Three new Net Free Areas a reality as of 1 November 2015
YAHOO!!!
As of 1 November 2015, Queensland now has three new Net Free Areas.
Every rec fisher in Qld should congratulate former Minister Byrne and the ALP State government for delivering on their election promise.
UPDATE: The proof of the overwhelming success of these new NFAs is now there for all to see. Social media sites are alive on a daily basis with excited recreational anglers catching quality fish in these NFAs. The Central Qld NFA has been particularly inspiring with amazing barra and King threadfin catches from the area and new businesses and money flowing into the area as a result. The once vocal opponents are now licking their wounds as the economic, social and environmental benefits are there for all the world to see.
The history:
The Burns Inquiry back in 1993 called them ROFAS (Recreational Only Fishing Areas) and recommended we should have them here in Queensland. We all even agreed to paying $10 extra on our boat registration each year (PPV) to pay for the buyout of netting licences. Oh we paid the money all right, but we never saw any ROFAS. Reliable estimates are that the ever increasing PPV, (now renamed RUF & about $18.year) has raised around $60,000,000+ since its inception (not a typo folks). So where has all this money gone? We'll give you two guesses and the last one doesn't count.
In order to effectively and fairly create NFA's, large numbers of netting licences will need to be bought out and "burned". Thereby hangs the problem. That is going to cost a very large amount of money and successive governments have said quite clearly they are not going to put up this money.
But haven't we already contributed about $60m? Yep, but it's all gone elsewhere apparently.
The Mackay Recreational Fishing Alliance and CAREFISH in Cairns have done an enormous amount of work trying to get support for NFAs near Mackay and Cairns (Trinity Inlet). Other groups across the state have, and continue to lobby for NFA's in their localities as well.
COULD MUCH OF THE EAST COAST BE NET FREE BY THE END OF 2027?
If the UNESCO threat is acted on and followed through by the Federal and Qld State governments, then it seems actually possible that we will see all large mesh commercial nets removed from Great Barrier Reef waters by the end of 2027. There is a lot of water to flow under that bridge yet and politics is a funny game.
So keep your celebrations in check for a while, as a change of government could easily try to derail this plan before it's finalized. The Coalition at both State and Federal levels are making statements criticizing the plan already, so nothing is certain. The best thing the current governments can do, is get this thing done and dusted ASAP, thereby making it very hard for subsequent governments to overturn it. This has to be a Transformational Change, not a Transitional Change. Unfortunately, governments are notoriously poor at implementing Transformational Change.
Keep watching this space for updates as things progress.
Gulf of Carpentaria Net Free Zones
The Qld Labor State government is to be congratulated for finally biting the bullet and is hopefully going to create at least 3 new Net Free Zones in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2024. The push for Net Free Zones in the Gulf started way back in the mid 1990's when the GoC Management Plan was being developed. There was supposed to be a NFZ in Albatross Bay near Weipa, but that got squashed somewhere inside Fisheries and never made the Management Plan. Once the dust settles, we can expect to see fish stocks in the new NFZ's start to recover and the future for recreational fishing in these areas is exciting.
As of 1 November 2015, Queensland now has three new Net Free Areas.
Every rec fisher in Qld should congratulate former Minister Byrne and the ALP State government for delivering on their election promise.
UPDATE: The proof of the overwhelming success of these new NFAs is now there for all to see. Social media sites are alive on a daily basis with excited recreational anglers catching quality fish in these NFAs. The Central Qld NFA has been particularly inspiring with amazing barra and King threadfin catches from the area and new businesses and money flowing into the area as a result. The once vocal opponents are now licking their wounds as the economic, social and environmental benefits are there for all the world to see.
The history:
The Burns Inquiry back in 1993 called them ROFAS (Recreational Only Fishing Areas) and recommended we should have them here in Queensland. We all even agreed to paying $10 extra on our boat registration each year (PPV) to pay for the buyout of netting licences. Oh we paid the money all right, but we never saw any ROFAS. Reliable estimates are that the ever increasing PPV, (now renamed RUF & about $18.year) has raised around $60,000,000+ since its inception (not a typo folks). So where has all this money gone? We'll give you two guesses and the last one doesn't count.
In order to effectively and fairly create NFA's, large numbers of netting licences will need to be bought out and "burned". Thereby hangs the problem. That is going to cost a very large amount of money and successive governments have said quite clearly they are not going to put up this money.
But haven't we already contributed about $60m? Yep, but it's all gone elsewhere apparently.
The Mackay Recreational Fishing Alliance and CAREFISH in Cairns have done an enormous amount of work trying to get support for NFAs near Mackay and Cairns (Trinity Inlet). Other groups across the state have, and continue to lobby for NFA's in their localities as well.
COULD MUCH OF THE EAST COAST BE NET FREE BY THE END OF 2027?
If the UNESCO threat is acted on and followed through by the Federal and Qld State governments, then it seems actually possible that we will see all large mesh commercial nets removed from Great Barrier Reef waters by the end of 2027. There is a lot of water to flow under that bridge yet and politics is a funny game.
So keep your celebrations in check for a while, as a change of government could easily try to derail this plan before it's finalized. The Coalition at both State and Federal levels are making statements criticizing the plan already, so nothing is certain. The best thing the current governments can do, is get this thing done and dusted ASAP, thereby making it very hard for subsequent governments to overturn it. This has to be a Transformational Change, not a Transitional Change. Unfortunately, governments are notoriously poor at implementing Transformational Change.
Keep watching this space for updates as things progress.
Gulf of Carpentaria Net Free Zones
The Qld Labor State government is to be congratulated for finally biting the bullet and is hopefully going to create at least 3 new Net Free Zones in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2024. The push for Net Free Zones in the Gulf started way back in the mid 1990's when the GoC Management Plan was being developed. There was supposed to be a NFZ in Albatross Bay near Weipa, but that got squashed somewhere inside Fisheries and never made the Management Plan. Once the dust settles, we can expect to see fish stocks in the new NFZ's start to recover and the future for recreational fishing in these areas is exciting.
