Katter’s Australian Party fears 80 per cent hit to Spanish mackerel fisheries

A united Katter’s Australian Party has come out swinging in its opposition to moves that could see the total take of Spanish mackerel slashed by as much as 80 per cent.

A united Katter’s Australian Party has come out swinging in its opposition to moves that could see the total take of Spanish mackerel slashed by as much as 80 per cent.

Standing “shoulder to shoulder with the people most affected by the Spanish mackerel cuts” and fellow KAP politicians at Forrest Beach, Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto said the Fisheries Queensland proposal affected commercial interests and those of consumers.

“People out there, the mums and dads who enjoy a lovely piece of mackerel from the local fish shop, the local fish and chip shop or even the restaurant will no longer be able to afford mackerel – it will not be on a plate in Queensland.”

The deputy KAP leader said the proposed reduction would destroy the industry on the east coast of Queensland.

“You won’t be able to put a piece of mackerel on a plate … try and ask someone to reduce 80 per cent of their ability to produce or earn out there.”

The fired up MP, flanked by Bob Katter and Hill MP Shane Knuth, likened the situation to a cane farmer only being able to harvest 20 per cent of their crop three months of the year while the sugar mill was closed.

“It’s ludicrous but this what the working groups are asking of our Spanish mackerel commercial fishermen out there,” he said.

“These people will not be able to survive the next five years on 20 per cent of the quote that they’ve been allocated in the past, they may as well park up their vessels, they may as well turn in their licences now.”

Mr Dametto said the move was accelerating the death of commercial fishing in Queensland.

He said he had been told five years ago by the fisheries minister when he enquired about any plans to reduce the Spanish mackerel take that he was “scaremongering”.

“Four years down the track, we are sitting here at Forrest Beach in a dire situation.”

Mr Dametto encouraged as many people as possible to get involved in the government-consultation process, although he feared the State Government had already made up its mind.

“And don’t think it’ll stop with Spanish mackerel, it will be nannygai and other fish out there in east coast fishery that’ll be under fire next and the reality is we can’t all survive on pond fish,” he said.

“Farmed fish and farmed barramundi have their place but wild-caught seafood is a trade that should continue in Queensland and should be protected by all Queenslanders.”

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’End of the line’: Knock-on effects of mackerel closure to hit retailers

A FISHERMAN who built his boat with his own two hands is warning of severe knock-on effects for the local economy if a crackdown on Spanish mackerel catch rates goes ahead.

Trevor Purkis, who’s been fishing off latitude 19 from his Lucinda home for decades, said the plans the government had outlined would drive him, and other local suppliers, out of business.

“It’s been very stressful, there’s a lot of nights waking up at two o’clock in the morning. I’ll be up until then writing letters and e-mails,” Mr Purkis said.

“But I’m afraid it’s all been in vain. It feels like I’m the end of the line.”

Queensland Fisheries, and an east coast Spanish mackerel working group, have come under fire for how they’ve handled a review into the stock assessment of viable Spanish mackerel off the country’s east coast.

Minister for fisheries Mark Furner recently claimed in parliament that the criticisms didn’t extend to the methodology employed in the review.

“I know some people are trying to argue the science of the stock assessment and peer review is flawed,” Mr Furner said.

“Just to be clear, these reservations related to how resilient Spanish mackerel are. They did not relate to the validity of the input data for the stock assessment.”

However, the new methodology implemented by the review was in fact criticised by the Seafood Industry Association last year.

Previously, Queensland Seafood Industry Association vice president Shane Snow noted that he ‘did not accept’ the most recent stock assessment during a teleconference meeting with Queensland Fisheries on December 15, 2021.

Mark Furner in Queensland Parliament. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Fishers like Trevor Purkis maintain that the data is suspect.

“They’re just stabbing in the dark. They’ve got no idea what the recreational catch is, what we really need is harvest tags like they have in Western Australia,” Mr Purkis said.

Mr Purkis said the lack of consultation with fishers during the review process gave him no confidence in a community consultation process launched by the state government on Wednesday, April 6.

“They’ll just throw it in the rubbish bin.

“They start their data with the amount of fish that was around in 1912, before the first World War for christ’s sake. How can they know what the numbers were like back then? It’s just bulls – t.”

Mr Purkis said there were ‘half a dozen’ fish and chip shops between Bowen and Cairns that relied on his product to operate.

“They’re panicking too. I’ve heard that importers are waiting for orders to come in. They’ll be rubbing their hands together right now.”

“We live all year to go mackerel fishing and now it’s been taken away from us.

“We gave up on trawling in 2006 because of the green zones and now here we are being kicked out of another fishery. It puts a sour taste in your mouth.”

‘Sold out’ fishers prepare for wipe-out of Townsville coast’s Spanish mackerel industry

NORTH Queensland’s commercial fishers are facing a wipe-out after an east coast working group put together to assess stock levels, painted a grim picture for the future of Spanish mackerel.

The numbers have previously been called into question by the Queensland Seafood Industry Association, after a plan to cut the commercial take for the prized fish by as much as 90 per cent.

Commercial fisher Lisa Putzka said she feels like her family have been ‘sold out’.

“This is the only industry my husband has ever been in. He’s fished for 44 years – every mackerel season and never misses it,” Mrs Putzka said.

“We don’t have the savings to see us through until we’re 67, if there’s even still a pension still around.

“This is our lives. We live for this. It’s a lifestyle. If the weather comes good, we fish. It’s all we’ve done. It’s why we live in Lucinda.”

While the state government is planning to open the floor to community submissions from Wednesday, April 6, Mrs Putzka said it’s too little, too late.

“We’ve been sitting on our hands with no idea what’s coming. They’ve told us the data is defensible, but they’ve had 12 months of waiting around to defend it,” Mrs Putzka said.

“All the graphs show that our commercial take for the Spanish mackerel has been consistent since 2004.

“We haven’t done anything wrong, we’ve done what we’ve been doing and we’ve averaged the same catch at this spawning aggregation off of Townsville all along the way.”

Mrs Putzka, and many other commercial fishers, believe the lack of data around recreational catches could be the missing puzzle piece that explains some of the inconsistencies.

“Particularly from 2010, all the reports said that data for recreational fishing needs to be looked into more.

Commercial fishers say they have been sold out.

“Everything’s only been done as guesswork. They do boat ramp surveys, telephone surveys and trip sheets.”

The financial impacts of some of the suggested solutions would drive the industry out of businesses.

“On one suggestion it says they’re going for a 70 – 90 per cent quota reduction, that’s a quota we pay for every year,” Mrs Putzka said.

“A 90 per cent reduction in quota would mean going from $100,000s in income to $10,000s. I wouldn’t be able to pay our rates and our home bills.”

Mrs Putzka said that if the industry does have to close, the government needs to plan for that eventuality better than they already have.

“It’s like we’ve been sold out. They’re opening the industry up to the big boats. They need to work it so that we can have a sunset clause or something.”

Originally published as Katter’s Australian Party fears 80 per cent hit to Spanish mackerel fisheries