Fisherman in Mooloolaba in Queensland, Australia have welcomed Maritime Safety Queensland’s (MSQ) decision to dredge the inner harbour of the Mooloolah River.
Mooloolaba is home to a third of Australia’s tuna longline fleet as well as a large number of pleasure craft and yachts. The main commercial waterway in the region, the Mooloolaba River, is constantly dredged to keep the river mouth open, however, the main channel of the inner harbour is also subject to high siltation making it difficult for fishing boats to offload catch or leave the harbour.
Pavo Walker, owner of Seafoods Australia and a Tuna Australia board member has been asking for the inner harbour to be dredged for several years. “The shallowing of waterways not only impacts commercial fishing vessels, but also maritime rescue and other large tourist operations using the seaway,” he said.
“This is a significant safety issues for users of the waterway,” he added.
Pavo’s work with MSQ, the Federal member for Fisher, the Sunshine Coast mayor and the Queensland state member for Maroochydore, Fiona Simpson, has resulted in MSQ’s decision to dredge the inner harbour.
“Maintaining a safe and navigable waterway is very important for all users of our waterways,” commented Ms Simpson. “Furthermore, this is a great outcome for the port of Mooloolaba as it will ensure commercial fishing will continue to provide employment and flow on economic benefits worth millions of dollars to our community. I’m glad that we’ve managed to facilitate an outcome to this issue,” she added.
