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Speaker 1: Yesterday you heard from our fant about concerns that the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government must act to protect the future of

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Speaker 1: the iconic Barra Mundy fishery. Now today, the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Guided Fishing Industry Association has urgently called on the government

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Speaker 1: to introduce conservative catch limits for the twenty twenty four

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Speaker 1: commercial Barrow Mundy fishing season to protect important recreational tourism

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Speaker 1: and traditional fishing areas from over fishing due to increases

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Speaker 1: in concentrated commercial gill netting. Now joining me in the

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Speaker 1: studio to talk more about the situation is the chairman

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Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory Guided Fishing Industry Association, Blaine Simmons.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Blaine, Morning cod Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. Now, Blaine, we heard

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Speaker 1: those concerns raised yesterday by afand what are your members

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Speaker 1: saying to you.

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Speaker 2: Katie, I think we're concerned about all the same issues

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Speaker 2: that A found are. Our members and theirs have very

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Speaker 2: similar priorities as far as Barramundy fishing goes. We're happy

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Speaker 2: that the government has at least recognized that there was

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Speaker 2: going to be increases in the pressure, the fishing pressure

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Speaker 2: in certain areas, and of course we've had a progressive

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Speaker 2: closure of three areas by traditional owners because of their

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Speaker 2: concerns about gillnetting in shallow estuaries and bays. They get

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Speaker 2: to actually see the results of what happens as opposed

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Speaker 2: to what's reported. But we've known that was coming for

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Speaker 2: quite some time. It does appear that the government left

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Speaker 2: it a bit late to come up with some sorts

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Speaker 2: of solutions. But we're on the same page as the

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Speaker 2: government in terms of needing some solutions to control the

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Speaker 2: additional fishing pressure. We had the entire fleet spread out

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Speaker 2: of five key areas and now we've got the entire

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Speaker 2: fleet in two key areas. Everybody can do that maths

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Speaker 2: for themselves.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes a big difference. I mean, the government

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Speaker 1: obviously came out Wednesday, Well they didn't come out publicly.

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Speaker 1: I think they just came out to the various industry

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Speaker 1: groups and basically said that, you know, this is what

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Speaker 1: they're going to do effectively. Though, following on from the

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Speaker 1: discussion that we'd had with David Chirovolo yesterday, he didn't

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Speaker 1: feel as though it's sort of gone far enough in

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Speaker 1: terms of their being quotas. What is your take on

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Speaker 1: what they'd said on Wednesday are I look.

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Speaker 2: We're very concerned about the way that the plan that

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Speaker 2: they've come up with, the way they intend to manage

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Speaker 2: that pressure. That pressure is being measured by efforts, So,

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Speaker 2: in other words, how long you get to go fishing

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Speaker 2: for and all of us that fish know that some

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Speaker 2: days you can do very well, in other days you

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Speaker 2: can do very poorly and spend the same amount of time.

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Speaker 2: It's a very hit and mismeasure. It's a measure that

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Speaker 2: the commercial operators self report. There's no independent verification of

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Speaker 2: that number. It's hard to imagine a scenario where they

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Speaker 2: they are not incentivized to manipulate that figure because it's

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Speaker 2: entirely up to them how they report how much time

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Speaker 2: they spend fishing.

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Speaker 1: I guess the play Devil's advocate they might say, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm assuming that you know that the seafood

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Speaker 1: counsel or that others that are working in that industry

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Speaker 1: would say, well, we don't want to overfish the area either,

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Speaker 1: because we want it to be sustainable.

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Speaker 3: And I'm quite certain that that is the case.

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Speaker 2: We're talking about responsible people with a vested interest in

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Speaker 2: the industry. However, we've got substantial commercial pressures and we've

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Speaker 2: also got crews at sea who are paid percentage of catch.

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Speaker 2: These people have got families and children. Defeed, it's a

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Speaker 2: very challenging issue. We would much rather that the government

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Speaker 2: simply used the figures that they have to limit the

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Speaker 2: catch to what we all considered to be reasonable. We're

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Speaker 2: not wanting to deny anybody an opportunity, certainly not the

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Speaker 2: commercial operators an opportunity to support their families and their businesses.

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Speaker 2: But we certainly believe that the critical factor is there's

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Speaker 2: a certain number of fish that can be removed that

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Speaker 2: we've become accustomed to, and those fish can be removed

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Speaker 2: commercially from the system we've accepted, we've seen that's sustainable.

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Speaker 2: Why we would choose not to use that figure absolutely

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Speaker 2: confounds me.

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Speaker 3: That data is available, so blame.

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Speaker 1: What do you reckon needs to happen here? What are

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Speaker 1: you really calling on from the Northern Territory government at

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Speaker 1: this point?

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Speaker 3: Essentially are two things.

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Speaker 2: One, we want to see the actual removal of fish

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Speaker 2: by weight measured in those catchments. We have that we

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Speaker 2: have those figures available to us, so that we all

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Speaker 2: know how much fish can be removed. We have had

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Speaker 2: the director of Wild Barrowmunday, suggesting that they were going

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Speaker 2: to catch four up to four hundred tons of fish

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Speaker 2: out of those two catchments alone, which is more fish

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Speaker 2: than they've caught in all of the catchments in the

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Speaker 2: last three years, and that amounts to nearly two hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand fish.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 2: We don't want to see those levels, but there is

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Speaker 2: nothing to stop those levels being achieved, absolutely nothing other

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Speaker 2: than this really vague measurement of how much time you

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Speaker 2: spend fishing and how.

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Speaker 3: Much time you spend with your nets in the water.

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Speaker 2: So one, we want those we want these remaining two

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Speaker 2: systems protected absolutely, and two we want the government to

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Speaker 2: recognize that purellion dollar figures the recreational and tourism fishing

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Speaker 2: is worth somewhere in the order fifteen times what commercial

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Speaker 2: netting is worth.

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Speaker 1: Look, there will be people out there listening though, thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, I love going out for barrow. You know

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Speaker 1: I want to be able to go and still have

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Speaker 1: a feed at the restaurant and be able to get

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Speaker 1: a nice piece of barrow money to eat. And they

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Speaker 1: want to still be able to do that at an

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Speaker 1: affordable price, and it might be that they don't actually

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Speaker 1: have the capacity to go out and fish themselves, or

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Speaker 1: to you know, to be able to go out and

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Speaker 1: catch a barrow money themselves. I mean, is what you

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Speaker 1: guys are after, you know, a complete cutout of commercial

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Speaker 1: fishing here.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely not.

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Speaker 2: There are a number of ways, and there is evidence

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Speaker 2: in many jurisdictions in Australia and elsewhere in the world

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Speaker 2: where these very issues have been faced. Northern Territory barriers

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Speaker 2: and iconic fish should be Northern Territory barrow but absolutely not.

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Speaker 2: We're not want ever to have a situation where somebody

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Speaker 2: can't come and visit the Northern Territory and eat wild

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Speaker 2: caught barrow money in our restaurants, in our hotels. But

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Speaker 2: there are a variety of ways to catch those fish.

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Speaker 2: That's not excluding altogether nets, although clearly netting is on

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Speaker 2: the nose right around the world socially, it has very

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Speaker 2: limited social license. It has a very negative view with

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Speaker 2: environmentalists because of the way it's done. But I'm not

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Speaker 2: ruling that out entirely. But there are other ways to

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Speaker 2: catch fish. It's certainly an industry that would be well

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Speaker 2: suited in indigenous communities, and I think that adds.

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Speaker 3: To that adds to the flavor of the fish, if

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Speaker 3: you like.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, we want to still see barrow Monday being

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Speaker 2: sold exclusively around the world, but still certainly available in

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Speaker 2: the Northern territory.

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Speaker 1: But you want some limits here. You want the government

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Speaker 1: to take a closer look at what's going on given

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Speaker 1: the fact that those fishing areas have been reduced, but

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Speaker 1: the volume of fish able to be caught hasn't paid well.

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Speaker 2: They have no cap on the volume of fish whatsoever.

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Speaker 2: The only cap they have is this measurement of time.

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Speaker 2: What they're saying is, if you do really well, you

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Speaker 2: catch all the fish in the river. We're not measuring

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Speaker 2: how many fish you catch, which to me is absurd.

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Speaker 2: We need to be measuring how many fish we catch.

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Speaker 2: That needs to be controlled. There is a high probability

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Speaker 2: that we'll have yet another area closed during the course

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Speaker 2: of this year with events that will happen with the

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Speaker 2: federal government. There is high possibility. What then will we

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Speaker 2: have the entire fleet sitting in the mouth of the

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Speaker 2: Daily River. Now, the Daily River is obviously a vital

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Speaker 2: catchment to our recreational and our guided fishing industry. We

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Speaker 2: don't need to have the entire fleet with there that's

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Speaker 2: sitting there. That's not the look we're going for at all.

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Speaker 2: Not the reason we're spending millions of dollars on a

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Speaker 2: million dollar barro But we also haven't seen support from

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Speaker 2: government to recognize the value this industry. We started with

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Speaker 2: a review three years ago that were supposed to arrive

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Speaker 2: at that point and it didn't.

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Speaker 1: So blame the message for the government this morning from

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Speaker 1: your perspective, you know, from the Northern Territory Guided Fishing

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Speaker 1: Industry Association, what is the message for them today?

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Speaker 2: We'd like to see them provide some planning framework and

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Speaker 2: policy framework for our industry, for the two and a

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Speaker 2: half thousand people who are employed in this.

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Speaker 3: Industry in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: We need to have an environment where our barramundy are plentiful.

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Speaker 3: We certainly want to maintain our leadership.

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Speaker 2: We are the world class barrow Monday destination that needs

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Speaker 2: to stay. But government needs to work us into that framework.

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Speaker 2: And at the moment there has been a real prioritizing

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Speaker 2: of commercial interests and I think it's healthy for government

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Speaker 2: to support everybody. There's no doubt about that, but I

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Speaker 2: certainly don't like the idea that they may be supporting

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Speaker 2: the commercial That industry is obviously facing some substantial challenges

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Speaker 2: at the moment, and I would support them supporting that industry,

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Speaker 2: but not at other territories expense.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, we are going to be catching up with

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Speaker 1: the Seafood Counsel in just a couple of moments. I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate you coming in and having a chat with

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Speaker 1: us this morning. Blaine Simmons, the Northern Territory Guided Fishing

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Speaker 1: Industry Association Chairman, thank you so much for your time today.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you