Fishing talks break down

The Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF), the national organisation representing the recreational fishing community, has announced that discussions between it and the Small Pelagic Fishing Industry Association (SPFIA) have collapsed.

In a media release, the ARFF says that talks between ARFF and SPFIA have been occurring over past months in an attempt by recreational fishers to work with the industrial fishing sector in order to minimise the impacts of the supertrawler Geelong Star on the fishery, recreational fishers and the communities that support them.

The ARFF claims that the collapse in the talks has occurred because the SPFIA has rejected a proposal developed by the ARFF and its members that aimed to protect recreational fishing from the impacts of the 95m factory trawler  Geelong Star.

"There is little point continuing talks when the SPFIA does not seem to be serious about dealing with our concerns.Their counter offers to our proposal are not even close to what we have been seeking in good faith," ARFF managing director Allan Hansard said.

According to Hansard, the ARFF proposal rejected by the SPFIA mapped out a way forward on this issue and addressed many of the concerns that Australia’s recreational fishers have about industrial scale fishing of the small pelagic fishery.

"Our proposal was based on working with the vessel managers on where the Geelong Star can fish and would have affected less than 10 per cent of the 3 million square kilometres of the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery," Hansard said.

The ARFF proposal also outlined a comprehensive research program to address the lack of economic, social and environmental information on the effect of industrial scale commercial fishing of the small pelagic fishery and also on recreational fishers and the hundreds of local communities that support them.

The Geelong Star has already come under fire for killing dolphins and seals which we reported on here, with new regulations governing its actions doing little to quell public and political outrage.

The ARFF says that the rejection of its proposal means that the Geelong Star is still largely unrestricted in where it can fish, meaning it can exploit bait stocks at many of Australia’s most fishing locations, including Port MacDonnell in South Australia, Portland in Victoria, Eden, Bermagui, Jervis Bay and the Carpark at Port Stephens in NSW and Eagle Hawk Neck in Tasmania and Geographe Bay and the Perth Trench in Western Australia.|

Hansard said the he response from the SPFIA is disappointing: "It demonstrates that the industrial fishing sector does not take the concerns of Australia’s recreational fishing community seriously. Australia’s recreational fishing community is worth $10 billion to Australia’s economy annually, far exceeding the value of commercial fishing. We deserve to be taken seriously on this issue.

"The failure of the talks to make real progress on key issues means that the nation’s five million recreational fishers will now look to other avenues to have their concerns addressed."

"We are now taking our concerns to the Federal Government and we are pleased that initial discussions have resulted in the offer to facilitate a process to address our concerns."

"ARFF remains committed to pursuing outcomes that protect recreational fishing areas from this industrial fishing activity," Mr Hansard said.