Margiris: Burke’s Intervention ‘Not Enough’. United front against Labor. Dolphin killer

Picture: Greenpeace

Despite Minister Burke’s decision, the issue of bycatch and wider threats to marine life from the super trawler FV Margiris have not been addressed, and the super trawler alliance urges the Federal Government to act to keep super trawlers out of Australia.

“The conditions that Environment Minister Tony Burke proposes to apply to this super trawler do go some way to increase protection for dolphins, seals and seabirds, but alone, they are not enough to protect our marine life,” said Tooni Mahto, Australian Marine Conservation Society.

“The conditions do not categorically shut fishing operations down in the event of dolphin and seal mortalities, but instead offer the opportunity to ‘review’ fishing operations,” Miss Mahto continued. “Until we get a clear understanding of what format this review process will take, we’re unconvinced the conditions go far enough to ensure the full protection for marine wildlife.

“Given the public opposition to the super trawler fishing, these conditions should go out for public consultation and comment prior to finalization,” concluded Ms Mahto.

“Small pelagic fish are an important feed species for seals, dolphins, penguins and gamefish and a significant reduction in their numbers caused by localized depletion from super trawlers is still possible and may result in a lack of feed available, and ultimately influence species survival in some areas,” said Rebecca Hubbard, Marine Coordinator of Environment Tasmania.

“The Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig must step in and address concerns about localized depletion and the appropriateness of the quotas”.

“Furthermore, the Australian Government needs to listen to the overwhelming public opposition to the super trawler, and support the Private Members Bill from ALP MP Melissa Parkes, and ban super trawlers in Australia,” concluded Ms Hubbard.

Rebecca Hubbard, Marine Coordinator, Environment Tasmania. 

Tooni Mahto, Australian Marine Conservation Society

• Earlier: Science against ‘Abel Tasman’. ‘Block the ports’ protests ‘not a concern’. Burke’s ‘all-clear’

• Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: Burke fails on Super trawler – Labor and Liberal must support Australian Greens motion in Senate to halt the FV Margiris

Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has today called on his fellow Tasmanian Labor and Liberal colleges to support his motion to stop the super trawler F.V. Margiris due to unassessed risks on local depletion of fish stocks.”

“If Minister Tony Burke hasn’t got the spine to stand up for the marine environment, and to take on the Dutch Super trawler to stop it from operating in Australian waters, then the parliament must take direct action,” stated Senator Whish-Wilson earlier today.

“We’ve heard lots of talk from the other parties on how they were working with Minister Burke to stop the super trawler and it has all come to nothing.”

“The time for talking is over – if my federal Tasmanian counterparts are serious about stopping this, then their only option now is to support my motion to block the industrial trawler.”

“If they fail to stand up and express the views of their constituents now, then their constituents will make their disappointment known.”

“The Tasmanian House of Assembly has already passed a motion –with support of all political parties, to ask the Federal government stop the very unpopular super trawler from being able to fish in Australian waters. This plea has so far gone unanswered.”

“We are also hearing the same message from people right across the country- Australian’s simply don’t want this trawler here”.

“The only way to stop this monster trawler from potentially depleting our local fish stocks and threatening marine life such as seals, dolphins and penguins is for the senate to disallow and suspend the fishing quota when parliament sits next week”.

“All Australians need to contact their federal senators and tell them to take action in the senate next week by supporting the greens motion to stop the Super trawler operating in Australian waters”.

• Crikey today: 11. Weirdness of fish politics means trouble for the government

David Ritter, writer and CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, writes:

A united front of environmentalists and recreational and small-scale fishermen has sprung up to oppose the supertrawler Margiris — the second largest fishing boat ever built — from being permitted to fish in Australian waters.

It is a political dynamic that is leading to some unusual bedfellows. In the Tasmanian Parliament, a motion against the Margiris received tripartisan support. Conservationists have even found themselves agreeing with an op-ed by Wilson “Iron Bar” Tuckey of all people, in which the former Howard government minister called for the Margiris to be barred from Australian waters.

Clearly, fish politics can be a bit weird.

Around the world, fish politics cuts across party lines. The reality is that local members with fishing constituencies — regardless of party allegiance — will generally fight the corner of their industry. On the other hand, the marine conservation constituency tends to be more geographically diffuse. The result is that it is common for the fishing industry to have a stranglehold on the politics, with the consequence that catch quotas are all too often set in accordance with the desires of the fishing industry, rather than what the scientists recommend.

Australian fisheries managers have a much better record than most countries, although even here mistakes have been made, leading to considerable overfishing. In the case of the Margiris, according to research professor Jessica Meeuwig, of the University of Western Australia’s Ocean Institute (TT here), “even at the most basic level, the scientific case is not strong enough” to justify the fishing level that is proposed. In any event, there is a negligible domestic constituency supporting the foreign-owned boat, and real anger and fear among local fishing communities, hence the unanimity of the Tasmanian Parliament.

Unusual alliances also emerge as dreamy sea-lovers and hard-headed free marketeers find themselves united in shared agitation at the sheer irrationality of the international political economy of fishing. The success of concentrated fishing industry lobbying means that very tasty subsidies are often made available in order to keep otherwise uneconomical boats afloat. And it is this rampant subsidisation that infuriates free marketeers. As World Bank group president Robert B. Zoellick told a conference in February, that the first step in reform of global oceans governance “is to stop doing dumb things” like paying out “subsidies that are used for fisheries that are net negatives to the system”. The group that owns the Margiris is an example, having benefited from massive EU subsidies.

And the allocation of subsidies leads to a third point: in truth, there is no such thing as a singular “fishing industry” position. The actuality is that Big Fishing — with huge boats, influential connections, ample capital and operational portability — shares little in common with the lower impact local small-scale sector. The big end of the fishing industry is of course more than happy to deploy the iconography of the plucky fisherman in his weathered sou’wester heading out in his little boat — you won’t see an industrial trawler in any retail marketing any time soon — but the reality is that Big Fishing is a disaster for everyone else.

The difference is one of economics and mobility. Recreational and sports fishers have their favourite patches, and the more sustainable small scale local fishermen are based in particular ports, fishing grounds and communities, all complete with specific local cultural memories. As one fearful fisherman plaintively commented apropos of the Margiris:

“It’s so important to me that I can take my little boy out and catch a tuna, and a fish for that matter, for the rest of his life, and then he can pass that on to his children as it was passed down to me … If this super trawler comes into this country and starts fishing, as it has done all over the rest of the world, this will be taken away from that generation and I don’t think that should happen.”

But for the giants — the Margiris and her ilk — geography, community and generational continuity is no object. Based nowhere and owing allegiance to nobody except their owners who profit from our collective loss, when the stocks crash and the fish run out, the big boats just move on. To quote Wilson Tuckey on the Margiris: “European super trawlers have so reduced fish stocks of their more benevolent oceanic environment that they are prepared to sail halfway around the world for a minuscule quota of low-value fish.” Moving around the world, hoovering up all in their path, supertrawlers are like giant locusts of the ocean.

Growing awareness of these imbalances is causing significant political realignments all over the world within the fishing industry. Already, in Europe and Africa, small-scale fishermen are now working in concert with the organised environmental movement to break the hold of Big Fishing. The arrival of the Margiris has seen the emergence of a similar dynamic in Australia.

As The Canberra Times observed earlier this week, logic and politics suggest that the federal government should prevent the Margiris from fishing in Australian waters. But on Q&A last night, a frustrated Tony Burke indicated that as federal Environment Minister he lacked the power to block the Margiris from fishing in Australia, though he could at least impose conditions on the ship’s operations. Given the alignment of forces opposed to the Margiris, this is not good enough: Burke’s inability to intervene actually makes the situation harder for the government, which needs to come up with a tougher response to satisfy the growing coalition of opposition to the supertrawler.

If the Margiris is allowed to fish, the political problem for the federal government will not go away, it will only fester.

BURKE CONFIRMS MARGIRIS WILL KILL SEALS & DOLPHINS

Kim Booth MP
Greens Primary Industries Spokesperson
Tuesday, 4 September 2012

The Tasmanian Greens today called for an immediate halt on operations by the FV Margiris in Australian waters, following the Federal Environment Minister’s acknowledgement that the vessel posed a by-catch risk.

Greens Primary Industries spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that the operating conditions placed on the Margiris did not go far enough, because they would only come into effect once, and if, the trawler had been caught in the act.

“By-catch is a slightly nicer way to describe the indiscriminate mass slaughter of important higher order species like protected seals, dolphins, rays and sea birds,” Mr Booth said.

“Statements that the Margiris’ operations may be suspended if it kills too many dolphins and seals is a shocking admission that it is a foregone conclusion that dolphins and seals will be killed.”

“It’s good that the Federal Environment Minister has finally acknowledged that this type of fishing method is indiscriminate, and that it can result in the mass death of non-target protected species.”

“No by-catch is acceptable, and if there is even the slightest risk of protected species like seals, dolphins and penguins getting scooped up then this ship should be stripped of its fishing licence.”

“The Federal Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig now needs to go the next step and block this ocean-depleting monster from fishing in Australian waters.”

“By now, everybody has seen the sickening pictures of dead dolphins tumbling from the net of a super trawler taken by a fisheries scientist, which graphically illustrate the impact of this type of industrial scale fishing,” Mr Booth said.

• CALLING ALL STATES: STAND UP FOR YOUR FISHERIES
South Australia Joins Tasmania in Push to Stop the FV Margiris

Kim Booth MP
Greens Primary Industries spokesperson
Wednesday, 5 September 2012

The Tasmanian Greens today congratulated the South Australian Labor government for following Tasmania’s lead in writing to the Federal Minister for Fisheries to urge him to not allow the FV Margiris to operate in the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery.

Greens Primary Industries spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that the Ministerial Statement by the South Australian Minister Environment Minister Paul Caica adds further pressure on the Federal Minister, Joe Ludwig, to heed the concerns expressed by his state counterparts in Tasmania and South Australia to put a stop to the super trawler.

“Day by day this super trawler is running out of places to go. Its trail of worldwide destruction has finally caught up with it and Australians are standing up, state by state, to stop it from decimating our fisheries in the same way that it has done globally,” Mr Booth said.

“Tasmania has passed in the Lower House a tripartite motion opposing the super trawler, which resulted in the Speaker writing to the Federal minister, and now South Australia has followed our lead with their formal statement to their state parliament and correspondence outlining their opposition also being sent to Minister Ludwig.”

“The formal Ministerial Statement delivered by the South Australian State Minister puts the acid test on all Labor and Liberal Senators to vote with Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson’s disallowance motion next Monday, 10th September.”

“We should at least be able to count on the Tasmanian Labor and Liberal Senators, and the South Australian Labor federal members to stand up and vote to turn back this super trawler.”

“The South Australian government raises two very important points when they state that they are concerned that the super trawler will damage the reputation of their State’s premium, clean green seafood industry and that its operation could also potentially risk the sustainable South Australian sardine fishery due to the considerable by-catch.”

“The South Australian government has written this letter despite the extra conditions imposed by Minister Burke as these conditions do nothing to address sardine by-catch or localised depletion.”
“The Greens have been advocating on behalf of fishers, conservationists and the broader community since early June 2012 to stop this super trawler from proceeding. We will continue to advocate for sustainable fishery practices and urge all states to do the same.”

Download: Ministerial Statement, South Australian Minister for Sustainability. Environment and Conservation, the Hon Paul Caica MP, 4th September 2012:
Sep05_SA_Ministerial_Statement_on_Margiris_ATTACH.doc

• Below, see ‘Ben’ in Comments:

Ben sent seven other similar photographs, “all taken from the Internet, and all in Tasmanian waters.”