Prawn fishers in the Gulf of Carpentaria have applauded a decision by the fisheries regulator to scrap a new management model deemed by industry to be “ill conceived” and “unworkable”.
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has abandoned its plan to adopt a uniform, quota system for all Commonwealth fisheries, which would have included the $40 million northern prawn fishery.
AFMA’s executive manager of fisheries Nick Rayns says instead existing controls on fishing effort such as seasonal closures and gear (net) restrictions will be retained.
“We do like to have a standardised approach across our fisheries because often it’s more cost effective to run them that way, but also I guess it’s a pragmatic and commonsense approach taken too.
“We’re dealing with species that range from prawns which only live for a year right through to species that live for 100 years or more like orange roughy, so sometimes there are boundaries around applying the same rules to fisheries.
“We do that to the extent we can, but in this case we’ve decided the modified effort system is going to serve the northern prawn fishery well into the foreseeable future.”
Industry spokeswoman Annie Jarrett says the decision ensures the supply of sustainably caught prawns for many years to come as well as helping the fishing industry and community maximise economic returns from Australia’s biggest and most valuable wild-caught prawn fishery.
An annual report released by ABARES this week found banana and tiger prawns have been sustainably fished in the Gulf of Carpentaria for the past 20 years.