“Australia has the third largest fishery zone of any nation. It also has the most over-managed, heavily restricted and least productive fishery sector in the world,” according to marine biologist Dr Walter Starck.
“The total Australian wild caught fishery harvest is less than half that of New Zealand and less than a tenth that of Thailand which has a fisheries zone only 5 percent the size of Australia’s.
“Seventy percent of the seafood we consume is imported, all of it from regions far more heavily fished than our own.”
Dr Walter Starck will be in Brisbane on 23rd September to speak at the inaugural Australian Environment Foundation conference.
Show your support for the new more evidence-based approach to environmental issue advocated by the AEF and register for the conference: http://www.aefweb.info/display/conference2006.html .
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I’m a director of the AEF.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Perhaps we have to do this to provide the Japanese with enough stock to pilfer?
And given the parlous state of a lot of world’s fisheries maybe it’s a good thing?
And how come you can’t catch a decent whiting or bream at Noosa anymore?
Simple, Luke, because every man jack thinks he can fish in the one spot and still catch fish. And the Council encourages tourists to concentrate in one spot where the impacts will be greatest. And it seems tourism (and its fishing) is the only extractive industry that is regarded as sustainable when it makes no effort to fund the maintenance of the herd it accesses.
Tax camp sites and accomodation to fund fish restocking and augmentation instead of maintaining a permanent extraction zone that is subsidised by other areas with fewer economic benefits.
OK, what statement makes the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition on Australian Fisheries?
” While Campbell tries to save the whales, Abetz fails to protect deep sea ecosystems”.
http://www.savethehighseas.org/publicdocs/OZ-MR-senatemotion-June2006.pdf
http://www.savethehighseas.org/australia/
Not sure I can agree with all that is implied by summary of comments attributed to Walter.
It is pretty much accepted that there is a strong correlation between production of continental shelf fisheries and runoff – and by contrast with many other continental shelves, Australia’s is poor because a lack of rainfall/runoff.
That runoff appears to have two beneficial effects.
Firstly the depression of salinity in estuaries promotes production, and secondly the export of large volumes of sediments containing nutrients and organic carbon is also important.
Fact is the majority of Australian estuaries are what is known as reverse estuaries during the southern summer and the northern dry season. At these times, salinity increases and can be well above that of seawater. This has deleterious impacts in terms of the energy costs of osmoregulation for the variety of organisms that spend their entire lives there, or that come in to forage, or that live in these estuaries as juveniles (many of our commercially important fish, prawns and crabs). Higher energy costs typically mean slower regrowth rates -or no growth at these times of the year, and avoidance of the habitat by more mobile organisms.
It is well known that there is a correlation between mangrove, saltmarsh, and seagrass productivity and offshore fisheries production, but also well known that the level of contribution is a summation of the influences of a number of different factors such as:
1.rainfall and its impact on transport of nutrients and depression of salinity.
2. Geomorphology and its impact on whether these systems function as sinks or sources.
3. Seasonal variations in temperatures, salinity, DO etc.
Of course we also have the potential impacts on estaurine production of diverting the meagre freshwater flows to other uses -thereby lowering the volume of nutrients and freshwater reaching the estuary and also the length of time each year it functions as an estuary.
Another factor which is important further offshore is the presence of significant upwellings of cooler (cold), nutrient and oxygen rich water. Australia is not very well endowed with these. For example on the Western coasts of southern Africa and southern America northward flowing currents and upwellings bring nutrient rich waters to the surface. On the coast of Western Australia the dominant current is a southerly flowing, warm water current.
Australia does indeed have a massive area of continental sea, but much of that sea is relatively barren.
My point is that while there may be some value in examining the regulation of Australian continental shelf fisheries, I think it is probably misleading to suggest that our per hectare levels of marine productivity are comparable with other countries and therefore we are obviously underfishing our own resources.
Of course we all might wonder what Walter wants us to aspire to. What standards might aim to reach (or fall too?).
A new study released in Science 2005 ([DOI: 10.1126/science.1113399] ) reveals a striking downward trend in the diversity of fish in the open ocean – the largest and least known part of our planet. Teasing apart the effects of climate change and fishing over the past 50 years, the authors show a clear link to overfishing and highlight a surprising global pattern of open ocean hotspots – areas with predictable congregations of tuna, marlin, swordfish, and other ocean predators.
In a sequel to their groundbreaking study in Nature in 2003, showing the depletion of 90% of the big fish in the ocean, co-authors Boris Worm and Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University reveal that overfishing has not only reduced the number of fish in the sea, but also the variety: the diversity of tuna, marlins, and swordfish in the oceans has declined by up to 50% in the last 50 years.
And how many nets are in the water in Australian fisheries really? Australia’s top fisheries manager has revealed Japan illegally took $2 billion worth of southern bluefin tuna, effectively killing the stock commercially.
An investigation into the imperilled fishery found Japanese fishers and suppliers from other countries caught up to three times the Japanese quota each year for the past 20 years, and hid it. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/08/11/1154803102432.html
Am departing shortly for a meeting in Brisbane so will keep this short. A few points:
• The Australian fishery zone is 6% of the world total. Aust fishery production is 0.2% of the world total.
• Primary productivity of Australian waters is comparable to most other tropical/subtropical regions.
• Great Barrier Reef commercial harvest is limited by quota to 3061 tonns or 9 Kg/sq. Km. Average sustainable yield for reef fisheries is estimated to be 4000 Kg/sq. Km. Average harvest over a broad range of Pacific reef areas is 7700 Kg/sq. Km and in practice has been sustainable.
• World fisheries yield has for over a decade remained near the all time high. About half of stocks are thought to be sustainable fished, about one-quarter are overfished and about one-quarter are fished at less than capacity. With better management yields from some overfished stocks can be expected to improve.
• Overfishing elsewhere in the world has no relevance to the level of harvest in our waters.
• Aquaculture production now equals 60% of global wild caught catch. Despite ideal conditions for aquaculture here the industry has been strangled at birth by ill-conceived environmental regulations. Australian aquaculture production is less than half that of N.Z., 1/25 that of Vietnam. Although it is the fastest growing food producing sector in the world there have been no new applications for aquaculture here in Queensland for the past three years.
• 70% of domestic seafood consumption is imported. All comes from more heavily fished resources elsewhere and the $1.8 billion it costs must be paid for by other economic activity with its own attendant impacts here.
I could go on but time does not permit. With management like this we might be better off to outsource it to Bangaladesh. With a fishery zone 1/74 that of Australia their wild caught catch is over 4 times greater and aquaculture over 30 times larger than ours.
Official Austn productivity v’s actual productivity incl illegal and unofficial take?
eg Japs ripped off all our blue fin tuna. Compensation pending for that?
I gather Walter defines sustainable productivity in terms of total gross yield. He’s not so focused on biodiversity (that dirty word again) and ecosystem resilience (he’s an extreme optimist as we’ve seen from his other work – “it’ll be right mate” – the great barrier reef will survive even if diversity falls significantly, we’ll still spin it as successful survival regardless).
Does he factor in the market forces (rising costs, lower productivity from existing technology leading to new fishing technologies and new areas) eg trend to fish deeper for slow maturing fish? ie market movements as a proxy indicator of resource depletion.
Further, should we farm fish that aren’t native to the region? What about fishers assoc reports of genetic mutants of originally native stock, escaped from farms into rivers. Are risks acceptable? How much raw fishing and fish by-product is used to feed as farm stock and is that sustainable?
What about re-establishing mangroves where they’re depleted. They’re crucial fish nurseries – more effective than farms?
Pinxi,
It will all come out in the wash at the CCSBT meeting in October, not just the allegations from the aussie side.
Even Aussie fishermen are questioning the allegations:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1713595.htm
“An investigation found Japanese fishermen and suppliers from other countries caught up to three times the Japanese quota each year for 20 years, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the official as saying.”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD268043.htm
Very important, that – suppliers from other countries are involved.
Everyone sells to the Japanese market, Australia included.
Why Non-Japanese suppliers and Japanese suppliers are lumped together and compared with the Japanese quota is completely beyond me. Japan’s quota is that of Japan’s fishermen. What people from other countries take and then market in Japan (somehow) is not the Japanese quota. Interesting indeed that the Australian media has tried to spin it that way, and that seems to be why Brian Jeffriess was uncomfortable with the way the allegations had been made.
Hopefully new regulations introduced by the Japanese government back in April will reduce the impact of this.
Walter says “Overfishing elsewhere in the world has no relevance to the level of harvest in our waters.” – well it does if we’re advocating moving in that direction, and Walter it was you who made the comparison with other countries (well quoted by Jen at least).
My mind is open to argument but with a backdrop of unsustainable practices across the world I think the onus is on you to make the “for” case (for which we will wait!).
I have to remain very suspicious of any influence new Japanese legislation may have if the Japanese have been rorting the system for years. We await the Australian govt report.
In any case with fisheries I hope you would advocate an independent stocks monitoring program that ensures adequate recruitment and long term sustainability.
Luke,
Given that “The Australians” have been caught rorting the system as well, as noted by NZ’s Minister of Fisheries, I suppose you imagine the Japanese and Kiwis might be skeptical of the effectiveness of new Australian legislation?
We await the CCSBT report.
No, I think it’s important to distinguish the commercial operators who break the rules of the governments whose jurisdiction they fall under. Governments are obviously going to be loath to impose regulations on all their operators when it may be just a few bad eggs tarring everyone with the same brush. Let’s see how Australia reacts to the report findings, eh?
As for sustainability, I’m interested in what the impacts of Australia’s capture of Tuna juveniles for fattening has on the productivity of the stock.
I’d personally rather eat organically produced fish than stuff that was farmed, but that’s another issue.
and I’m off to a rainforest outside Calabar for a few days so will respond to Walters response on the weekend, with some references, but in brief.
Productivity on the GBR and the wet tropics coastline of QLD is comparable to other tropical/subtropical regions -but I contest the assertion that is the case for Australian waters in general.
Aquaculture is not the panacea it is made out to be, and Australia is one of the few places where the legislation governing the impacts on receiving waters is what it should be.
Most of the worlds aquaculture production is comprised of carp and tilapia in places like China -it is not seafood, and there are real doubts whether Australians would readily substitute these species for the wild caught seafood currently popular here.
More to follow….
So Aussies,
How big is your consumption of Orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish?
I’m prejudiced about eating fish that are older than me (longer in the tooth than me) Ann!
So we have to question all of our productivity indicators then.
Can fish farming show itself to be long term sustainable?
Pinxi, isn’t it amazing that an Orange roughy can live up to 150 years…
I have another short comment on fish farming above on the fish farming thread…
Ann – serious Aussies only eat Barramundi or Coral Trout personally caught. Serious Aussie fish eaters being defined as those in northern Austalia, vis a vis your wussy southern states. However like lots of people from southern states Barra also can change their sex from male to female. I can dig it myself.
Luke,
So the Barra can change sex like the clownfish…
So you dig to change sex from male to female? Have heard that the most succesful models in New York, the most longlegged ones have undeterminable sex, are they males or females, probably they are XXYs.
OK Luke, you are really crazy sometimes LOL!, but I appreciate that the fish is sustainably caught.
Ann – I suspect many of the inmates on this blog are probably YY.
LOL Luke!!! Are you really sure??? All seem to be quite nice. From my cell biology book:” Males having two Y chromosomes have been identified in the past in maximum security institutions”.
David,
I have posted a comment on the pet food claim back on the whaling thread.
Russel, your point about the lack of vital freshwater runoff for estuaries is a good one .
Yet I NEVER hear a whimper out of the professional or amateur fishing sectors about the damage this is doing now and to the future of their industry.
In Victoria there is now a Government and Council rush on to grab the last of the “storm-water” before it gets “wasted” in the ocean or the creeks .
Walter Starck is an old crank who keeps shamelessly plugging the same old lie over and over again. Our waters are less productive because there are fewer nutrients flowing into them and because we aren’t prepared to eat jellyfish, not because they are underfished. If we followed Walter’s advice we would collapse our key fisheries in no time.