FISHERMEN’S livelihoods and the local seafood industry will be put in jeopardy if the NSW Government’s proposed fishing reforms go ahead in their current state.
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That is the view of Wallis Lake Fisherman’s Co-operative operations manager Suzie McEnallay and many local and state-wide fishermen who say if the reforms go ahead unchanged, they won’t survive.
“It’s causing so much angst among fishers,” she said.
“The reforms have been rejected in their current state by the majority of fishermen in NSW as the options are not viable or workable for the industry as a whole.
“We’d like the government to have more consultation with the industry. Right now it’s just too hard, too fast.”
- Wallis Lake Fisherman's Co-operative operations manager Suzie McEnallay.
Under the proposed reforms, NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson has proposed a new resource sharing policy which would require fishermen to buy additional “shares” in order to continue throwing lines and nets into the water. The fishing shares would be linked to either catch numbers or time periods a trawler could spend on the water.
A $16 million structural adjustment package will give fishers the option to downsize, exit the industry or help set up their business for the future.
Ms Hodgkinson said the Commercial Fisheries Reform Program was developed in response to an independent review in 2012.
Ms McEnallay, who comes from a fourth generation family of fishermen, said most anglers want to continue working in the industry but cannot afford to purchase more shares.
“The reforms require fishers to buy extra shares however many don’t have the capital to do so, won’t or can’t borrow and will consequently leave the industry. This then reduces catches,” she said.
“If the purchase of more shares is linked to more gear in the water then that increases the effort in the industry and bombs out the smaller operators.
“Fishing is such a generational industry. If our fishing industry goes it takes out a huge chunk of the area and many local businesses would be affected.”
On Wednesday, April 30, about 75 local fishers, their partners and staff from the Wallis Lake co-op met with the DPI director of fisheries in Tuncurry as part of 14 meetings across the state.
Ms McEnallay said the general consensus from people at the Tuncurry meeting was that they strongly opposed the changes.
The NSW DPI has sent reform papers to each commercial fishery shareholder and submissions to those options close this Friday (May 30) at 5pm.
Ms Hodgkinson said a decision was yet to be made on the reforms and strongly urged commercial and recreational anglers and other interested members of the community to carefully examine the options papers and make a submission.
All reform options papers and further information regarding the Commercial Fisheries Reform Program can be found at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/commercial/reform.
At the completion of the consultation process, a summary of submissions, input from key stakeholder groups and advice from DPI will be provided to the Independent Structural Adjustment Review Committee (SARC).
SARC will then prepare final recommendations for the consideration of the NSW government.
