If the Coral Sea Marine Park is commissioned and anglers in Far North Queensland can no longer fish in MANY areas of the proposed park and can only take part in catch and release fishing in the others there can be only one result.
The proposed park is further from shore meaning for the average angler it would cost considerable money in fuel to reach said areas.Recreational anglers are usually happy that this cost is offset by being able to keep the fish they catch in line with bag limits set by the experts that they determined would be at sustainable levels. Some anglers will still be keen to travel to the areas for catch and release fishing, especially species like marlin and other large bill fish, but many will not.
This means the areas between the Coral Sea Zone and the shoreline will now be fished by the increased numbers of anglers who previously went into the proposed zones. This means that there will be a greater concentration of fishers over a smaller area.
Instead of the same amount of fish being taken from a large area, from a large number of schools and species this will squeeze anglers into a smaller area meaning the schools in those areas will be depleted quicker and will not have time to regenerate.
How on earth is that sustainable?
Once the areas between the proposed zone and shore reach critical levels, as will happen as an indirect consequence of this proposal, authorities will move to introduce more exclusion zones and bag limits effectively stopping all fishing becuase of their stupidity.
Hunt, the Special Purpose Zone in the Draft Plan does not restrict recreational fishing at all. The Habitat Protection Zones are Catch and Release, plus one for the pan that day. Zone map at http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/coralsea/publications/pubs/coralsea-mbp-brochure.pdf#page=3
ReplyDeleteThe SPZ is huge and covers most of the reefs in the Coral Sea. The SPZ is also in the most accessible areas for rec fishos. The impact of this on rec fishos is essentially, very bloody little.
It is a huge leap you have made by assuming this will somehow lead to collapse of fishstocks through displaced effort. The structure of the marine ecosystems of the reefs left open to fishing are what is threatened by this draft plan. The big fish, sharks and other key peredators will drop (as they have in the GBR. These predators and large fish are the first to go and the hardest to replace.
There will still be fish, but we would have lost what makes these reefs so speacial in this degraded marine world; healthy populations of large fish and predators. We will have lost another great wild place, to be replaced by the mediocrity of the more human impacted environment. This may not matter some, but to others it is tragic.
Contact minister Burke and ask him to extend protection from fishing to more Coral Sea reefs.
Steve, we're all adults here. Feel free to put your full name up so people can make an informed decision of any perceived bias or affiliations that impact comments made.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a big leap to say if you have 1000 fishers over 100km area and then squeeze those same 1000 fishers into 1km that it will impact on fish stocks compared to spreading them out.
My contact with the Minister will not contain that request