The Victorian Fishers Authority (VFA) will not commit to supporting either the commercial or recreational fishing sectors of the Gippsland Lakes ahead of November’s State Election.
A meeting aimed to educate and lessen the misunderstanding between the two sectors last Wednesday has left both parties no closer to an outcome with the VFA chief executive officer, Travis Dowling, saying the State Election and which party will be in power will likely dictate if a policy is implemented. The Gippsland Lakes Recreation Fishing Alliance (the Alliance), whose objective is to ban commercial netting in the Gippsland Lakes, completed its sixmeeting circuit across the catchment, stretching as far west as Loch Sport, at the unofficial home of Gippsland fishing Lakes Entrance last Wednesday.
Secretary of alliance, Jacquie Kennon, husband, David Warren, East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority projects manager, Sean Phillipson, and Mr Dowling presented to the more than 50 people in attendance at the Gippsland Lakes Fishing Club rooms.
While the discussion centered around environmental changes, ranging from topics such as increasing salinity due to drought conditions and low fresh water flows to dying seagrass, what the commercial sector asked for was the VFA’s position on the catchment.
The commercial sector asked whether the Gippsland Lakes remains a sustainable commercial fishery and netting licences would be maintained, or whether the fishery is better, from an economic standpoint, to be recreational-only and if a buy-out option would be compulsory or available. It wasn’t forthcoming.
Mr Dowling said a decision as to whether the 10 commercial netting licence holders will be forced into a compulsory buy-out or not, as has been implemented in Port Phillip Bay (non-compulsory), will likely come down to economics, not sustainability.
With the State Election approaching, the VFA chief executive said the VFA does not have a policy and they would continue to monitor data on both sides of they argument.
“I’m very cognisant of the fact in the lead-up to the State Election this is going to be quite a significant issue, and myself as the head of fisheries, and as a public servant, will stay out of that as a political issue, but we’ll manage the fishery in relation to the information that we’ve got and the best things that we think need to be done to maintain a good fishery going forward,” Mr Dowling said.
“We do know with a less amount of fisherman, there is still less fish being caught. It’s not just there used to be 50 commercial netters and now there is 10 and that’s why there is less fish being caught, even with those 10 there is less fish being caught, but whether or not that is the netting that is causing the decline, or other things, it’s something we’re still working on in terms of numbers.
“Noting that we’ve got pretty polarised positions – we’ve got a very strong representation from the commercial sector and Seafood Industry Victoria saying it’s not the netting. I think one thing we can all agree on is we need to continue to build the environment around the Lakes.
“We have VRFish and other recreational groups saying ‘we believe the netting is contributing to the decline’. We, at the moment are working through all the information, including the environmental information.
“Whether or not there is a value to the economy, again there are two schools of thought – there is a lot of data being done that points to favouring tourism. The commercial sector, on the other hand, will say ‘We support jobs and investment through what we do with fresh seafood’.
“In terms of the future of the Gippsland Lakes, from our point of view, bearing in mind what each party takes as policy into the election, VFA will continue to look at this data from both the commercial and recreational fishing point of view and we’ll consult. So rather than make an election commitment, we’ll come out and talk to people and say there is no policy on the Gippsland Lakes. We’ll be out next year when we have some more data and sit down and say ‘what are some opportunities for us to protect the fishery we’ve got for the future? Are there changes that we can make?’.
Not committing to either party, Mr Dowling said he is concerned by the catch data from both the recreational and commercial sectors.
In what may have been a worrisome sign for the commercial netting licence holders, Mr Dowling stated: “The decision in Port Phillip Bay was a resource reallocation decision. It was decided that it was a greater economic benefit in Port Phillip Bay from the recreational fishermen than the benefit being gained from the commercial fishery.”
“This was a decision, not about sustainability, it was about the best benefit for this economy to have a recreational rather than a commercial net fishery.”
Mr Dowling went on to say the Port Phillip Bay fishery decision will have no bearing on a potential Gippsland Lakes buy-out decision.
Ms Kennon and Mr Dowling provided statistics, largely related to the declining fish stocks in the Gippsland Lakes, namely black bream, and the economic benefit a sole recreational fishing catchment would bring to the district, while Mr Phillipson discussed the changing environmental factors that have lessened the catch rates both commercially and recreationally.
A VRFish poster on display at the meeting read: Gippsland Lakes – No netting = Better fishing.
Statistics, coming from an Ernst and Young economic study completed in 2015, stated that recreational fishing brings a $381 million economic contribution to the Gippsland region, supports 2422 jobs, 58,000 people fish the lakes per year, undertaking 948,000 fishing trips, where $400 are spent per trip.
VRFish last week released its eight-point plan to ‘make fishing better’ ahead of the November State Election, which included the point: Save Our Gippsland Lakes. Fish recovery plan for Gippsland Lakes.
The point read: Implement a formal fishery recovery plan for Victoria’s iconic Gippsland Lakes Fishery including:
- A fair and respectful compulsory buy-out of all 10 Gippsland Lakes Fishery Access Licences;
- A review of recreational fishing bag and size limits for black bream;
- A plan to address factors suppressing the natural recruitment of black bream, including habitat improvement and mitigating saline intrusion, and implement a restocking program.
