Senate committee considers prospect of supertrawlers in NT, with AFANT and

THE Northern Territory Seafood Council has welcomed the prospect of foreign supertrawlers plying Territory waters.

The MARGIRIS KL749, a Lithuanian super trawler, 30 miles off the coast of Mauritania.Greenpeace is campaigning in West Africa for the establishment of a sustainable, low impact fisheries policy that takes into account the needs and interests of small-scale fishermen and the local communities that depend on healthy oceans. Pierre Gleizes / Greenpeace

THE Northern Territory Seafood Council has welcomed the prospect of foreign supertrawlers plying Territory waters as a federal senate committee considers the environmental impacts the boats could have on Australian fisheries.

In a submission to the senate committee, NT Seafood Council chairman Rob Fish said there were a number of benefits of large trawlers, which can exceed 100m in length.

“Larger scale vessels are more efficient through economies of scale, are able to access areas further offshore (taking pressure off high-use and high-conflict inshore areas), provide better facilities for crew, allow for better coverage by fisheries observer programs and provide a higher degree of safety in an area subject to cyclones,” Mr Fish said.

He also said that “popular campaigns and emotive opinions” should not take the place of scientific management of fisheries.

“Traditionally, in the industry, the definition of a ‘large boat’ is ‘any boat bigger than mine’. The same definition could be applied to a ‘supertrawler’,” Mr Fish said. “Imposing an arbitrary definition on what is a ‘large scale’ fishing vessel based on a particular vessel size, and in response to public opinion, runs the risk of stifling investment and reducing opportunities for efficient, sustainable and safe fisheries development.”

But the Amateur Fisherman’s Association NT has argued that supertrawlers have a history of scooping up tons of bycatch.

“This wasteful practice is extremely concerning to recreational fishermen,” AFANT executive officer Tristan Sloan said.

Mr Sloan pointed to the Dutch-managed Geelong Star having killed nine dolphins and four seals between April and December, and said attempts to reduce dolphin deaths have been ineffective.

“Large capacity fishing vessels pose an unacceptable risk to threatened and protected marine species in Australian waters,” he said, adding that there had been no formal stock assessment of the species that supertrawlers would likely target.

Mr Sloan’s concerns were largely echoed by the Victorian Recreational Fishing Peak Body, which has clashed with the operators of supertrawlers there.

Unease about the environmental impacts of supertrawlers in Australian waters dates back to 2012, when then federal environment minister Tony Burke imposed a two-year ban on Dutch-owned supertrawler FV Margiris, which Seafood Tasmania had planned on operating in Tasmania.

Submissions to the senate committee close Friday, with a report expected by April.