Fisheries Qld (FQ) & Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)
State governments are responsible for the management of fisheries in state waters. The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) is responsible for fisheries in Commonwealth waters. In Queensland, that translates to the overwhelming majority of our fisheries that have relevance to recreational fishers, being state managed by FQ.
But we have the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), one of the seven wonders of the world, adjacent to our coastline.
The GBR is also a World Heritage listed area (WHA), so the Federal Government is primarily responsible to look after and manage the well-being of the GBR. But, as we all know, fish live on the reef and we all love to catch and eat them, and it's the State government's responsibility to manage them, the fish.
So, the GBRMPA manages the Marine Park and activities that impact on it, but FQ manages fishing within the waters of the Park. That should be simple enough though - NOT!
The 2004 rezoning of the GBR Marine Park saw close to 30% of it being declared "Green Zones", meaning NO FISHING in these zones. The public reason for doing this was to protect the biodiversity in these areas from human exploitation (harvesting). Of course that is a very noble and important thing to do, but it does have a very large impact on fishers, both recreational and commercial.
While it supposedly prevents fishing in these important areas, in practice, it results in fishing effort being relocated and squeezed into what is left. People haven't stopped fishing because of the Green Zones, they have just moved their effort to other areas. The GBRMPA and governments feel really good about what they've done and they have got huge pats on the back from international conservation groups who also want to believe they have somehow "protected the reef from those irresponsible fishers".
Now 20 year on, we have to say that the Zoning of the reef hasn't been the great disaster many expected it to be. By and large (poachers excepted) the community has accepted the reality of the zoning and has learnt to work with it. In places like offshore of Central Qld where there is around 2,000sq/miles of Green Zones covering prime Saddletail and Crimson snapper habitat, fishing outside the Green Zones, is as good, if not better than it's ever been.
The challenge now, with the progressive removal of large mesh gill nets from the GRB waters, is for the GBRMPA to stand firm, under considerable pressure from Fisheries Qld and any change of government, against any attempts to water down this ground breaking initiative. The GBRMPA legislation is superior to the Qld State legislation, so if push comes to shove, the Federal government can stand its ground and refuse to allow any softening of the changes. Let's just hope they have the will to do that.
But we have the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), one of the seven wonders of the world, adjacent to our coastline.
The GBR is also a World Heritage listed area (WHA), so the Federal Government is primarily responsible to look after and manage the well-being of the GBR. But, as we all know, fish live on the reef and we all love to catch and eat them, and it's the State government's responsibility to manage them, the fish.
So, the GBRMPA manages the Marine Park and activities that impact on it, but FQ manages fishing within the waters of the Park. That should be simple enough though - NOT!
The 2004 rezoning of the GBR Marine Park saw close to 30% of it being declared "Green Zones", meaning NO FISHING in these zones. The public reason for doing this was to protect the biodiversity in these areas from human exploitation (harvesting). Of course that is a very noble and important thing to do, but it does have a very large impact on fishers, both recreational and commercial.
While it supposedly prevents fishing in these important areas, in practice, it results in fishing effort being relocated and squeezed into what is left. People haven't stopped fishing because of the Green Zones, they have just moved their effort to other areas. The GBRMPA and governments feel really good about what they've done and they have got huge pats on the back from international conservation groups who also want to believe they have somehow "protected the reef from those irresponsible fishers".
Now 20 year on, we have to say that the Zoning of the reef hasn't been the great disaster many expected it to be. By and large (poachers excepted) the community has accepted the reality of the zoning and has learnt to work with it. In places like offshore of Central Qld where there is around 2,000sq/miles of Green Zones covering prime Saddletail and Crimson snapper habitat, fishing outside the Green Zones, is as good, if not better than it's ever been.
The challenge now, with the progressive removal of large mesh gill nets from the GRB waters, is for the GBRMPA to stand firm, under considerable pressure from Fisheries Qld and any change of government, against any attempts to water down this ground breaking initiative. The GBRMPA legislation is superior to the Qld State legislation, so if push comes to shove, the Federal government can stand its ground and refuse to allow any softening of the changes. Let's just hope they have the will to do that.
