Fishing future on the line: WAFIC

The zoning recommendations of the Bremer Commonwealth Marine Reserve review will impair the future of the fishing industry, WA’s peak fishing industry body claims.

The WA Fishing Industry Council has called for industry feedback to ensure these concerns are heard.

This comes after the independent Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review recommended to expand the Bremer Commonwealth Marine Reserve to cover 70.93 per cent from the current 6.35 per cent.

WAFIC chief executive John Harrison said the recommendation of increased reserves would be to the detriment of the industry.

“The future (of fisheries) is put at risk when locking reserves up,” he said.

“We don’t know what is potentially out there in the future ... pelagic fisheries could be capitalised on in a sustainable manner, but by locking that up, you rule out the prospectivity of those industries.

“We have some important fisheries there, in particular the scallop trawling fishery.”

To ensure the proclaimed zoning and the revised recommended zoning meet industry needs, the WAFIC has put out a call for feedback.

“We are endeavouring to include our industry as much as we can in the process so they can voice their opinion,” Mr Harrison said.

“We need to ensure transparency in the process and to make sure we have captured the views of the industry.

“We would like to see some sense of reality taken with the reserves and provide for prospectivity for future pelagic and mid-water fishing.”

Mr Harrison said over-fishing was a management issue and the industry had been fishing sustainably for generations.

“It is a renewable resource that can be harvested on a sustainable basis and that’s what we continue to do,” he said. “Locking up (the area) doesn’t give anybody anything other than a nice warm feeling.”

Public submissions can still be made online, with new management plans hoped to be finalised by the middle of next year.

Environmental groups have generally welcomed the proposed marine reserve.