Ban On Spearfishing

What a load of horseshit!

Taken from Townsville bulletin 19/06/2009

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au...9805_news.html


Spearfishing ban slammed
DANIEL BATEMAN
June 19th, 2009
A NEW study that has proposed a ban on spear guns and gill nets to save the Great Barrier Reef from overfishing has been rubbished by fisheries scientists.
An international team of scientists led by Dr Josh Cinner from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies has proposed a ban on fishing gear such as spear guns, fish traps, beach seine nets, and gill nets to aid coral reefs that have been hit with bleaching.
The team's research, carried out in Kenya and Papua New Guinea, showed certain types of gear was more damaging to corals and to certain species of fish needed to help reefs recover from bleaching or storm damage.

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Dr Cinner, who is based at James Cook University, said the fishing gear was creating a double jeopardy for both the corals and certain types of reef fish.
"They are already on the edge because of the overfishing and the additional impact caused by a bleaching even can push them over," he said.
The team found spear guns were the most damaging of all fishing gear, especially to corals themselves and fish such as parrot and trigger fish, which keep seaweeds and urchins in check while coral regrows.
"Spear guns target a high proportion of species that help maintain the resilience of coral reefs, but also can result in a surprising amount of damage to the corals themselves," Dr Cinner said.
"When a fish is shot with a spear gun, it often hides in the reef, so some fishermen break the corals in their attempts to get it."
Dr Cinner said temporary bans or imposing permanent restrictions on the use of various types of gear could apply to virtually any coral reef management whether in the developing world or in developed countries such as on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Fellow JCU fisheries scientist Dr Andrew Tobin said the proposed fishing gear bans should not be applicable to the Great Barrier Reef.
"Some of those findings are probably very reasonable for those areas they've studied, but to make any link to Great Barrier Reef waters is probably drawing a very long sword," Dr Tobin said.
"The fishing gears he's looking at, most of them aren't used in the GBR World Heritage Area anyway."
Dr Tobin said there was very little spearfishing on the reef.
"There's already some pretty harsh regulations in place for that, he said.
"It's a reasonably low fishing method, as well."
Townsville marine biologist Dr Walter Starck, who provides advice to Sunfish North Queensland, said there was no issue with overfishing of herbivorous fish on the Great Barrier Reef. "Here in Australia, it is completely irrelevant," he said.
Sunfish North Queensland spokesman Brian Pickup labelled the study's scientists as 'doom and gloom merchants'.
"All right, we might have a problem with netting, but we don't have a problem with sustainability of our fisheries on the Great Barrier Reef," Mr Pickup said.

Spearfishing

safe
selective
sustainable
ZERO BY CATCH

Thank crikes some common sense is prevailing! It's nice to see real science come into the equation, instead of 'ethics' overriding the facts. Here's hoping they've put a lid on that finding at least, and that spearo's are not an endangered entity!
Cuzza