DARRYL HOCKEY – OPINION PIECE
The shire president’s claim (Weekender, September 12) that local objections to the proposed south coast marine park are costing millions of dollars in lost investments is simply untrue.
Clearly government minders have been in his ear, saying that $31million has been spent in the Buccaneer Marine Park on aquaculture ventures and suchlike.
Well the Kimberley marine parks have been in place for a few years now, yet the long-promised compensation scheme to soften the impacts on commercial fishing families has not delivered a single cent.
Sadly it now looks like at least another 5-7 years before compensation is delivered, if at all (same too with SCMP). These innocent people are carrying the direct costs of significantly reduced incomes, yet nobody cares.
The mention of aquaculture investments is misleading. Yes, the government has recently poured an enormous amount into the barramundi farm (again), but over the past dozen years the various owners have received more than $40m of taxpayer’s money. Even then, one entity still went into administration with a black hole of $82m.
Yes the government is now also propping up the new project — but it’s a creative stretch to call it local economic investment — it’s more like corporate welfare for a venture which has never remained profitable.
Last week I received a call from my son, asking why he couldn’t get a mudcrab meal while in Broome, he thought they must’ve been fished out.
No, I explained, the Kimberley marine park sanctuary zones were carefully planned to take out the tidal creeks, which of course is where the mudcrabs and barramundi were previously caught. (These zones were planned and funded by the overseas eco-activist group Pew, the very same ones that controlled the SCMP.)
I explained it was no longer possible to source local crabs in Broome, despite the native populations being incredibly abundant.
So mudcrabs were instead imported from Darwin and Cairns, but this supply has now dried up too, due to similar closures in Queensland and the NT.
Quite bemused, my son then sought a feed of local barramundi, but couldn’t find any. He eventually tried a Barra Burger but said it was inedible — and the fish was farmed, not wild.
So he rang every restaurant in Broome seeking local wild caught barra and found there was just one — but their supply is very limited. In fact this place couldn’t meet tourist demand for local fish and was — wait for it — importing nannygai from Adelaide, which — wait for it — has been caught by SA fishers in Commonwealth waters off Esperance. Yes it’s unbelievable, but true.
You see, this is what happens when marine park sanctuaries are imposed rampantly, as the overall supply of fresh seafood is soon lost — with Peter robbing Paul.
Despite what some people say, I’m not against marine parks — instead I’m opposed to the sheer stupidity of breaking local trust with a warped process and proceeding without knowing the scientific and socio-economic impacts.
When I was CEO of the state’s commercial fishing industry I took a comprehensive proposal to government, supported by local fishers, which proposed 1300 sq kms of sanctuary zones in the SCMP. This is the largest such offer ever made by any fishing body in the entire history of the world.
Instead, the government wildly chomped out 2600 sq kms — including many areas that could not possibly be justified by science or logic. In turn this ensured the livelihoods of local fishing families will be irretrievably damaged — as well as limiting local fresh fish availability.
So now we’ll see tourists coming to town, buying fish n chips for the family, sitting on the jetty to watch the sunset — and biting into a disgusting piece of frozen fish, imported from China, sourced from fishing fleets which unsustainably operate on an industrial scale, causing untold marine environmental damage and are crewed by slave labour.
The only winners will be the local seagulls getting a free feed of the inedible discards.
There’s no doubt the current strategy of Council taking aim at any locals who hold legitimate concerns over the SCMP is driving deep divisions in the community.
As a south coast resident talking to many, I’m of the view there’s a middle ground which is achievable — but something has to happen really soon or the opportunity will be lost forever.
Council must cooperatively bring people together — rather than vilifying those who disagree.
Darryl Hockey
Sustainable Seafood Australia
Darryl Hockey is former CEO of the WA Fishing Industry Council. He lives in Bremer Bay.
