The continuous closure of Australian waters complicates access to their fishing resources, warns a sectoral organization.

Threats to access small resources concern the sector

AUSTRALIA
Friday, January 18, 2019, 02:30 (GMT + 9)

The sectoral organization Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) has announced a national crisis meeting  in Western Australia in February, to discuss the ongoing threats to resource access and property rights occurring across the nation.

“As an industry we are currently facing serious threats to our ability to access and sustainably utilise our oceans in the Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia, there are threats looming in Queensland and Tasmania, while South Australia and New South Wales have recently been through significant reform processes”, SIA CEO Jane Lovell said.

Lovell explained they called on the industry to join for their ‘Tipping Point’ meeting, to discuss strategies to address the constant erosion of their access, the devaluation and destabilisation of the industry.

“Australia has some of the best managed fisheries in the world. We should be encouraged to continue to sustainably harvest seafood, rather than be faced with the continual closure of waters,” she said. “Currently 70 per cent of seafood eaten in Australia is imported, as a community are we happy for this to be 100 per cent?,” she asked.

She also pointed out that the country is approaching a tipping point in terms of the community’s confidence to work in and invest in its industry. And warned that if they continue down this path, it will have critical consequences Australia’s commercial seafood industry and there would be a sizable reduction in the amount of locally-caught seafood available.

Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) is the national peak body which represents the Australian seafood industry as a whole, including members from wild catch, aquaculture and post-harvest sectors.(Photo: fisherman repairing net at the dock /SIA)

“Australia’s professional fishers adhere to extremely strict monitoring and regulations to ensure we maintain healthy stocks. There are strict management plans, quotas and licences in place which dictated how much can be caught, where it can be caught and when it can be caught,” she hightlighted.

Lovell thinks that these resources access threats have not come about as a result of a depletion in fish-stocks. In fact, for the fifth consecutive year Australia’s Commonwealth-managed fisheries have been listed as not subject to overfishing by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES). 

Campaign of the SIA to promote the Australian origin of its shrimp (Photo: SIA)

“As fishers, our priority is the environment, if there was cause for us to step away from the harvest of a particular species, then we would listen. We advocate the health, sustainability and future of our ocean and land based aquaculture activities. It’s our livelihood and the future livelihood of generations to come,” Lovell concluded.

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