It’s not often fishermen have the opportunity to get together en mass, but controversial fishing reforms which threaten their co-operative and livelihood will do it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Related content: Support for our fishers and Fishing Reforms
“I am so extremely worried that this business adjustment program will cause our closure and the loss of many successful fishermen,” Wallis Lake Fishermen’s Co-operative manager, Suzie McEnallay, said.
Ms McEnallay has compiled a report documenting the impact on Wallis Lake fisheries from the Commercial Fishers Business Adjustment Program, focusing on the 38 ‘everyday’ fishers in the co-op. But the prognosis for the co-op, which turns 70 next year, is not good.
“The proposed program has so many flaws and issues, we as a co-op are so concerned that sustaining the co-op as a facility for our fishermen will be in jeopardy and could force our closure,” she said.
But according to a spokesperson for the Minister of Primary Industries Niall Blair, the long anticipated fisheries reforms are designed to “build a strong foundation for the long-term viability and sustainability of the industry.”
They said the changes would see the NSW Government help fishers to invest in their businesses and provide them with the tools to better manage their business or support them to exit the industry through a $16 million program of assistance measures.
The interpretation of the word ‘help’ here could be debated.
“There are shares for each kind of fishing you will need to have to many for each – crabs, prawns, fishing...” said Christy Ragno, whose husband Sabino has been fishing locally since he was 15.
“What we will need to do [to comply] is spend $130,000 to keep going to keep doing exactly what we are doing now. There are no benefits,” she said, adding that the debt they will incur from the government’s ‘helpful’ low interest rate loans – up to $80,000 - will not enable them to earn any more income than they already earn now.
But by Ms Ragno’s calculations if they don’t acquire more blue-crab shares they risk losing two thirds of their crabbing income – just one of the licence types they hold to diversify their catch across the appropriate seasons. And further compounding Christy’s fears is the fact that since shares only become available when others (in their region) choose to sell them, there is no guarantee there will be any for them to even bid for.
“From my own investigations there is absolutely no way that the shares that my 38 fishers require will be available,” Ms McEnallay agreed.
Ms McEnallay said that it currently costs $5000 per year to acquire a licence which complies with fishing restrictions from Tuggerah Lake to Crowdy Head. This system is referred to as restricted fisheries, and the more you fish, the more expensive the licence.
The new system is based on a share managed fisheries system, which links shares to the amount of fish to be caught or the effort put into catching it.
“We have established that of our 38 fishers only one of them has enough shares to continue without further purchase,” Ms McEnallay said, citing a total required investment of $3.2 million by its shareholders.
“We would lose $770,000 per year based on existing blue swimmer crab shares from what we’re catching now. And that’s just the crabs.”
She quotes a total investment of $200,000 by local fishermen for prawning, $798,000 for mud crab trapping, $1.2 million for fish and blue swimmer crab trapping and $605,000 to take meshing licences from 93 days to 250 days per year (taking into account days lost). Added to that are further hauling and ocean trap and line share costs.
With concerns that the reforms would open the way to big business buying up the shares, driving the small operators out, Ms McEnallay quoted loss of employment, higher seafood prices, less local seafood access and a detrimental flow on effect to suppliers.
She added that though the reforms would be welcomed by those fishers who were either ready to exit the industry or already owned large shareholdings, they would cripple the Wallis Lake industry as the demands are simply too much.
Ms McEnallay said she was advised by the deputy director general of DPI Fisheries Dr Geoff Allan to trust the system would work. On the eve of its 70th birthday, it is small consolation for a co-op which is proud to call itself the second largest supplier to the Sydney Fish Markets and turns over $7 million annually for local members.