tfic_news_oct_nov_04.htm  

We currently have a very large and growing seal population consuming vast quantities of fish and threatening the very existence of our scalefish fishery in waters adjacent to Tasmania. But even this very serious impact of seals is relatively minor compared to the possible introduction of a super trawler into Australian waters.

From recent media reports most industry players would be aware that the world’s second largest fishing trawler MFV Veronica is currently on route from the Canary Islands to Australia and is presently in South Africa – at least until the Federal election is over. This immense 106 metre long super trawler and floating fish factory with a crew of 50 can catch and process 400 tonnes per day and 5,000 tonnes of fish in a single fishing trip and is capable of staying at sea for up to six months.

An Australian controlled joint venture company Veronica Seafish has apparently chartered the Veronica to fish waters from the Great Australian Bight through to southern New South Wales for migratory fish species such as mackerel and redbait which they intend to process on board and turn into fishmeal for South Australia’s tuna farms.

The TFIC Board considered this very serious issue in Hobart on 6 September 2004 and strongly and unanimously opposed allowing this apparent unprecedented expansion of catching effort into the small pelagic fisheries in Southern Australia. AFMA has advised that there have been discussions and correspondence with the vessel operators but as yet no formal application has been made to deem the Veronica an Australian fishing vessel or to attach a fishing permit or licence. At this time AFMA has frozen boat nominations to fishing permits to ensure a rational and sustainable development of the Zone A, B, C and D small pelagic fisheries subject to further consideration by the AFMA Board in November.

Very little is known about the size and potential of the Southern Australia small pelagic fishery which is currently managed in a responsible manner given the high level of uncertainty and the lack of formal management plans. There is also only limited information available about the biology of the species involved but historically abundance has been low and has varied considerably year by year.

Our stocks are very different from those available in the large scale industrial fisheries in some other parts of the world and over capitalisation in our fishery would not be in anyone’s interest. Who knows what the impact would be on our major State based fisheries. But what we can conclude is that the impact of the Veronica on the wide ranging small pelagic fishery and the marine ecology will probably be devastating. Such a powerful trawl vessel could catch the remaining TAC in all southern small pelagic fisheries this year very quickly in very large quantities and have the same devastating impact in the first few months of next year’s season with compounded disastrous consequences.

The small pelagic fishery management catch trigger limits were put in place to slow development at the same time as encouraging traditional Australian vessels to start to utilise the resource. It was certainly never intended that foreign super trawlers would for convenience sake become Australian flagged for a few months in order to devastate the Australian fishery and then move on to another part of the world and operate under another flag. The broader impact on the marine ecosystem, on other fish stocks and the whole food chain are not able to be measured at this time but unintended bycatch would certainly have a dramatic and adverse impact on State and Commonwealth species which are traditionally managed in a sustainable manner.

The Veronica method of operation is not in line with current Australian fishing practices and could not operate in a manner consistent with ecological sustainable development and the precautionary principle. It should be noted that this super trawler is five times larger than a normal vessel in our trawl fisheries. By comparison to the mammoth potential catches of a super trawler our Tasmanian scalefish fishery is just 1,400 tonnes per annum.

Given the almost certain immense and adverse impact on the small pelagic fishery and the marine food chain generally we have lobbied the Federal and State Ministers and AFMA seeking personal and immediate intervention to stop this potential ecological disaster occurring. Firstly a full environmental and social impact study must be carefully undertaken to assess the consequences of such a vessel. It may also be in Australia’s best interests for instance to rearrange the TACs into monthly limits to ensure that traditional Australian operators are not locked out of these fisheries and that useful scientific research is obtained from a staggered fishery rather than the removal of a huge amount of fish over a short period. Additionally we need a careful assessment of all scientific research information to establish if very heavy fishing pressure by a super trawler is an appropriate method of targeting what is a fragile resource with wide ranging implications.

In the meantime we have strongly urged AFMA to establish policies that continue to responsibly manage these fisheries on a conservative basis erring on the side of caution given the far reaching consequences of a super trawler such as the Veronica.

Former Tasmanian Premier and now a resident of North Queensland Tony Rundle was recently appointed Chairman of AFMA replacing Dr Wendy Craik after her four years with the authority.

Tony is well known in our local industry particularly as the Premier who oversaw the major restructure of our valuable rock lobster fishery and he has always shown a keen interest in fishing issues and the people involved.

There are many challenges facing the AFMA Board at present but with his political and business background I am sure Tony’s involvement will be of considerable value to our very important seafood industry.

We wish him well in his new role.

Other Tasmanians on the AFMA Board are John Bennett, Ian Cartwright and Dr Keith Sainsbury. Richard Stevens from Queensland, Brian Jeffriess from South Australia and Daryl Quinlivan (DAFF) from Canberra are the other AFMA Directors.

The 2005 Southern Cross Young Achiever awards have been officially launched and nominations close 17 December 2004.

The Awards are designed to recognise Tasmania’s outstanding young achievers in the 14 to 26 age group in the areas of art, sport, community service, regional initiative, science and technology, career achievement and the environment.

I am sure TFIC members know many young people in the industry who would be eligible to enter and compete for the $1,000 grant and trophy in each category.

If you would like to nominate a young achiever please give me a call and I will send you all the necessary information.

In recent times we have provided our views on about seven or eight issues each year. For this year because of the increasingly serious nature of issues identified by the TFIC Board we have decided to present just two matters to the State Budget Committee. By highlighting just these concerns our Directors feel that we may have a greater chance of success in achieving more funding allocations for our identified areas of concern.

For the benefit of TFIC members our issues this year are funding for DPIWE Marine Resources and MAST Marine Facilities and extracts of our submissions are as
follows:

DPIWE Marine Resources
It is apparent from our regular engagement with DPIWE that the Marine Resources Branch is inadequately funded to meet the needs of both Government and industry.

Currently Treasury allocates annual budget funding to DPIWE and identified priorities within the Department are then addressed. In recent years the DPIWE budget has received a real 3% reduction per annum in funding with only new initiatives given special consideration such as the Fox Taskforce, Tasmanian Devils etc. Overall this means that the DPIWE budget is nominally increased year by year but only because of new initiative funding. The net effect within the DPIWE is reduced services and an understandable financial squeeze that means only the highest priorities can be addressed.

This has put unreasonable pressure on existing worthwhile projects such as the FRDC and TSQAP commitments and for instance the TAFI agreement where the consolidated allocation of $2.34m is not indexed resulting in a loss of about one TAFI staff member per year and a diminished stake for the State Government in TAFI. Additionally the personnel award structure constrains the appointment of best possible people for positions and as an example in Fish Health a pathologist position has not been filled as the offered salary is 15 – 25% less than available in other States.

Within the Marine Resources Branch some projects are not viewed by others as being of high enough priority to justify more resources. There has for instance been a continual deferral over many years of programs to develop management plans for small pelagics, commercial dive, clams and octopus, a review of the Living Marine Resources Management Act along with a full ecological assessment of fisheries including economic and social assessment and fishery habitats.

There has appropriately been high level attention given to our high value fisheries in Abalone and Rock Lobster but other areas have not received the same attention due to severe resource limitations. Within Marine Resources Wild Fishing Section there was a long and stable period with little turnover in staff but in the last three years there has been a significant turnover of personnel in the all important fishery management position. We have observed that it is cheaper and faster to fill these positions from within rather than externally despite the obvious need for flexibility in providing the very best people to take on these positions.

Within Marine Resources Marine Farming Section the planning and operations area has unfortunately been reduced by one person to enable the combination of the most important priorities of industry development and to meet State of Growth objectives. The Marine Resources Environmental Section has been downgraded with only minimal attention given to the auditing of chemical use, copper and zinc antifoulants etc.

It is very obvious that DPIWE and in particular Marine Resources needs more resources to employ people and to provide facilities to meet objectives and priorities. There is currently no flexibility at all with a fully committed budget and with increasingly staff committed against trust funds as opposed to consolidated revenue. The Government’s social policy in support of health, education, law reform, infrastructure (ferries, gas pipeline rollout) and the debt reduction strategy has squeezed Marine Resources Section to a very low funding base which is unsustainable.

We have strongly recommended that priority now be given to addressing Marine Resource issues that have for too long been neglected and reduced in funding.

MAST Marine Facilities
MAST currently receives a budget funding allocation of $700,000 a year and this funding has remained unaltered since MAST began operations in July 1997 despite the consumer price index increasing by 20.5 % over this period. This means that just to maintain the same level of service MAST should be receiving $843,500 this financial year. Assuming inflation continues at 2.5% this year then MAST should receive an allocation of $861,000 in 2005/06 just to keep pace with the increase in its operating costs since 1997.

MAST only receives funding for ongoing costs such as maintenance and it does not receive any funding for capital works involved in the upgrading and reconstruction of its facilities. A major user of these facilities around the State is the commercial fishing industry and the development of our industry is being hampered by poor and inadequate facilities.

There are a number of MAST facilities reaching the end of their useful life that are of importance to our industry and the following jetties and wharves are likely to need replacement within the next five years -

• Deepwater Jetty at Triabunna,
• Outer berth and approach Dover,
• Bridport Jetty
• Margate Jetty
• Kettering Jetty
• Nubeena Jetty
• Pirates Bay Jetty
• St Helens Wharf
• Southport Jetty

The cost of replacing Triabunna is estimated at $350,000 and the cost of rebuilding the inner wharf at Dover is over $150,000 so the total cost of rebuilding all of these facilities is going to run into millions of dollars over the next few years.

The Government should commit to a major increase in MAST funding as the jetties and wharves are all important to the fishing industry and to the economic well being of the many small communities in regional Tasmania who depend upon our industry.

In recent years MAST has received one off contributions from the State Government’s Infrastructure Fund. While these have been welcome they do not provide sufficient certainty for MAST or industry to make the necessary commitment to investment that will ensure the growth potential of our industry. Given the high level of future capital upgrading that must be undertaken our recommendation is that MAST’s annual funding allocation should be at least doubled until the rebuilding of these important facilities is completed.

In addition to regular maintenance and rebuilding of facilities there are a number of other activities where MAST should be involved but currently has insufficient funds to carry out. Primary of these is the need to maintain safe access to the ports of Bridport and St Helens and to keep open the passage through Marion Narrows and the Denison Canal at Dunalley.

With the successful reopening of the scallop fishery Bridport and St Helens are seeing a resurgence of fishing activity and this is particularly welcome as scallop beds are open for fishing at the same time that the rock lobster fishery slows or is closed. This means that the industry, fishermen and processors are able to operate more productively and further boost their regional economies.

Both St Helens and Bridport have barways and recent works by the State Government has seen both barways kept open through dredging however funding for dredging has been piecemeal. The Government should make a commitment through an additional funding allocation to MAST to see that this work is undertaken on a regular and sustained basis.

We understand that the Government committed $157,000 to the dredging of St Helens barway and suggest that as a minimum the Government should provide MAST with a continual allocation of $100,000 each year to keep these barways open and to ensure safe access to these ports.

The fishing industry is very important to Tasmania’s economy however the industry must continue to undertake considerable long term investment in new vessels and equipment to ensure a profitable future and future economic growth.

Industry investment demands continuity and certainty of funding by Government in fishing wharves and jetties and safe access to ports to encourage this commitment by industry.

The intention is to shortly finalise this draft and to circulate the document through commodity groups for their consideration so that eventually we will have a firm whole of industry position and plan agreed on MPAs.