Latest news with #commercialfishing
Washington Post
a day ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Fishing groups push to postpone protections for endangered right whale to 2035
PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine congressman and several commercial fishing groups are getting behind a push to delay rules designed to protect a vanishing species of whale for 10 years. The North Atlantic right whale numbers only about 370 and has declined over the last 15 years. They have been the subject of proposed federal fishing laws that are backed by conservation groups because the whales are threatened by lethal entanglement in commercial fishing gear.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
Detail in national park picture at centre of 800kg fishing investigation
This photograph shows the stunning Cape Howe Marine National Park near the Victoria and NSW border. Look hard and you'll see a tiny boat in the distance that fisheries authorities will allege was involved in an operation to haul close to 800kg of protected abalone from the park. In June, two men were observed by officers from both sides of the border, allegedly using their 7.3-metre-long vessel to take a large quantity of the shellfish, before ultimately selling it. After warrants were executed at properties at Batemans Bay and at Wollongong, retention notices were placed on the boat, their trailer, and an old Ford ute, restricting their use. While the men both had licences to take abalone in NSW, they didn't have clearance to do so in Victoria. And all fishing is prohibited in that state's marine parks. Ian Parks from Fisheries Victoria said both individuals could face charges in relation to operating a commercial fishing vessel in a national park and trafficking a commercial quantity of a priority species. 'These are serious offences and could lead to many thousands of dollars in fines and even significant prison sentences,' he said. Parks added that the boundaries of the protected area are clearly marked. 'Protected areas like Cape Howe play an important role in maintaining healthy fisheries, which is why we work hard to protect them,' he said. ⚡️ Scientists tackle mystery of wind farm 'risk' as major Australian projects begin ⛏️ Reason tradies faced 'absolute challenge' fixing deceptively simple old hut 📸 Rare colour footage of extinct Australian animal seen again after 90 years Abalone can fetch $70 per kilogram on the black market, but the price legitimate divers receive from buyers is much higher at $120, according to 2023 estimates. The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPRID), which was part of the joint operation, will allege the men left their mandatory catch data monitoring device in their ute in NSW while they fished, and that the pair possessed fish taken illegally from another state. 'Falsely declaring abalone as lawful NSW catch that have been illegally taken from outside NSW significantly undermines the NSW commercial abalone share managed fishery and quota regime,' its acting deputy secretary, Dr Bryan McDonald said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
ABC News
19-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Micro algal bloom off SA persists as commercial fishers seek economic relief
South Australia's commercial fishers are calling for financial assistance amid "complete ecosystem failure" with more cloudy and rough weather needed to continue to disperse the ongoing micro algal bloom. The South Australian Department of Primary Industries' latest published situation update reveals oyster harvesting areas in American River, Port Vincent and Stansbury remain under precautionary closure, along with part of the commercial harvesting area for pipis around the mouth of the Murray River. South Australia's deeper shelf waters remain between 0.5 and 1 degree Celsius higher than the average for the time of year. The report also showed that levels of chlorophyll-a (chla) had begun to reduce along the Coorong coast, but remained high in the north-east area of Gulf St Vincent. The Marine Fishers Association (MFA) has approached the state government for licence fee relief for affected commercial operators. Chief executive officer Pat Tripodi said the recent short patch of stormy weather seemed to have dispersed the bloom to different areas. "Previously it was concentrated to the western side of Gulf St Vincent, and then after the storms it's come across to the Adelaide side and pushed up the top near [Port] Wakefield and up near Port Parham," he said. Mr Tripodi said as soon as bloom-affected water entered a fishing area the prospect of fishers making catches disappeared. Mr Tripodi said the MFA had written to SA Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven to request fee waivers for those affected but was still waiting for an official response. He said some members would be eligible for a $1,500 grant from the government's drought relief fund, given the link between drought conditions and the algal bloom. In a statement, Ms Scriven said she was "open to discussing potential options" with the MFA. "While some marine scalefish fishery licence holders are reporting significant impacts from the current harmful algal bloom, others are reporting no impact at all," she said. "For this reason, various options may be explored." Mr Tripodi said his members were "absolutely concerned" about the future of South Australia's fisheries, particularly in some of the hardest-hit areas around the Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. "We're talking about all the shellfish that live in sediment, the worms, mussels, cockles, razorfish — they're gone. "Even once this algae clears, our question is what [are] the fish going to come back to eat?" Brad Martin from Oz Fish, who has been tracking the marine deaths caused by the bloom for months, said coasts along the Yorke Peninsula still seemed to be quite significantly impacted with reef and seagrass fish still washing up. Mr Martin said there also had been a "trickle of fish mortalities" along the Adelaide metropolitan coast on the other side of Gulf St Vincent. He said the bloom had grown in some areas and diminished in others, and was an "ongoing, dynamic situation", and it was not known when it would disappear. Mr Martin said South Australia was experiencing more still, sunny days than would normally be expected at this time of year, continuing the conditions beneficial for the bloom. One of the areas worst affected by the bloom before the cold fronts arrived in June was the waters between the northern coast of Kangaroo Island and Yorke Peninsula. Tourist operator Roanna Horbelt of RAD KI said the conditions had continued to improve after the most recent cold front, and she was no longer finding any dead marine life on the beaches but was still seeing some of the foam associated with the algae. But she said commercial fishers in the area were still concerned about a lack of catches in the future. Ms Horbelt said she was now working with Professor David Booth from the University of Technology in Sydney to try to help gauge the impact the bloom has had on the iconic leafy and weedy sea dragon populations.
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Queensland commercial fishing industry 'open for business' as investment warnings lifted
The Queensland government has declared the state is "open for business" when it comes to commercial fishing, lifting investment warnings from every fishery in the state. Investment warnings have served as a buyer-beware label in some areas for more than a decade, creating industry uncertainty by warning that regulation changes could affect the financial viability of fishing businesses. Townsville-based commercial fisher Nathan Rynn said lifting the warnings was the "biggest announcement" he had seen in his 20 years in the industry. "Ever since I've been a commercial fisher here, there's been investment warnings on our inshore fishery, and it means no security and it can all be stripped away with a stroke of a pen," he said. "When I went to the bank to go and get money for different quotas and licences, they didn't recognise what I already had in the fishery as an investment because of that warning. Queensland Seafood Industry Association executive officer David Bobbermen said he was "ecstatic" as lifting the warnings would give the industry a "renewed purpose". "This is lifting the shackles off the wild-caught seafood industry," Mr Bobbermen said. "[Lifting the warning] will encourage young people to enter the fishery and do so with confidence." Mr Bobbermen said he hoped many unused licences would be used again, leading to more local seafood on supermarket shelves. "Everyone will start to see, hopefully, sustainably, locally caught seafood on their shelves," he said. "It won't be straight away. It will take a couple of years, no doubt, but it will happen." Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett said the decision would help grow the industry, which generated $354 million a year. Australian Marine Conservation Society's Great Barrier Reef campaign manager, Simon Miller, said he hoped the change would mean more innovation and modernisation in the industry to improve sustainable fishing practices. He said while fish stocks for a number of species caught in Queensland had returned to sustainable levels, it was not the case for all of them. "We need to maintain that ambition that we're trying to make sure we've got plenty of fish in the sea for both commercial and recreational fishers to catch, but also to maintain that function in the ecosystem," Mr Miller said. Mr Perrett said 93 per cent of Queensland's fishing stocks had been identified as sustainable. "The other ones, we're working through at the moment and we're seeing some positive results," he said. Mr Perrett said plans to ban gillnet fishing from the Great Barrier Reef by 2027 had not changed. "The NX licences, those interim licences were put in place, that all stays the same," he said. For Mr Bobbermen, the announcement was the first step in regaining confidence in the industry. "This is the first brick in a big wall that needs to be rebuilt, so it's just the first step," he said.
RNZ News
05-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Environmental legal fund fighting Trump fishing order
Photo: Supplied/ the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre An environmental legal fund have sued US President Donald Trump in response to an executive order rolling back commercial fishing protections in the Western Pacific. The April 17th order, "Unleashing American commerical fishing in the Pacific", expands fishing rights within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, a protected area which surrounds various American-owned islands. The monument was established by President Bush in 2009. President Obama in 2014 expanded the size of the monument to around 1,270,000 square kilometers of ocean space - or about twice the size of the state of Texas. Obama also completely banned commercial fishing activity from that space. Trump's order reverses those bans, which Earthjustice claimed leaves more than 80 percent of the monument's total area open to fishing. David Henkin, lead attorney for the case, told RNZ Pacific that is illegal. "The Antiquities Act gives American presidents the power to create national monuments and to reserve those lands to protect the resources, but it's one way ratchet. "It doesn't give a president the ability to destroy a monument by stripping from it the essential protections that are necessary to preserve the the objects of historic and scientific interests within the monument." Trump's side argues that the presence of commercial fishing vessels doesn't pose a significant threat to marine life. "A host of federal protections exist under current laws and agency management designations to protect the area's natural resources, vulnerable marine species, and unique habitats, such as coral and seamount ecosystems." Henkin's suit contends that vessels would actually pose a massive risk, directly contradicting Trump's justification for bypassing the Antiquities Act. Species of critically endangered sea turtles in transit, as well as coral species and various other marine animals would be made vulnerable to fishing, Henkin said. "There is a lot of interaction with all of these species which are supposed to be protected under the US Endangered Species Act. Yet the Fishery Service, which is charged with implementing the Act, failed to do any analysis about the effects of opening these protected areas to activities that they know kill and injure endangered and threatened sea turtles. "It's that web of life that President Trump's proclamation and the Fisheries Service opening it to commercial fishing is tearing apart." US Exclusive Economic Zones of the US Western Pacific region. Photo: Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council At the same time, nearly half of US-owned territory in the Pacific Ocean had been made unavailable for fishing, Trump stated in the order. "This has driven American fishermen to fish further offshore in international waters to compete against poorly regulated and highly subsidized foreign fleets. "This disadvantages honest United States commercial fishermen and is detrimental for United States territories like American Samoa, whose private sector economy is over 80 percent dependent on the fishing industry." One of Trump's supporters in the Pacific, Congresswoman Uifa'atali Aumua Amata of American Samoa, said that the food security that extra fishing provides for is vital for her community. "Neither Presidents Bush, Obama or Biden ever asked American Samoa what they wanted before they took away our indigenous fishing rights without any science... President Trump asked and acted." Henkin said it reflects Trump's "complete ignorance" about the Pacific. "You need to go for days and days to get to Johnston Atoll, or to get to Jarvis Island and certainly Wake Island. There are fishing grounds much closer to the main Hawaiian Islands or to American Samoa that are and always have been available to fishers there." Ensuring a space for fish stocks to replenish is vital for sustainability, Henkin argued. "This is a concept that I think Polynesians long understood by putting areas to off limits to exploitation, you create more abundance. You create spillover effects. And so by protecting the species within the monument, there are more pelagic species, including tuna to catch outside of the monument." In a separate executive order, 'Restoring American seafood competitiveness', Trump ordered the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior to "review all existing marine national monuments and provide recommendations to the President of any that should be opened to commercial fishing".
