The NSW and Australian Governments are merging the NSW managed Southern Fish Trawl and the Commonwealth managed South East Trawl fisheries to resolve management inefficiencies.
It was a recommendation by the 2016 Productivity Commission report that suggested the two fisheries merge because they often target the same species with the same trawl method and operate side by side but do so under different rules and restrictions.
Despite the benefits to the merger, the South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association (SETFIA), says it is frustrated The Association is frustrated at some recreational fishing groups who have led with headlines like, “the trawlers are coming”.
The organisation says this is clearly not the case, as there has been a trawl fishery inside NSW waters for more than 100 years. What is being proposed is just a better outcome for the fishing industry and the Australian community.
Managing inefficiency
SETFIA said that the truth is that both sectors have an equally strong right to operate and there must be a better way to organise a fishery.
The new proposal is that rather than debit NSW catches to Commonwealth quotas, that NSW operators should become Commonwealth operators working on a special permit allowing them inside “the line” (3 miles) and be issued around 246 tonnes of Commonwealth quota.
A separate NSW allocation panel would divide up this quota across the 23 NSW operators.
Under this system there is no change to the sustainable catch and no quota is taken from existing owners to give to new NSW entrants to the Commonwealth system because the catch is already coming off Commonwealth quotas.
