jaybee
13-07-2004, 11:50 AM
Last Update: Wednesday, July 7, 2004. 3:49pm (AEST)
There is a dreadful, silent death playing out on our doorstep - the demise of a species.
The grey nurse shark has been reduced to a potentially unsustainable number.
It is estimated as few as 300 grey nurse sharks remain in pockets up and down the eastern seaboard.
Although it seems time for urgent action it is not that simple, with a dispute erupting over fishing and shark breeding grounds.
According to the influential lobby group Nature Conservation Council, the only way is to create no-fishing zones off the coast to allow the grey nurse population to recover.
But the idea has enraged fishermen, already facing restrictions on their catches and besides they say they do not kill grey nurse sharks.
Dive charter operator Wayne Smith says the future of the grey nurse species hangs in the balance.
For Mr Smith a dive boat operator working out of Bateman's Bay, sharks are a big part of his business.
Each year, thousands of divers come from all around the world hoping he'll help them swim amongst these monsters of the deep.
"The grey nurse is a critical area. I can't explain that to the community enough," Mr Smith said.
"It's reached a point where it can't go any further.
"If we don't do something now you've just dedicated a species to extinction - that's it."
Megan Bannerman from the Nature Conservation Council believes recreational fishing is responsible for the demise of the grey nurse.
"Simple - because there are so few sharks divers practically know them all by name," Ms Kessler said.
"In the past dive surveys have looked at sharks and they've actually seen hooks in the sharks mouths.
"Two-thirds of the population were actually hooked and 90 per cent of those hooks were from recreational fishing."
Armed with this information, the Nature Conservation Council has put forward a radical plan to ban fishing for 1.5 kilometres around key grey nurse habitats, including Montague Island and the Tollgate islands on the NSW south coast.
On the face of it, saving an endangered shark species in the year 2004 should not be all that difficult.
One would simply put up fishing exclusion zones where the sharks live and breed. The problem is, those same places provide a livelihood for many, many fishermen.
As a result, a maritime range war is brewing.
Professional fisherman John Davis said it makes him furious to hear conservationists say, "Lock this island off?"
"How can they sit there and tell us that we can't fish somewhere where we've fished for the last 30 years?" Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis is a commercial fisherman based in the town of Narooma.
The fishermen say that if those exclusion zones were brought in, then many of them would go broke.
But divers heading to a grey nose colony on the eastern side of the Tollgate Islands see the population dwindling and those they do see are often in terrible shape, courtesy of fish hooks and fishermen.
"We have things such as the shark's mouths being split right back to the gill slits through stainless steel tracers that have been caught inside the shark's mouth," Mr Smith said.
"As it's trying to break away it's just torn itself basically like a human, all the way down to its shoulder blades."
For Mr Smith there is only one answer - a fishing exclusion zone around the Tollgate Islands and Montague to the south.
"I don't understand why the fishermen are so upset," Mr Smith said.
"One lousy kilometre. That's all we want. We're not asking for everything. Maybe if we are lucky, 100 or 150 fishermen use this area a year.
Is it worth losing a species over that, over a pastime, over a piss up on the ocean? I don't think so."
But not everyone agrees with this. Indeed, a few miles south is a very different point of view altogether.
John Davis said he would be finished if he could not fish for 1.5 kilometres around the island.
Montague Island is literally in his backyard and any plan to ban fishing here would hit him hard.
Today he is two miles offshore, fishing outside the proposed exclusion zone, trying to catch gummy sharks.
But 600 hooks on, he has caught just two wobbegongs and he throws them back.
Mr Davis said he has not hooked a grey nurse shark in the last five seasons.
"I've never, never caught a shark and I've been live bait fishing.
"Anywhere around the island, I've never ever caught a grey nurse shark," Mr Davis said.
He says he cannot see how excluding the island is going to help the species.
John Davis is not the only one concerned. Narooma has a healthy charter fishing industry and the charter men are set for a fight.
Indeed, the proposal has so incensed the fiercely independent locals in Narooma, both charter and commercial fishermen have come together to fight the proposal.
Charter fisherman Darryl Stuart said any exclusion could have a devastating effect on his industry.
"99 per cent of our work, is done around Montague Island.
"It's the area that has the most number of reefs in the whole sort of six mile range, so we fish around the edge of the reefs and everything and if we close down from doing that, that's the end of it - we just can't operate from this area anymore," Mr Stuart said.
"I don't know where they're getting their research from. Where can they tell us that they are 1.5 kilometres from the island?
"We only see them in one very small, 100 metre area, so we haven't seen them anywhere else.
"None have been caught anywhere, so what research, you know?"
But Megan Kessler said the CSIRO and NSW Fisheries did the research.
She said they've tracked the sharks and shown that they move about 1.3 kilometres out from these critical habitat areas.
She said the science is strong.
"That's been done in two different studies, they've shown those similar numbers."
However the fishermen are concerned to dispel claims that charter operators allow their clients to catch grey nurse sharks.
Mr Stuart said you can ask every single operator and no one has ever hooked a grey nurse shark.
No one doubts the shark is in danger, the question is - could its survival destroy an industry or perhaps a town?
John Davis said the exclusion would send him out of business.
"If the proposal is to stop us fishing there, my livelihood's finished, I've gotta look for work," Mr Davis said.
Mr Smith has a strong message for the fisherman.
"I'm saying to the fishermen, 'Get it together'. 'Start thinking about someone else besides yourself for a moment.'
"I know life is tough, but the reality this is the end of a species.
"I know life is tough, but the reality this is the end of a species.
"If you don't have the guts and fortitude to put up, then you deserve to go broke because there will be nothing left in the next 40 to 50 years."
There is a dreadful, silent death playing out on our doorstep - the demise of a species.
The grey nurse shark has been reduced to a potentially unsustainable number.
It is estimated as few as 300 grey nurse sharks remain in pockets up and down the eastern seaboard.
Although it seems time for urgent action it is not that simple, with a dispute erupting over fishing and shark breeding grounds.
According to the influential lobby group Nature Conservation Council, the only way is to create no-fishing zones off the coast to allow the grey nurse population to recover.
But the idea has enraged fishermen, already facing restrictions on their catches and besides they say they do not kill grey nurse sharks.
Dive charter operator Wayne Smith says the future of the grey nurse species hangs in the balance.
For Mr Smith a dive boat operator working out of Bateman's Bay, sharks are a big part of his business.
Each year, thousands of divers come from all around the world hoping he'll help them swim amongst these monsters of the deep.
"The grey nurse is a critical area. I can't explain that to the community enough," Mr Smith said.
"It's reached a point where it can't go any further.
"If we don't do something now you've just dedicated a species to extinction - that's it."
Megan Bannerman from the Nature Conservation Council believes recreational fishing is responsible for the demise of the grey nurse.
"Simple - because there are so few sharks divers practically know them all by name," Ms Kessler said.
"In the past dive surveys have looked at sharks and they've actually seen hooks in the sharks mouths.
"Two-thirds of the population were actually hooked and 90 per cent of those hooks were from recreational fishing."
Armed with this information, the Nature Conservation Council has put forward a radical plan to ban fishing for 1.5 kilometres around key grey nurse habitats, including Montague Island and the Tollgate islands on the NSW south coast.
On the face of it, saving an endangered shark species in the year 2004 should not be all that difficult.
One would simply put up fishing exclusion zones where the sharks live and breed. The problem is, those same places provide a livelihood for many, many fishermen.
As a result, a maritime range war is brewing.
Professional fisherman John Davis said it makes him furious to hear conservationists say, "Lock this island off?"
"How can they sit there and tell us that we can't fish somewhere where we've fished for the last 30 years?" Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis is a commercial fisherman based in the town of Narooma.
The fishermen say that if those exclusion zones were brought in, then many of them would go broke.
But divers heading to a grey nose colony on the eastern side of the Tollgate Islands see the population dwindling and those they do see are often in terrible shape, courtesy of fish hooks and fishermen.
"We have things such as the shark's mouths being split right back to the gill slits through stainless steel tracers that have been caught inside the shark's mouth," Mr Smith said.
"As it's trying to break away it's just torn itself basically like a human, all the way down to its shoulder blades."
For Mr Smith there is only one answer - a fishing exclusion zone around the Tollgate Islands and Montague to the south.
"I don't understand why the fishermen are so upset," Mr Smith said.
"One lousy kilometre. That's all we want. We're not asking for everything. Maybe if we are lucky, 100 or 150 fishermen use this area a year.
Is it worth losing a species over that, over a pastime, over a piss up on the ocean? I don't think so."
But not everyone agrees with this. Indeed, a few miles south is a very different point of view altogether.
John Davis said he would be finished if he could not fish for 1.5 kilometres around the island.
Montague Island is literally in his backyard and any plan to ban fishing here would hit him hard.
Today he is two miles offshore, fishing outside the proposed exclusion zone, trying to catch gummy sharks.
But 600 hooks on, he has caught just two wobbegongs and he throws them back.
Mr Davis said he has not hooked a grey nurse shark in the last five seasons.
"I've never, never caught a shark and I've been live bait fishing.
"Anywhere around the island, I've never ever caught a grey nurse shark," Mr Davis said.
He says he cannot see how excluding the island is going to help the species.
John Davis is not the only one concerned. Narooma has a healthy charter fishing industry and the charter men are set for a fight.
Indeed, the proposal has so incensed the fiercely independent locals in Narooma, both charter and commercial fishermen have come together to fight the proposal.
Charter fisherman Darryl Stuart said any exclusion could have a devastating effect on his industry.
"99 per cent of our work, is done around Montague Island.
"It's the area that has the most number of reefs in the whole sort of six mile range, so we fish around the edge of the reefs and everything and if we close down from doing that, that's the end of it - we just can't operate from this area anymore," Mr Stuart said.
"I don't know where they're getting their research from. Where can they tell us that they are 1.5 kilometres from the island?
"We only see them in one very small, 100 metre area, so we haven't seen them anywhere else.
"None have been caught anywhere, so what research, you know?"
But Megan Kessler said the CSIRO and NSW Fisheries did the research.
She said they've tracked the sharks and shown that they move about 1.3 kilometres out from these critical habitat areas.
She said the science is strong.
"That's been done in two different studies, they've shown those similar numbers."
However the fishermen are concerned to dispel claims that charter operators allow their clients to catch grey nurse sharks.
Mr Stuart said you can ask every single operator and no one has ever hooked a grey nurse shark.
No one doubts the shark is in danger, the question is - could its survival destroy an industry or perhaps a town?
John Davis said the exclusion would send him out of business.
"If the proposal is to stop us fishing there, my livelihood's finished, I've gotta look for work," Mr Davis said.
Mr Smith has a strong message for the fisherman.
"I'm saying to the fishermen, 'Get it together'. 'Start thinking about someone else besides yourself for a moment.'
"I know life is tough, but the reality this is the end of a species.
"I know life is tough, but the reality this is the end of a species.
"If you don't have the guts and fortitude to put up, then you deserve to go broke because there will be nothing left in the next 40 to 50 years."