One year on, the Howard Government’s $388.9 million ‘tough on illegal foreign fishermen’ 2006 budget package is turning the tide on fish poachers in Australia’s northern waters, according to the government.
The Minister for Fisheries and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz, said the latest figures show a dramatic drop in sightings of illegal foreign vessels off Australia’s northern coastline, a year after the Australian Government’s $389 million package to tackle illegal fishing.
“Coastwatch and Australian Defence Force sightings of motorised illegal foreign vessels in northern waters from January to April this year were down by 90 per cent compared with the first four months of 2006,” Senator Abetz said.
“This is on top of a 40 per cent decline in 2006 compared to 2005.
“These early results show that the Government’s $389 million package to fight illegal fishing is delivering real results.
“But this is no time for complacency - we will not relax our strategy of ‘apprehend and destroy’ which has seen the tide turn fast on the numbers of foreign fishing vessels seeking to enter our waters.”
Senator Abetz said last year’s funding boost has delivered substantial improvements to surveillance, apprehension capacity, detention facilities and identification procedures.
“Maritime patrols in northern waters have been further boosted this year with the addition of an armed fisheries patrol boat, the Triton, and the Government has enlisted the help of indigenous communities in northern Australia in new surveillance trials,” he said.
“New or upgraded short-term holding centres in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland are becoming operational and accommodation to detain poachers in Darwin has been expanded.
“The introduction of biometric-based systems to help identify illegal operators is also well advanced, with prototype systems already detecting a number of repeat offenders.”
The Government continues to work closely with neighbouring countries to deter poaching, including rolling out a new public information campaign in Indonesia to tackle illegal fishing at its source, and a Regional Action Plan to promote responsible fishing in South-East Asia signed last week.
