Australian Marine Conservation Society-Update

Image:Luke Sorensen

We got the following update from the Australian Marine Conservation Society who are taking the lead in the recent government sponsored white shark kills in Queensland.

We requested contact information from them so divers, shark conservation groups, and blog readers could directly get involved. Here are the points of contact they suggest we all take a minute to register a complaint about white sharks being targeted off the coast:

Hi Shark Divers,

Thanks for the email

It is great to see you guys out there helping save sharks. Your blog is fantastic. We are all very impressed.

Our key shark campaign is getting the QLD government phase out shark fishing across Queensland and this ties in well to getting rid of the Shark Control Program.

At the moment, it is worth taking a shot across the government's bow on sharks via the shark control program, but alluding to the need to stop all forms of shark fishing in QLD (which helps our key message)

Proposed Ask - In order to protect Australia's precious sharks and secure a better future for Queensland's marine ecotourism industry, we call on the Queensland Government to amend the Fisheries Management Act (Section 3A (1)) to discontinue the Shark Control Program, and to commit to phasing out shark fishing in Queensland within the next 4 years.

Key background reference - http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/11824.html

Key contacts:

Hon Tim Mulherin, MP
Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries
GPO Box 46
BRISBANE QLD 4001
dpi@ministerial.qld.gov.au


Cc: Hon Peter Garrett, MP
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
P.O. Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au

CC:
The Hon. Deslie Boyle
Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry
Office 1 "McLeod South"
78-84 Spence Street
CAIRNS 4870
cairns@queenslandlaborteam.com

Let me know what else you might need,

Kind regards

Craig Bohm, Campaigns Director
Australian Marine Conservation Society
PO Box 5136, MANLY QLD 4179
ph: +61 7 3393 5811
Mob: 0427 133 481
fax: +61 7 3393 5833
Email: craigbohm@amcs.org.au
www.marineconservation.org.au

Help protect our ocean wildlife. Become a Sea Guardian today!

Stinkin' Dead Shark Award October 2008

At the end of this month we would like to present the SDS Award to those within the global community whose abjectly abhorrent behavior towards sharks and sustainable fisheries or shark conservation warrants a big black eye.

This months award winner is:

Tourism Queensland who along with the Queensland Shark Control Program are keeping the fine white powdery beaches of the Gold Coast free of annoying Great White Sharks by killing them with professional grade shark killing drum lines.

The Queensland Shark Control Program has been in operation since 1962. If you would like to register your displeasure (we have) at the recent deaths of two white sharks killed by this outdated system here's who you email and call:

Queensland Shark Control Center

Email: callweb@dpi.qld.gov.au
Fax: +61 7 3404 6900

Tourism Queensland

30 Makerston Street
Tourism Queensland House
Brisbane
Queensland
4000
GPO Box 328
Brisbane
4001
Tel + 61 7 3535 3535
Fax + 61 7 3535 5438
Email

Editors Note: Please make that call or send that email today. It's 5 minutes of your time, and for the sharks could mean everything. In today's oceans there's no place for publically funded shark killing systems anymore.

Australia to hand out Shark Fin Permits?

Sent in by blogger Neutral Dive Gear this morning. If true this would be a major departure from Australia's eco record concerning the Great Barrier Reef.

Let's hope this is just a wild hair idea.

Shark Fin Fishery proposed for Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

An alarming new proposal by the Queensland Government will establish a dedicated shark fin fishery in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and other marine parks in Queensland.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society is astonished by this proposal, in which Queensland's fisheries department (DPI&F) plans to legitimise one of the most unsustainable forms of fishing on the planet - shark fin fishing. With over 90% of the world's sharks and other big fish gone from our oceans, this project is unsustainable, unethical and will be flatly rejected by the Australian public.

Not only is the Queensland Government proposing to hand out specific fishing licenses for shark fin fishing, which will entrench the practice for years, they are planning to legitimise shark finning in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and in the Marine Parks of Moreton Bay and the Great Sandy Straits with this new license proposal.

The proposal will create new licenses to fishers to catch unlimited sharks and also to catch sharks with nets over a kilometre long in our off-shore waters.

Shark finning at sea, where the fins are cut of the shark and the carcass is thrown overboard, is banned in Australia (thanks to our efforts). However, shark fin fishing, where sharks are targeted for their high value fins but their carcasses are kept and sold as low value waste products, continues.

AMCS has pressed DPI&F to phase out shark fishing and they have failed to do so. What does it say for the sustainability agenda of this agency when it fails not only to protect one of the state's most vulnerable group of species, but promotes their exploitation?

During 2000-2004 shark fishing in Queensland increased four-fold with a massive 1240 tonnes of shark being landed in 2004*. The main pressure on sharks in the Great Barrier Reef is fishing, and this pressure is increasing. More than 90% of the Great Barrier Reef commercial shark harvest is taken by the gillnet fishery with the remainder taken by the line and trawl fisheries. However recreational fishers catch and retain a significant number of sharks.

Sharks are extremely vulnerable to fishing impacts. This is because their biology is more like whales and dolphins than other fish. Sharks are slow growing, have extremely low reproductive rates (producing very few young) and are mostly long lived. This means that they are very slow to recover from impacts on their populations. Many shark fisheries around the world have collapsed.

Sharks are apex predators, helping to control populations of prey species. Consequently, reducing the number of sharks may have significant and unpredictable impacts on other parts of the ecosystem.

The Queensland Government must revoke this proposal and commit to a program with fishers to save sharks, not hunt them. We strongly encourage anyone who treasures Queensland's sharks to have their say on this matter.

AMCS Ocean Activists will receive an email about this issue. If you are not yet an Ocean Activist please join up via our website; www.marineconservation.org.au.

If you are not on the internet then please send your written objections to:

East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery RIS Response
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
GPO Box 46 Brisbane QLD 4001
Fax: 07 3229 8146
Online: www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb