Kimberley Reefs Saved from Trawling!

We were successful in telling Federal Minister for Fisheries, Tony Burke to maintain the closure protecting over 6,000km² of our Kimberley marine environment.

This closure, however, is only for one more year pending AFMA’s- the Commonwealth's fisheries agency - changes to trawl boundaries along the entire west coast.

There are currently two Commonwealth trawl fisheries off the west coast of Australia, the North West Shelf Trawl Fishery (NWSTF) and the Western Demersal Trawl Fishery (WDTF). The inner landward boundary of both of these commonwealth fisheries, is the 200m depth contour… marked out by GPS points along the coast designated by Geoscience Australia. AFMA  planned to re-align these boundaries, increasing the trawlable area in the WDTF by approximately 4200 km² of area that has never been trawled before.

A map showing the extent of the NW trawl fishery, AFMA

Historically, the NWSTF was trawled by the Taiwanese up until the 1970’s. Since then, fish populations have rebuilt as their seabed habitat regrew.  Now, the area is fished by a trap and line fishery that, unlike trawling, does not destroy the seabed habitat.

Commercial fishers, conservationists and scientists were against AFMA’s decision to allow the closure to lapse and change the existing trawl boundaries. Bob Masters a commercial fisher in Broome said,

“To re-open the area to trawling is an irresponsible action that will destroy the reefs, the wider marine ecosystem, and will ultimately destroy the entire fishery in the area” said Dr. Marjorie Apthorpe of Ocean Reef.

Furthermore, these changes come just before the new Commonwealth Marine Parks are announced by Minister Garrett.  The Wilderness Society questions why the Commonwealth would you open up areas to destructive trawling just before Marine Parks are decided.

The scars of bottom trawling, visible form outer space

Western Australians love our marine environment and want to see it protected for the benefit of all West Australians. Trawling fragile environments should be banned.

Trawling facts:

• Trawling is the most destructive method to catch fish…. It is equivalent to ploughing a field 7 times a year. Nothing can grow in such a field.

• The AFMA trawl fisheries have no restrictions on the amount or type of fish they catch.

• AFMA doesn’t do any research on any of the fish the trawlers catch.

• Fish caught by trawl are less valuable than fish caught by trap or line because they get damaged by the nets.

• Trawling kills many endangered species, such as turtles and dolphins, and 1/3 of the catch is thrown back dead.
  
  
• Since AFMA trawlers can take the total annual allowable catch of state-managed fish populations in just a few months, AFMA Trawlers are threatening the sustainability of state managed fish populations such as Shark Bay Pink Snapper.                     

                         Thank you for helping us stop this destructive proposal!

 Watch our Website for more, actions and events; www.wilderness.org.au/Marine