OPPONENTS to a super trawler given the green light to begin work in Australian waters are heading to the south-west this weekend to drum up support for their cause.
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Victoria Marine Animal Defenders Conservation Society members will be at Portland on Sunday collecting signatures for a petition to ban the 95-metre Geelong Star, operated by SeaFish Tasmania.
The trawler was given federal government approval to begin fishing earlier this month and has begun trawling off the Great Australian Bight.
The vessel has permission to trawl from Geraldton in Western Australia to the southern tip of Queensland.
Society member Sharon Lee said the trawler could have dire economic and environmental impacts on the south-west, particularly to Portland’s multi-million-dollar tuna industry.
“This trawler will affect the population of bluefin tuna and Portland, for two or three months of the year. Its economy relies on bluefin tuna fishing industry,” she said.
“This will affect everything from Portland’s tourism industry, its fishing industry, its accommodation places and even its groceries.
“It’s not just Portland but Port Fairy as well.”
The Geelong Star is permitted to catch 16,500 tonnes of red bait, jack mackerel and sardines — 7.5 per cent of the total allowable catch for the small pelagic fishery.
Campaigners fear its size puts the environment and fishing industry at risk.
“This affects first and foremost people in the fishing industry,” Ms Lee said.
“There will be nothing left for them.”
Small Pelagic Fishery Industry Association chairman Grahame Turk has said there was no scientific basis for claims about the trawler’s affect on tuna.
“In fact, there is an immense body of science that says fishing the small pelagic quota will not impact on tuna and other predator species,” he said.
Mr Turk said the Geelong Star was not a super trawler and, although it had an 80-metre wide net, was no bigger than previous vessels that fished the same waters.
“Quotas are set so the ecosystem remains sustainable, for the target species and for predator species,” Mr Turk said.
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) said the 7.5 per cent of the estimated stock size was “a precautionary level and is more conservative than internationally accepted standards”.
Ms Lee said Victoria Marine Animal Defenders Conservation Society members and some concerned locals will be at Portland’s boat ramp from 10am on Sunday.
If the weather is poor, the group may also head to Portland’s CBD to gather signatures.
