Marine park for Sydney?

Vote Labor for more marine parks and angling lock-outs in Sydney

Sydney will have a new marine park and anglers will be locked out if the NSW Labor Party wins the next State election.

Opposition Leader John Robertson announced today (September 28) that if Labor is successful when we go to the polls in March 2015 then the Sydney Marine Park will be declared. It will be the seventh such marine park in NSW waters.

Labor's ideological-driven marine park would extend from Pittwater right down to Port Hacking and, we understand take in fishing grounds further north to Newcastle and south to Wollongong.

In so doing, the park would encompass many of our most popular, historic and traditional recreational fishing and boating spots in the country.

Fishing would be banned in some areas, Labor says, despite NSW anglers conducting their favourite pastime under existing science-based regulations, size and bag limits, and with a raft of pre-existing exclusions about where and how we can wet a line.

But Mr Robertson believes a marine park will protect the harbour’s marine life. He foreshadowed new spearfishing restrictions, too.

"Taking out the top predators [can] have damaging impacts on the food chain," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mr Robertson as saying.

If true, this statement alone reveals the extent of the ignorance in the Labor camp, given that spearfishers have even greater restrictions and regulations than anglers and a highly targeted approach to their fishing.

Spearfishers are in fact low-impact, their numbers are minimal, and their effects miniscule compared with wider commercial fishing practices and, moreover, the impacts of water quality on fish habitats and fish stocks.

>> Fact is, no fish stock is endangered from recreational hooks or spears in NSW.

>> Fact is, the threat to the Little Penguin colony near Manly is unleashed dogs and urbanisation.

>> Fact is, all NSW anglers fish to science-based rules and regulations.

>> Fact is, poor water quality, industrial pollution leaching from sediments, storm-water and sewerage runoff, micro-plastics and urbanisation are the real threats to the marine estate in Sydney.

POOR WATER QUALITY

Tellingly, the areas identified with the greatest pollution problems in the Sydney region are some of the least frequented by anglers.

The CSIRO recently named Shelly Beach in Manly as the most polluted beach in NSW. Fishing and spearfishing are not permitted at Shelly Beach, which is within the wider Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve.

While the water looks clean, the beach was found to contain exceeding high levels of plastic bits smaller than 1cm in length.

?Local environmental groups have queried the scientific findings by the CSIRO, standing in the hot sun as they do with a blackboard each weekend, recording what fish the swarms of divers reckon they have seen below.

Indeed, it all looks like a fairytale from above, but the environmental groups turn a blind eye to the real problem — pollution. If only they could see it.

EXISTING PROTECTION

The existing NSW system of marine protected areas includes:

>> Six multiple-use marine parks covering around one third (approximately 345,000 hectares) of the NSW marine estate;

>> 12 aquatic reserves covering around 2000 hectares of the NSW marine estate;

>> Around 20,000 hectares of estuarine and oceanic habitats;

>> And lots of fishing restrictions like no squid fishing in North Harbour, which is plainly daft.

In the Sydney region, there are already Aquatic Reserves at Barrenjoey Head, Narrabeen Head, Long Reef, aforesaid Cabbage Tree Bay, North (Sydney) Harbour, Bronte-Coogee, Cape Banks, Boat Harbour, Towra and Shiprock in Port Hacking.

But if elected, Opposition Environment spokesman Luke Foley has said he would create an advisory committee of harbour users including fishers, tourism operators, conservation groups and marine scientists to advise on the location of specific zones within the marine park. Drawing up the lines for bans.

LABOR PLAYING POLITICS

The NSW Labor Party and its left-wing leaning has showed its hand prior to the next State election in March 2015, luring the Greens and other local environment groups while attacking recreational fishers and boaters.

There are some five million anglers in Australia with one million in NSW. Science-based fishing restrictions are used to ensure sustainable fishing. The Labor Party has turned its back on the science for the sake of politics.

It’s now up to the Sydney and NSW angling and boating community, associations and industry to fight this attack on their freedom to wet a line in their backyard.

The timing of the marine-park announcement has also been made to coincide with The IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, a landmark global forum on protected areas that will be held in Sydney this November.

To the delegates winging and sailing into Sydney Harbour, it will look like another fairy story.

SYDNEY HARBOUR RECREATIONAL FISHING HAVEN

At the same time, momentum has been gathering within the local angling community to declare Sydney Harbour a Recreational Fishing Haven. This makes dollars and sense given the popularity of wetting a line in the iconic waterway and the fact commercial fishing no longer exists there.

The chief lobby group behind the move, Sydney Harbour Recreational Fishing Haven, is supported by keen anglers, fishing guides and recreational-fishing representatives.

Behind the scenes, the lobby group has been mapping the harbour and collating the raft of existing regulations in preparation for a submission. Given there are already some 30 Recreational Fishing Havens in NSW, draft documentation exists to help enact future legislation.

The existing NSW fishing havens, which extend from the Tweed in the north to Wonboyn in the far south, were created by compensating commercial fishers to the tune of $20 million using recreational-fishing-licence funds,

No buyout using licence funding is needed for Sydney Harbour, as it is already a recreational fishing haven by default. And with dioxin, heavy metal and plastic contaminants rife in the sediments, the health advice and status quo is unlikely to change any decade soon.

BENEFITS OF A HAVEN

Of course, the value of recreational fishing in Sydney Harbour is immense and catch-and-release is a big part of fishing today.

Surely it's time to recognise and promote Sydney's iconic waterway as the world-class fishery we know it is today. Since commercial fishing ceased to exist in the harbour in 2006, the angling has improved dramatically.

As a recreational fishing haven, the harbour would enjoy greater international standing. The wider community would benefit, volunteers could assist with education, policing and management; you could stage open angling days; and further support sustainable and ethical fishing practices.

An angling institution on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour would further authenticate the great Australian pastime of wetting a line. Other countries embrace recreational fishing this way. It’s time Sydney opened its eyes.

A marine park banning fishing and with even greater restrictions on spearfishing is anti-Australian and faux environmentalism at its very worst.

For Sydney fishers, this is no fairytale, It's sounds more like a Labor-led nightmare.

Second photo courtesy of Craig McGill, Fishabout Tours; fourth photo from Sydney Harbour Recreational Fishing Haven FB page.

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Marine park for Sydney?

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