From what I've read recently I really worry that some of you guys are in real danger of losing public and political support by vacating the moral high ground in favour of an unedifying shitfight with the pros to see who can catch the last fish in the ocean. I fully expect a majority of the commercial sector and those who are paid to advocate for them to argue for their unalienable right to catch what they want, where they want and how they want, irrespective of the impacts on either the environment or on the 4 million Aussies who enjoy recreational fishing. This is not just an Australian thing, for they've done it the world over.
Witness the raping of the impoverished West African fisheries by the very super trawlers that Tony Abbott wants to allow to operate in your waters. Look at the collapse of the once prolific cod fisheries of the Newfoundland Grand Banks in Canada, the near destruction of the North American striped bass fishery, or, nearer to my home, the appalling over fishing of the North Sea as a result of the idiotic European Common Fisheries Policy.
The lessons from these disasters are crystal clear. In the race to the bottom everyone loses and it is only by the introduction and enforcement of rigorous sustainable fishery management practices on all sectors that stock collapses can be avoided or recovery measures allowed to succeed. And that means bag and size limits, commercial quotas and gear restrictions, protected nursery areas and spatial closures to assist successful recruitment. It means managing our fisheries for tomorrow and recognising that we do not have the luxury of an inexhaustible resource. And here's the rub - I also firmly believe that those of us who fish for fun rather than for our livelihoods need to be prepared to lead the way in best practice and to be out there making the case for the best possible conservation practices. It would be great to see the pros rallying to the same cause, perhaps some will but I'm not holding my breath.
