Opinion: Spanish mackerel ban shows contemptible disregard for commercial fishers

A possible ban on fishing Spanish mackerel in north Queensland waters shows contemptible disregard for the industry, writes Peter Gleeson. VOTE IN OUR POLL

If you like eating Spanish mackerel, you might have to start saving your pennies because the price is about to skyrocket.

It follows the establishment of a so-called working group, which will look at banning the commercial ­fishing of mackerel in north Queensland waters.

The plan is to ban fishing in certain areas from July 1 next year, abolishing the existing quota system.

Fisheries Queensland has been managing the resource through a quota system since 2004 under the sustainable fishing banner.

They have recently announced the East Coast Spanish Mackerel biomass is at a critically low level and changes to the management will be implemented next July.

Among other possibilities, the most likely result of this is a drastic quota reduction for the fishermen.

No doubt there will be the standard stakeholder working groups and public discussion papers so that Queensland Fisheries can be seen to be going through the consultation process, but the outcome is inevitable.

This is yet another hijacking of a perfectly legitimate business by the Greens and their Labor Left mates.

The Greens hate all commercial fishing. It’s a bread-and-butter issue. Greenpeace have made an art form of trying to destroy fishing industries.

Unfortunately, there are not enough commercial fisherman left to have any voting clout, so outcomes become inevitable.

The utter disregard for the consequences to fishermen’s personal and financial circumstances shown by Queensland Fisheries is contemptible.

Fishermen in the north Queensland area are in despair at the proposed changes.

For Spanish mackerel farmers such as Peter Guymer, the fish are all caught one at a time on a line.

There is no trawl or net fishery for this species, and the fish he catches are consumed by Queenslanders.

Mr Guymer says this latest issue for the Spanish mackerel industry is part of a broader campaign to undermine the professional fishing industry.

“The demand for wild caught local seafood has never been stronger,’’ Mr Guymer says.

“The ultimate loser here is the seafood-eating public who cannot or don’t wish to catch it themselves and will be eating imported farmed product.’’

The Queensland Seafood Industry Association has tried to talk sense into the State Government, but received little solace.

The Government says Spanish mackerel stocks are under threat from overfishing, with 300 tonnes commercially fished each year since 2004.

The latest damning Fisheries Queensland view follows a 2020 report, which said harvest numbers were good.

If a ban was implemented, it would throw dozens of fishermen out of work, and mean Spanish mackerel would be off the menu at most ­restaurants.

This is a typical Greens-Labor Left stitch-up, with a Labor government complicit in sending a section of the industry to the wall.

Let’s hope sanity prevails and the quota system remains.

It’s a very fishy situation indeed.