Posted on February, 25 2002

Brisbane, Australia - WWF Australia has expressed frustration at the announcement today by the Federal Minister for Environment, Dr Kemp that an earlier Federal decision to ban trawling in Rockingham Bay will now be reversed.

�This is a response to intense lobbying by commercial fishing and seafood industry interests at the expense of local tourism and conservation,� said Imogen Zethoven, WWF Australia�s Great Barrier Reef campaign manager. �We urge the minister to demonstrate a clear commitment to protection of the Great Barrier Reef by closing Rockingham Bay to inshore trawling as soon as there is one reported instance of dead fish slicks lining local beaches.�

Ms Zethoven said WWF has commended Dr Kemp on his earlier decision to ban inshore trawling off part of Queensland�s Wet Tropics coastline. The decision followed complaints by Mission Beach residents at the regularity with which dead fish, discarded as bycatch from nearby prawn trawling boats, were washing ashore and rotting on local beaches.

�This has been a problem in the region since the 1970s. For every tonne of prawns caught in inshore waters by trawlers, another 6 tonnes of marine life is also caught and usually dies. This mountain of bycatch is thrown overboard from trawlers � an appallingly wasteful practice,� she said.

In May last year, a slick of dead fish washed ashore along a 10 kilometre stretch of beach in the Mission Beach area. This mass fish kill included a slick measuring up to one kilometre wide and up to 4 kilometres long, floating 2 kilometres offshore. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service estimated the density of dead fish in the slick varied from 2-3 to 40-50 fish per square metre.

Ms Zethoven said repeated efforts by Queensland�s east coast commercial fishing industry to introduce a voluntary code of practice to deal with the trawl bycatch problem had been unsuccessful.

Rockingham Bay was a �visually stunning� part of the Great Barrier Reef that should be protected due to its proximity to the Hinchinbrook Island wilderness area, she said. It is also important dugong habitat due to the occurrence of sea grass beds.

�Trawling is a very destructive form of fishing which irreparably damages the seafloor, ripping up seagrass beds and other seafloor habitats. It is totally incompatible with the preservation of the World Heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef and with the protection of dugong habitat.�

Ms Zethoven said Dr Kemp originally had agreed to introduce regulations to ban trawling from Rockingham Bay to just south of Innisfail. �However, the regulations will now only protect about half the original area, and will extend form Tully Heads to the same northern boundary,� she said.

For more information:
Rosslyn Beeby WWF Australia Media email: rbeeby@wwf.org.au