The Australian Marine Alliance (AMA) is turning up the heat on the Australian government, announcing on Wednesday that it’s launching a campaign against the Marine Bioregional Planning Process, which it says excludes both commercial and recreational fishermen from the process of establishing marine reserves and implementing other conservation measures.
This comes as the Australian government moves ahead with a plan to establish the world’s largest marine reserve in the Coral Sea. A legislative effort to stall the plan was rejected last week.
“The marine environment is being damaged by inappropriate land-based development, pollution from agricultural runoff, urban runoff and sewage as well as introduced pests from bilge water and ships’ hulls,” said AMA CEO Dean Logan. “The Gillard government’s solution to these problems is nothing but a lockout of fishermen.”
“What’s offensive is that fishing has not been proven to be an irreversible threat to the marine environment anywhere in Australia and not one species of fish has ever been fished to extinction,” he continued.
“Over the past six weeks, the Gillard government has released the largest marine reserve network in Australian history after a shameful process of consultation and almost no credible science. The marine reserve network proclamation is not subject to parliamentary approval and the mandatory ABARES (a research bureau within the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) socio-economic assessment has not been completed.”
The AMA has taken out an advertisement in The Australian newspaper that’s titled, “Marine Industries and Marine Recreational Users Report Card on Gillard Government’s Marine Bioregional Planning Proposals.”
