E-Petition

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House to the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (QECTF) Central and Northern region Harvest Strategies, as the current stock assessment modelling is extremely questionable and proposes fishing reductions approximating 85% of Central region Fishing Effort and 45% of Northern region Fishing Effort. This would be highly detrimental to:

• commercial trawl operators maintaining access to fishing ground, as permitted under their licences, T1 entitlements and effort unit holdings;
• the continuing supply of wild caught Tiger and King prawns and other Fishery approved local seafood bycatch to Queenslanders, other Australians, tourists and the hospitality industry; and
• the ongoing viability of many regional, family-owned businesses, their ability to employ staff; even their potential closure, including trawler owners/operators, marketers and commercial fishing industry service suppliers (wharf/maintenance facilities, fuel/chandlery suppliers, electronics suppliers, fitters, refrigeration technicians, accountants, cold stores etc).
  

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to instruct Queensland Fisheries to place a 2-year moratorium on any changes to the QECTF Central and Northern region Harvest Strategy assessments and restrict any further related changes to the legislation, rules and policies impacting the QECTF until:

• the impacts of the recently introduced QECTF Management Regions, including the forced reallocation of fishing effort unit management changes have stabilised and been assessed; and Qld Fisheries have completed full and proper, independently reviewed QECTF Regional stock assessments, including current and historical data use, modelling techniques and calculations.