The South Australian Government says marine parks will enhance the local fishing industry, rather than damage it.
Commercial and recreational fishers have launched a campaign against what they call a flawed proposal to turn nearly half of the state’s coastal waters into marine parks.
They say that could cut up to $400 million in turnover from the commercial fishing sector and cost jobs.
The Environment Minister, Jay Weatherill, says he can reach an agreement with fishing groups to ease their concerns.
“I’m confident that in a few years time when these marine parks are in place they’ll be using them as a marketing tool,” he said.
“Existing within a marine park will be a selling point, a clean, green selling point for our marine industries and I think many of the senior people inside the fishing industry actually understand that.”
Because it has worked so well for fisherman here in the States :rolleyes:
The trouble with denoting anything as a “marine Park” is One’s image of a Park does not include any commercial activity. Case in point is Stellwagen Marine Sanctuary off the Northeast US coast. My friend from Gloucester can best describe the situation unfolding there. If the NGO’s, (Non Government Organizations), read from me, the descriptive F word; Greenie Weenies, have thier way, Stellwagen will be shut down down for all commercial fishing. And the public will pat themselves on the back for doing such a good thing. That, I’m afraid is where that debate will end up. They will be, “educated” by these self-serving NGO’s and pour money into thier coffers to protect this most important, “sanctuary”.
In the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank where Stellwagen is located, thousands of square miles of ocean bottom are already closed to most fishing activity. There are also seasonal closures, (which include Stellwagen) in the spring when the fish will hopefully spawn. Most of us thought that those were a good thing in the long run, as much as they hurt at the time. So we already have a very effective way of preserving fish AND still fishing. But fishing or rather [I]fishing in [/I]a Marine Park is not what any of these people have in mind.