Sunfish position paper on the Fin Fish review (draft4 19 Jan 08)

This draft is for the guidance of Sunfish members in providing comments at the DPIF public meetings from 29 Jan to 28 Feb 2008, or in making written submissions to DPIF. Sunfish intends to complete its final submission after the public meetings so as to meet the submission deadline of 17 March 2008.

SUMMARY OF KEY ISSUES

1. Minimum Sizes. Sunfish supports the principle that in all the major species, both males and females should be able to spawn once before they can be kept. This is important to ensure stocks are sustainable. The following minimum sizes are therefore supported for the major species: summer whiting(sand, golden lined and northern) 23cm; bream(yellowfin and pikey) 25cm; flathead (dusky only) 40cm; dart 30cm, tailor 35cm; school mackerel 50cm; spotted, grey and shark mackerel 60cm.

2. Minimum Sizes on minor/migratory species. Several minor species live in estuaries as juveniles and migrate offshore as adults(Grunter, Mangrove Jack, Fingermark, estuarine cods, mulloway). These species support small but popular recreational fishing in estuaries where they are often taken incidentally. Hence they need to be kept at a size slightly less than size at maturity. Small bag limits are supported on these species for sustainability purposes. The minimum size of 35cm is supported except for grunter(30cm) and mulloway(which should remain at 45cm). Bag limits of 5 for mangrove jack, fingermark and estuarine cods, 10 for grunter, and 2 for mulloway are supported.

3. Bag Limits for anglers on the major species. SUNFISH WILL ONLY SUPPORT REGULATED BAG LIMITS ON THE MAJOR SPECIES WHERE THERE IS ALSO A COMMERCIAL CATCH LIMIT (TOTAL ALLOWABLE CATCH). IN CASES WHERE A COMMERCIAL TAC CANNOT BE IMPLEMENTED, SUNFISH WILL ENCOURAGE REASONABLE CATCH LEVELS BY ANGLERS BY NON-REGULATORY MEANS (EG. CODES OF PRACTICE). Accordingly Sunfish supports 20 for tailor and 5 for spotted mackerel because commercial TACs are in place. Sunfish is concerned about the following existing recreational bag limits because there is no complementary TAC on commercial catches: flathead 5, barramundi 5, black jewfish 10, cobia 10, grey mackerel 10, school mackerel 30, wahoo 10.

ONLY if commercial TACs can be achieved on the following species will Sunfish support the bag limits (the numbers acceptable to Sunfish are given): summer whiting combined 50, bream 30, dart 30, mackerels grey-5, school-10. threadfin king-5, blue-10.

4. Netting. The changes to netting regulations proposed in the RIS are very favourable overall to net fishers. Sunfish concerns about the proposals are the overall increase in netting activity, the increase in catches particularly of small fish and bycatch, and the huge number of existing net fishing endorsements (500), which will not be reduced by the new plan. Please check the section on netting in this paper to assess the impacts in your region.

Based on data given in the RIS we calculate that the average net fishing endorsement makes an annual income of $44,000 before crew costs, operating costs and gear depreciation is subtracted! This is ridiculous given that a policy objective of the RIS is a profitable net fishing sector.

SUNFISH QUEENSLAND INC

SUBMISSION – EAST COAST INSHORE FIN FISH FISHERY

INTRODUCTION

This submission on the Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) and draft Public Benefit Test (PBT) on the East Coast Fin Fish Fishery has been prepared under the guidance of the Management Committee of Sunfish Queensland. It is a distillation of comments made at public meetings during the consultation process, responses to the RIS by the Sunfish Management Committee members and a small ad hoc working group of experienced recreational fishers, managers and scientists, and comments made by Sunfish member organisations and regional bodies. The submission has benefited from input from a wide range of recreational fishing expertise, including pastime anglers, club fishers and their organisations, and non-club anglers with vast angling experiences. It has also had input from scientists and fisheries managers with considerable national and international experience in fisheries research and fisheries resource management. However it is a very practical and common sense submission on how this complex and important fishery must be managed now and into the future.

A major disappointment for our members has been the lack of planning for the future management of the Inshore Fin Fish fishery. A strategic direction for this fishery is urgently needed along with a workable resource allocation policy. These are critical before more ad hoc regulations are implemented which are almost irreversible.

Sunfish Queensland sincerely requests that the relevant elected Government representatives, Government officers, and most importantly the Minister responsible for fisheries takes careful note of this submission and implements it.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The RIS puts forward a number of principles to guide the review and the future management of the fin fish fishery. It is the very strong opinion of Sunfish that the following three guiding principles must be more rigorously applied in a more equitable manner. Management for any reason should not be discriminatory; where output controls apply to one sector then they must be applied equitably.

1. Resource sustainability (ESD of the fish stocks). This should be the most important principle. It is disappointing that the RIS pays only “lip service” to this critical principle. It is the opinion of Sunfish that the RIS should have been constructed around this principle and a working group should have been established to focus the entire management framework on the sustainability of fin fish resources. It is imperative that management of this fishery is done by both input controls (gear restrictions) and output controls (catch restrictions). Most of the stocks in this fishery are now fully exploited, so it is not possible to ensure their future sustainability by input controls alone, or by input controls and partial output controls. Sunfish does not agree with the current approach whereby the status of stocks are assessed AFTER fishing has occurred by using mainly annual catch statistics. Sunfish seeks much tighter management controls, particularly output controls on all the major stocks simply to ensure that stock sustainability is guaranteed BEFORE FISHING OCCURS. This approach will also demonstrate to all stakeholders that the fishery is well managed with known and sustainable catch levels.

2. Fairness. The RIS deals at length with the principle of fairness and equity. However it fails to deliver an outcome that is fair to recreational fishers.

Sunfish fully supports the fairness principle in the management of the fin fish fishery. For example reasonable input and output controls should apply fairly to all catching sectors, recreational, commercial, and charter. It is unfair to place catch restrictions on one sector and allow unlimited catches by another.

3. Profitable commercial sector. The RIS again pays only “lip service” to this important principle; it ignores the current crisis in the fishery. Sunfish fully supports the principle that each individual commercial fisher in this fishery should run a profitable operation. According to the RIS there are 500 commercial fishers in the fishery. Unfortunately many individual commercial fishers, perhaps half, are not profitable and depend on other sources of income. Sunfish is opposed to the many small net fishing operators who treat the fishery as a pastime and lifestyle activity, much like a type of recreational activity. Most of these have little commitment to the fishery and only operate for a short time each year. Such small scale activities provide minimal amounts of seafood to the community, and are the cause of many of the conflicts with other fishing activities, both recreational and commercial. Given the total amount of fish currently caught by the commercial sector of this fishery, there is not enough fish available to support 500 profitable commercial fishers. In other words too many net fishing licences have been issued in this fishery, resulting in an unprofitable operation for about half net fishers, and conflicts over access to the resources. There is an urgent need to reduce the numbers of net licences in this fishery. This could be done in a number of ways. The most efficient would be to set an annual total catch limit of 5 tonnes for all net fishers in this fishery. Those that do not achieve 5 tonnes of fin fish in any year would surrender their net fishing endorsements. (note that 5 tonnes of product would be worth less than $15,000 based on an average return  per kilo to the net fisher). Licenses are issued on the premise that they are for an active commercial fishing operation – not to sit on a shelf.

Some further ideas on future management objectives.

The following ideas have been put forward by Sunfish members.

An example of some objectives in a futuristic plan should be :-

1.       Management arrangements will ensure the recreational sector has access to the major share of the available inshore fish resource commensurate with a triple bottom line allocation model.

2.       A progressive removal of commercial netting implemented in all rivers, creeks, estuaries and bays on the east coast of Queensland south of Cape Flattery, to be completed by 2014.

3.       Output management arrangements (recreational & commercial) be developed and implemented under a zonal model that recognises following differing impacts on the fishery and its users:

·         geographic,

·         seasonal

·         species distribution

·         relevant market importance within the Queensland commercial fishery

·         importance of species to each sector and

·         social & community expectations

4.   Recreational limits implemented in order to ensure ongoing resource sustainability. Decisions will be based on a variety of criteria, including the principle of size at first maturity, social expectations, resource size and size profiles and fishing pressure.

5.       A significant restructure of the existing inshore commercial net fishery to create a small viable geographically and species based commercial net fishery that is based on species Total Allowable Catches (TAC's) and Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQ"s) that:

a.      provides high quality fresh product predominantly for the higher end of the local Queensland market., and is

b.      located so as to minimise interaction and conflict with recreational fishing.

6.       Ensure bait and tackle industries and outlets who rely on recreational fishers for their business are supported by a vibrant and healthy recreational fishing sector.

Amount and value of commercial catches (from 2006 data)

Species               tones       %           approx value per kg         approx  value   %

Mullet                1637      30%                 $5 average                  $ 8.2m          36.%

Shark                    919     16%                 $2                                  1.8m            8%

Barra                    854     15%                 $7                                  6.0m           27%

Other                  1376     25%                 $2                                  2.7m           12%

Bream, Whiting   651       12%                 $5                                  3.3m            15%

Flathead

Small Mack        80       < 2 %                $ 5                                 0.4m          < 2%

             Total  5517                                                                  $ 22.4m

 Less mullet, barra & shark      ($ 16m)                             =    $   6.4m

Notes –

1. The inshore commercial net fishery without mullet, shark & barra is only worth approx  $6.4m in total.
2. The recreational fishery for all the above species contributes approx  $562.5m to the Queensland economy (562,500 inshore anglers x $ 1000)
3. Approx 46% of the recreational catch (RFISH data) are Whiting, Bream & Flathead (value $ 260m to the economy).

The total value of the catch to the commercial sector divided into the 500 net fishing endorsements gives an average annual income of $44,000 per fishing operation before crew costs, operating costs, and gear depreciation are subtracted. This clearly demonstrates that the net fishery is in crisis and uneconomic.

MANAGEMENT OF STOCKS

Note that the principles of resource sustainability, fairness in resource allocation, and a profitable commercial fishing sector must be applied to each stock. Recreational bag limits set at a reasonable level which will enable a recreational fisher to catch a feed or two for the family if so desired.

NOTE. Sunfish will only support regulated bag limits in species/species groups where there is also a commercial catch limit (eg TAC), for example tailor where bag limits and commercial catch limits currently apply. In cases where commercial catch limits cannot be achieved in conjunction with bag limits, Sunfish will still encourage reasonable catch levels by recreational fishers by non-regulatory means such as codes of conduct.

There is no particular relevance to the order in which species/species groups are presented.

Mullet.

Sunfish strongly supports that the major mullet species, Mugil cephalus should be primarily a commercial species. A bag limit of 20 for recreational fishers is adequate for the small numbers of recreational fishers who catch mullet. Sunfish suggests to the commercial net fishing sector that they consider the introduction of a TAC or other output controls to ensure sustainability of this important commercial species. Value adding through the more efficient use of excess mullet catches should be mandatory. They should not just be caught for roe. Sunfish is concerned that a large part of the mullet catch is frozen down for crab bait.

Tailor

Sunfish wants tailor to be a “recreational fish only”. This is based on its importance to the recreational sector and the very small quantities taken by net fishers. The quality of tailor is difficult to maintain in net fishing operations, and hence tailor does not make a good commercial product.

The less favoured option is to continue with the present approach to management of tailor. Sunfish agrees with the RIS proposal for an increased min size of 35cm, overall bag limit of 20 for recreational fishers. The current commercial annual TAC of 120tonnes, with 30kg incidental catch is also supported provided it is allowed for in the total TAC.

NOTE. Sunfish very strongly requests that all the main recreational fin fish stocks ( bream, whiting, flathead, barramundi, salmon & grunter) be managed in accord with the “tailor model”; that is

* generally a minimum size that ensures all fish both males and females, spawn at least once before they can be kept;

* a bag limit  on recreational fishers (small number for large, slow growing species, and larger number for small, fast growing species); and

* a TAC for the commercial fishing sector.

Only this model can guarantee delivery of the package of principles of resource sustainability, fairness, and profitability.

Whiting

Summer whiting. Sunfish supports a min size of 23cm for all the summer whiting (golden lined, northern and sand), but does not support the RIS proposal of 30 combined bag limit. Sunfish proposes that the combined bag limit be 50 for the summer whiting because they are small and fast growing – and a bag of 50 only provides a reasonable amount of food for those who wish to catch food for their families. A commercial TAC of 250 tonnes annually complements the restrictions on recreational fishing and ensures sustainability.

Winter whiting. A bag limit of 50 and no size limit are supported. No TAC on commercial net catches is necessary due to the small amount taken. These must remain a non trawl species.

Bream

A bag limit of 30 for combined yellowfin and pikey bream is supported. A separate bag limit of 30 for tarwhine is sought because tarwhine are a separate species and can be easily identified from the other two species. Sunfish strongly seeks a size of 25cm on all bream because in the case of the main species, yellowfin, sex inversion occurs and it is important that the sex-changing males can all spawn as females. The 23cm min size protects the males and enables them to spawn once, but the reproduction by females is severely reduced if they are taken at 23cm. This size is also in accordance with NSW legal lengths.

Sunfish seeks a TAC of 200 tonnes annually on commercial catches of bream.

Flathead

Sunfish supports the current proposal of 40cm to 70cm size range and no trophy fish. A bag of 5 is supported for dusky flathead only. Bartail and sand flathead should not be included in the bag limit on duskies. These minor species should have no bag limits because they are rarely if ever caught in numbers.

An annual TAC on commercial netting for flathead is sought at 50 tonnes.

Dart

Dart is now the main target species by recreational fishers on the ocean beaches in south and central Qld.

Sunfish believes that dart should be a recreational only species.

However if this cannot be achieved, a bag limit of 30, coupled with a commercial TAC is acceptable, but a size of 30cm is important to enable dart to spawn once as it is now heavily fished, and its sustainability is in doubt. Sunfish objects to the dubious suggestion that no size limit should apply due to bycatch problems in the net fishery. The bycatch of small, immature dart in nets must be reduced and eliminated.

Sunfish seeks a commercial TAC of 40 tonnes annually for dart.

Spotted mackerel.

Sunfish opposes any measures that would result in an increase of net-caught spotted mackerel. The commercial fishery should be a line fishery with no relaxation on netting of this species. The TAC should remain at 15 tonnes annually, and the incidental net catch should remain at 15. The min size of 60cm and bag limit of 5 are supported.

Grey and school mackerel, and shark mackerel

The min sizes of 60cm for greys and 50cm for school and shark mackerel are supported. However combined bag limits are not supported. The bag limits should be 10 each for school and shark mackerel and 5 for greys. Sunfish requests commercial TACs of 200 tonnes for grey mackerel and 30 tonnes for school mackerel.

Garfish

The depletion of sea gar in NSW is totally unrelated to Qld stocks of gar. Sunfish supports no bag limits on gar and no commercial TAC in Queensland. Anglers in Queensland currently catch their own garfish bait during the limited season as commercial supplies are not available. The problem with garfish stocks has been caused by the increase in commercial landings of sea gar in NSW, and this problem has been addressed in NSW by major netting restrictions. It is unacceptable to impose recreational bag limits on all gar in Qld when the problem with gar is a NSW local issue.

Grunter, Mangrove Jack, Fingermark, Estuarine Cods, Mulloway

All the above species have a life cycle which starts in the estuaries and progresses to the bigger fish moving into deeper water. Very few of these fish reach mature size in the estuaries but are relatively common and have for many years been taken as juvenile fish in estuaries by many recreational fishers.

Because of their similar characteristics their size should be the same at 35cm, except for grunter which should be 30cm for all species and mulloway which should remain at 45cm.

Sunfish supports an individual species limit of 5 for Mangrove Jack, 5 fingermark and 5 cod, 10 for each of the grunter species, and two for mulloway.

Threadfin

Sunfish supports most of the bag and size limits given in the RIS (Blue salmon 40cm and bag of 10. King salmon bag of 5, but the size of 60cm would have a major impact on recreational catches of King in central and north Qld and should be reduced to 50cm). However Sunfish supports a combined TAC of 200 tonnes annually for King and Blue salmon for net fishers.

Black jewfish

The RIS puts forward 75cm min size and 2 bag limit. Sunfish seeks the same controls as per the Gulf, 60cm min size and 5 bag limit with no upper size limit.

Queenfish

Sunfish seeks alignment with the Gulf with a min size of 45cm not 50cm as in the RIS

Luderick

Sunfish supports the bag limit of 10 on luderick, but suggests a minimum size of 25cm – same as bream to avoid confusion. A commercial TAC is also sought calculated from the average total commercial catch over the past 10 years.

Note on TACs. The TACs sought by Sunfish are primarily based on average annual catches over the 12year period up to 2000 – as published by QDPIF. More recent catch data is not available to Sunfish. The amounts given could be modified slightly in light of more recent catch information.

NETTING

Sunfish Response to Proposed Netting Changes in the Qld East Coast Inshore Finfish RIS

Summary of macro level outcomes should the RIS changes progress as proposed:

1.       There will be a significant nett increase in commercial netting effort in the fishery as a whole – this "increase" will be in respect to increased numbers of nets and overall length of net able to be deployed in this fishery.

2.       There will be a movement and increase in commercial effort towards the nearshore and offshore components of the fishery

3.       The recreational total catch will be limited and potentially reduced, while no total catch limits will be imposed on the commercial sector apart from the shark fishery, resulting in a real reallocation of the resource in favour of the commercial sector.

4.       There will be an inevitable increase in the level of conflict between recreational and commercial fishers as a consequence of more and longer nets in waters most frequented by recreational fishers and the perception by recreational fishers that they have been unfairly disadvantaged and discriminated against by these changes

5.       If commercial nets are allowed back into dugong protected areas, there will be a real and serious threat to endangered and threatened species.

Other major concerns about commercial netting

1. Bait nets

Sunfish strongly recommends the adoption of the policy “all bait nets, both commercial and amateur, should only be used to catch bait”.

In the case of amateur bait nets, only bait species may be retained. All other fin fish must be released.

This also applies to commercial bait nets, that is only bait may be kept. All other species must be released.

Bait may need to be specified. Hence Sunfish provides a list of bait fin fish:

Gar, pilchards, hardiheads, herrings, anchovies, yellowtail pike, biddies, all mullet except Mugil cephalus.

Sunfish strongly opposes the use of long, large mesh bait nets due to the targeting of non bait fish. Sunfish opposes the range of commercial bait nets put forward in the RIS, and strongly advocates only the use of the “ocean beach bait net” throughout the east coast for catching bait by commercial fishers(200m long, mesh 12-25mm).

2. Distances from Structures

There should be no change to the distance a commercial fisher can set a net from a structure in the current regulations. The RIS is disappointing in that it neglects to advise that some exclusions are currently at 400m & will be reduced.

3. Netting in dugong protection areas (DPA’s)

There should be no relaxation of netting restrictions in the DPA’s to allow additional nets. These were excluded initially & commercial fishers were compensated financially for their hardship.

4. The new tunnel net endorsement

SUNFISH supports this proposal but objects to the automatic inclusion of NI nets/conditions on the new tunnel net endorsement. Tunnel netters are being given an exclusive market and operating advantage for a particular type of net over other commercial fishers and should have to purchase/lease another N1 if they want to operate using a N1 GP net or other N1 net. The tunnel net endorsements, due to the limited number expected to be granted, are expected to become very valuable. It is therefore only reasonable to expect those who are given tunnel net endorsements to forego their use of all other commercial nets (surrender their existing N1 endorsement). If they wish to use commercial nets other than tunnel nets then it is reasonable that they should have to buy/lease an existing endorsement.

OTHER ISSUES

Eurimbula Creek Fish Sanctuary proposal

With the growth in marine park zoning, the need for fish sanctuaries is reduced. Eurimbula Creek as a fish sanctuary is opposed as there is not adequate “fisheries” justification in the RIS. If this creek has special conservation values it is the role of EPA to propose appropriate marine park zoning.

Other Fishing Closures

The RIS states that it has deferred consideration of closures for resource allocation purposes and is only proposing to look at resource sustainability type closures in this review round. Sunfish accepts this proposal but seeks a programme for the future consideration of resource allocation closures.