Reform inquiry brings out local concerns

Recently declared ‘Grandparents of the Year’ by Yours magazine, they have also had their hands full writing their response to the controversial commercial fishers reforms, due to a parliamentary inquiry at the end of this week.

“I’m a fourth generation fisher, our sons are fifth generation,” said Kath.

But both she and Les are despairing of the changes wrought over fishers during several decades of varying reforms, in particular this latest round.

“This is the big one. This will see our family finished,' they both agreed.

Fishing since the age of 14, sitting on past advisory bodies and now retired, Les sold his business licence last month back to the government as part of its buy-back scheme. He got $20,000 for it. 

In the last reforms in 2007, it was valued at $250,000 but he wasn’t then ready to give it up. He later handed much of his infrastructure and share holdings down to their two sons, both commercial fishermen, to help them run with the tide. 

“But they will both need to spend $250,000 each on more shares to keep going,” Kath said.

A glance at the fisheries shareholding database reveals most local fishermen already hold the minimum legal number of shares (125) in locally relevant classes (prawning, crabbing, hauling, etc), with only a handful owning more. The reforms will now link those shares with new limits based on either effort (days allowed to fish) or quota (amount allowed to catch). But it’s the wide variations between what’s permitted now and into the future and how they were worked out, that has fishers so concerned.

The inquiry, announced in November, has been welcomed by both the Wallis Lake Fishermen’s Co-operative and local fisher Phillip Byrnes for different reasons.

“Our fishermen will suffer from not being given their catch history rights especially when it comes to blue swimmer crabs (of which we catch 80 per cent of NSW caught blue swimmer crabs) and also mud crabs, however every fishing endorsement has been hit with its own issues and each and every one of our fisherman will be dealt a huge blow,” said the Co-op’s manager, Suzie McEnallay.

“Bring it on,” said Mr Byrnes, managing director of Great Lakes Fisheries which he runs with his brother, government advisor Graeme Byrnes.

Phillip believes the proposed fishing reforms are the way of the future, and putting a cap on how many fish and crabs fishermen are allowed to catch (quotas) will help towards the prosperity of fishers. 

“Fishermen now have faster and more efficient boats, the use of GPS and now the widespread adoption and use of the new ‘super trap’,” he said, referring to a trap which can catch up to four times as many crabs.

He said regulatory constraints must improve to protect the resource and referred to small crabs allowed to grow into big ones. But how to achieve that comes differently, with some advocating instead redesigning legal traps to allow the small crabs to crawl back out. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Primary Industry Fisheries said that a subsidised share market trading will kick in when the reforms come in in July next year, but how much each fisher will be subsidised will fluctuate. He also said that some classes will allow fishers to lease their quota to fishers in other regions (Great Lakes is Region 4), although what impact this might have on maintaining sustainable levels in each region is unclear.

“What’s to stop people from buying them up, then leasing them out at inflated prices?” asked Kath.

“We’re worried about the future, not just for our family but for all commercial fishers.”

She added that over the years sustainability issues has seen fishers reduce their hours as well as the legal size of their nets so that today’s industry was sustainable.

“We are environmentalists too. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have anything left to catch!”

Apart from their family, Kath and Les have devoted much of their time their lives to Smiths Lake. They both currently sit on the Estuary Management Committee which operates similar to Landcare but for the water in Smiths and Wallis lakes. The committee consists of up to 20 stakeholders accessing the lakes, all from different walks of life, and it liaises closely with council on all issues to do with the water. 

“We’re passionate about our lakes,” Kath said, clutching the box of records and memorabilia left behind by her great grandfather and grandfather. 

A regional petition with 10,000 signatures against the reforms was also handed to Labor Party members at State parliament late November.