Nets away on Port Phillip Bay
Commercial fishers accepting generous compensation packages to exit Port Phillip BayUnsurprisingly, there's been something of a stampede by commercial fishers to accept the Andrews Labor Government's generous compensation packages to exit the local fishery and end commercial netting in Port Phillip Bay.
Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford joined fishing and media icon Rex Hunt at Albert Park Angling Club to announce that 33 of the 43 Port Phillip Bay licence holders, who have caught 87 per cent of the key targeted species in the bay, have accepted the Government’s compensation package to exit this April, 2016.
"This is a milestone moment for the Andrews Labor Government and for recreational anglers," Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford said.
"More
fish in the bay is a win for recreational fishers and families,
providing more fish to catch in Victoria’s most popular fishery."
The removal of netting in Port Phillip Bay is a key component of the Andrews Government’s Target One Million plan for recreational fishing, which aims to get more people fishing more often, by boosting participation to one million anglers by 2020.
Eight Port Phillip Bay licence holders have elected to stay in the fishery after 2022 using fishing methods other than netting, like line fishing and longlines.
Only two licence holders have chosen not to take the compensation offers in the first year of the Government’s seven-year phase out of commercial netting.
The 10 fishers continuing to operate in the bay will fish under a catch limit. Netting will be phased out of the bay, with Corio Bay closed to all nets on April 1, 2018, and netting removed from all of Port Phillip Bay by April 1, 2022.
After consultation with Seafood Industry Victoria and licence holders, the government increased the budget for the compensation from the $20 million in the original election commitment.
The financial incentives and the increased funding built into the legislation will deliver the majority of the expected benefits to recreational fishers well before the eight years of the original election commitment.
Investing in recreational fishing not only makes sense from a social and community perspective, but contributes $7.1 billion each year to the Victorian economy.
More information about the great fishing available in Port Phillip Bay and across Victoria is available at www.vic.gov.au/fisheries.
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