Commercial sardine industry blames ‘fishy’ bans on recreational lobby

Victorians will no longer be able to buy locally caught sardines under the Andrews government’s bans on commercial net fishing.

Chef Rosa Mitchell with sardine fisherman Phil McAdam at the Slow Fish festival to protest the Andrews government's decision to end net fishing. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Victorians will no longer be able to buy locally caught sardines under the Andrews government’s bans on commercial net fishing in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes.

The commercial fishing industry says the move has “nothing to do with sustainability”, and is all about appeasing the powerful recreational fishing lobby.

Third-generation fisherman Phil McAdam, 55, and his daughter Kat, 29, are the only sardine suppliers left in Port Phillip Bay after 34 of 43 commercial fishing licence holders left the industry with compensation packages in 2016, and their licence will not be renewed in 2022.

The only other fisherman in Victoria who catches sardines — which are renowned for being environmentally sustainable — is based in the Gippsland Lakes, where a 2018 election promise will see licences compulsorily bought out over the next 18 months.

Mr McAdam said that along with the six families that depended directly on his business to make a living, consumers and restaurateurs would be the main losers from the decision, with the retail price of sardines already tripling from $2/kg to $6/kg since 2015.

“When we’re gone, it’ll only be worse. There will be no local sardines,” he said. “The Labor government has shut the whole fishery away for less than 10 per cent of the public — 90 per cent of the public that rely on the commercials to catch fish for them are going to go without.”

The closures are part of the Andrews government’s $46 million “Target One Million” plan to increase the number of recreation­al anglers in Victoria by about a third by next year.

Fisheries scientist and former Victorian Rural Woman of the Year Kirsten Abernethy, who harvests abalone at Port Fairy on the state’s southwest coast, said the ­licence buyback was a “political decision”.

“It’s been about the recreation­al fishers not wanting netting to happen where they recreationally fish,” she said. “A whole source of local, sustainable seafood is basically just being taken away.”

Seafood Industry Victoria held the latest in a series of “Slow Fish” festivals at Spotswood in Melbourne’s western suburbs last weekend, with celebrity chefs including Rosa’s Canteen’s Rosa Mitchell cooking local fish such as calamari, snapper and sardines.

Ms Mitchell said she had been struggling to buy local fish since the Port Phillip Bay bans came into effect.

“I understand we have to protect the bay, but you’ve taken away 43 professional fishermen and you’ve got hundreds of thousands of recreational fishermen.

“Are they going to respect the water? Are they going to do the right thing? I’m sure most of them will, but some of them probably won’t. It’s sad. It’s really sad.”

A Victorian government spokesman said Port Phillip Bay was “now a thriving recreational fishery for the nearly five million Victorians.”

“It now boasts arguably the best snapper, whiting and calamari fishing in Australia,” he said.

Rob Loats, chairman of Victorian recreational fishing peak body VRFish, said he fully supported the Andrews government’s net bans.

“Commercial net fishing in coastal bays and estuaries has been a longstanding concern with recreational fishers for decades,” Mr Loats said.