Commercial fishing effort control
The myth of the inexhaustible resource
It has been well documented that the planet's wild aquatic resources simply cannot supply the insatiable desire by humans for seafood. We've already destroyed what everyone thought were infinite stocks of northern hemisphere species through overfishing, yet right here in Queensland we appear oblivious to this piece of history and continue to treat the harvest of our wild resources as if they are a "Magic Pudding". For those who are not familiar with the ""Magic Pudding" analogy, it is a children's book where a magic pudding amazingly replaces itself no matter how much of it is eaten. If only...............
The really sad thing for us Queenslanders, is that many of us have been warning of the impending demise of our fish stocks for the past 30+ years, yet very little has changed for the better in that time.
The now infamous Burns Inquiry back in 1992 gave us all false hope that they were listening. It's worth going back and reading this document to remind ourselves how little has changed in the subsequent decades. But others have also tried to highlight the issues, including Tom Young in 2001 who is or was a Senior Associate, Planning and Environment Division, Deacons Lawyers, Queensland in which he clearly challenges the way our state's marine resources were being managed and warns about the threat to their sustainability from excessive commercial fishing. In his preface, Mr Young says "This article considers the Queensland Fisheries debate and questions whether the State’s fisheries’ managers are in fact putting sustainability into practice
rather than merely paying lip service to the achievement of ESD enshrined in the Fisheries Act 1994 (Qld)."
You can read his full article here, Putting Sustainability into Practice – the Queensland Fisheries Management Debate
Where's the data?
Without reliable catch and effort data, it is impossible to accurately or confidently declare whether a fishery is healthy or not. Our Fisheries Department is quick to release claims that almost all our state's fisheries are being sustainably fished - yeah right! The basis they make these claims against are unfounded and cannot and are not being supported by hard data.
Finally after nearly a decade of secret squirrel tactics regarding the availability of commercial log book catch and effort data, FQ have made some available on their website. But be warned, unless you are a very skilled computer analyst, you will have no chance of extracting and understanding what this data is saying. Fortunately among our network we have just such experts who are now independently analysing this data and finding some glaring issues as far as fish stock viability is concerned.
There have been some calls recently from some to relax the ring netting ban on Spotted mackerel. Apparently they are basing their call on the fact that FQ haven't identified Spotties as "at risk." If you want to get a feel for just how this species is travelling, have a look at the analysis of the commercial catch and effort data from FQ, done by one of our network. You don't need to be a data analyst to understand what these graphs are telling us. Check them out here now.
The really sad thing for us Queenslanders, is that many of us have been warning of the impending demise of our fish stocks for the past 30+ years, yet very little has changed for the better in that time.
The now infamous Burns Inquiry back in 1992 gave us all false hope that they were listening. It's worth going back and reading this document to remind ourselves how little has changed in the subsequent decades. But others have also tried to highlight the issues, including Tom Young in 2001 who is or was a Senior Associate, Planning and Environment Division, Deacons Lawyers, Queensland in which he clearly challenges the way our state's marine resources were being managed and warns about the threat to their sustainability from excessive commercial fishing. In his preface, Mr Young says "This article considers the Queensland Fisheries debate and questions whether the State’s fisheries’ managers are in fact putting sustainability into practice
rather than merely paying lip service to the achievement of ESD enshrined in the Fisheries Act 1994 (Qld)."
You can read his full article here, Putting Sustainability into Practice – the Queensland Fisheries Management Debate
Where's the data?
Without reliable catch and effort data, it is impossible to accurately or confidently declare whether a fishery is healthy or not. Our Fisheries Department is quick to release claims that almost all our state's fisheries are being sustainably fished - yeah right! The basis they make these claims against are unfounded and cannot and are not being supported by hard data.
Finally after nearly a decade of secret squirrel tactics regarding the availability of commercial log book catch and effort data, FQ have made some available on their website. But be warned, unless you are a very skilled computer analyst, you will have no chance of extracting and understanding what this data is saying. Fortunately among our network we have just such experts who are now independently analysing this data and finding some glaring issues as far as fish stock viability is concerned.
There have been some calls recently from some to relax the ring netting ban on Spotted mackerel. Apparently they are basing their call on the fact that FQ haven't identified Spotties as "at risk." If you want to get a feel for just how this species is travelling, have a look at the analysis of the commercial catch and effort data from FQ, done by one of our network. You don't need to be a data analyst to understand what these graphs are telling us. Check them out here now.
