," Allan Hansard, Managing Director of the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF), said.

John Burgess, an ARFF board member, made the point that: "The number of people who would normally travel from Victoria or
from Sydney, the people who travel long distances with big boats, are
just not going down there."

"I'm not prepared to go and spend that money
if there is nothing there to catch."

Fishing tourism on the NSW South Coast, where the Geelong Star was often dragging its monstrous nets within site of recreational boats, was threatened by the factory trawler's presence and community groups were concerned about the possible economic impacts.

Hopefully, the Geelong Star is renamed, re-purposed and never re-enters Australian waters. One big fishing fight looks like it might have been won at last.

Of all the stories we've run on the horror ship, this whale shark landing and the controversy that followed the dubious AFMA reporting resonated the most with our readers. Sayonara!