QGFA News

Huge Coral Sea no-fishing Marine Park a threat to all

Pew Environmental group has launched a campaign to have an enormous 1 million square kilometre section of the Coral Sea closed to all forms of fishing by the establishment of marine park that would shut anglers out of this important part of Australia.

The American based environmental group is prepared to spend millions of dollars in a campaign to pressure politicians and government to declare a complete non fishing zone marine park abutting the eastern boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Such a move would deny the public the right to have their say by bypassing the current Marine Planning process established for the Commonwealth waters surrounding Australia.

The group is using emotive issues to push their cause. To the general public, such sentiments sound reasonable. ‘Fishing’ implies commercial fishing, which is painted as being damaging (and cruel) and unsustainable. But the devil in the detail is that recreational fishing, including tag and release fishing for pelagic fish would be included in any fishing ban.

The main recreational fisheries which would be affected, should this concept gain Government support, would be the Gamefish fisheries based in Cairns, Townsville, Port Douglas etc, as well as specialist Sportfishing operations which offer trips to remote reefs and atolls in the Coral Sea. The Cairns-based marlin fishery has been increasingly expanding the areas and seasons fished by building larger boats and making trips to features within the Coral Sea beyond the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. All this would cease if this plan became reality causing economic hardship to many people and businesses in the area.

Opposition to the campaign has been swift. The Queensland Game Fishing Association, International Game Fishing Association, Sunfish, Cairns Professional Game fishing Association, Recfish Australia and others have voiced their opposition. There is a large amount of misinformation about the impact of recreational fishing and the Australian Conservation Foundation, Pew group and others are already starting to canvass support based on false claims.

The declaration of this area as a no fishing area would be devastating to the North Queensland economy and close down important scientific tagging programs crucial to gaining information about pelagic and reef species and their management. There is no scientific basis for Pews attempted grab for an enormous part of Australian ocean area.

The Queensland Game Fishing Association called for the Australian Government to reject Pew group’s campaign and also reject the World Wildlife Funds alternative proposal to extend the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Boundaries eastward.

“The motivation for PEW’s proposal seems to be just environmental extremism for the sake of it.”