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European super trawler set to plunder Australian waters


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There's now an organised campaign against the Super Trawler - full page ad in The Australian today - visit the website and mail the link to your fishing mates. If there is enough of a community outcry about this I think the government will be forced to reconsider:

http://stopthetrawler.net/

BTW this is what happened to mackerel stocks in Chile when the super trawlers came through, not good:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/where-have-all-the-fish-gone-20120129-1qntz.html

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There's now an organised campaign against the Super Trawler - full page ad in The Australian today - visit the website and mail the link to your fishing mates. If there is enough of a community outcry about this I think the government will be forced to reconsider:

http://stopthetrawler.net/

BTW this is what happened to mackerel stocks in Chile when the super trawlers came through, not good:

http://www.smh.com.a...0129-1qntz.html

This is Greenpeace isn't it?and it is the same petition that has been going on for a while

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The smaller "local" fishers don't go close to there quota. They manage the fishery themselves. Why would they go out & catch there total quota,flood the market & then maybe get 20 cents a kilo????? . Not viable for anyone.

Haveing worked in the "bait" industrie for 11 years for one of the largest pilchard suppliers in W.A. I can assure all fishraiders that the entire pilchard quota for W.A & S.A would not even supply the tuna farms in S.A for a year. That is why the tuna farms import 80% of there pilchards....They also feed the tuna a type of pellet meal.......

This is where this "super ocean rapeist" fishing vessel comes into its own. Most of its catch will be used in fish farms!!

Don't let the spin doctors tell you their catch will feed the staveing masses of some third world country!!!!

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Looks like the campaign against the Super Trawler Margiris is gaining momentum - Sea Shepherd have now announced they will be involved in opposition against it!:

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/08/03/351051_tasmania-news.html

Only political party opposing this at the moment are the Greens. How about the Libs and the Nats outline their position on this!

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  • 3 weeks later...

In case you have not seen photos of the FV Margiris and are unsure of what the fuss is about maybe this will stir your blood. This vessel will soon operate here.

post-13466-024083700 1345945491_thumb.jpg

post-13466-089019300 1345945560_thumb.jpg

post-13466-020647200 1345945599_thumb.jpg

LOA 142m

Beam 18m

Capable of taking its quota in one set of the net.

Edited by finin
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45 Jobs created on the trawler for locals but I would expect these jobs are only casual.

How many long term jobs will go if the fishing is dessimated?.

I cannot believe there is not a political outcry about this.

Australia has approx 5 million recreational anglers ,We should have an association,one united voice and you can bet the pollies would be clambering for our support then and we would not even be discussing the super trawler.

Edited by Paddy454
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Paddy thats where you are totally wrong, their only needs to be Two Australian Crew on board, it has been stipulated that one is to be the master. The rest of the crew is foreign and the catch will be sent offshore, that is none will go onto the Australian market. On the protest front Victorian anglers and their Tassie counterparts are leading the charge when it comes to rallies etc. NSW isnt far behind with what in the near future may require a trip to canberra, boat in tow and to surround parliment house. This is a federal matter and not NSW Govt although from what i hear they are coping a serving as well.

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Super-trawler bound for South Australia

August 29, 2012 - 5:41PM

David Beniuk

AAP

Controversial super-trawler the Margiris will arrive at South Australia's Port Lincoln on Thursday morning amid tight security.

The 142m vessel, claimed to be the world's second-largest trawler, will be met by police and will berth behind an electronic security gate.

Police have contacted South Australia's Flinders Ports to alert them to possible protest action.

The ship has attracted widespread opposition, particularly in Tasmania where its operators have said it will be based.

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Hundreds of boats took to the River Derwent earlier this month to protest against the ship, while a complaint by Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie has resulted in a Commonwealth Ombudsman's investigation into the decision on its quota.

Green groups say they have more than 70,000 signatures on a petition against the boat.

Seafish Tasmania intends to use the trawler to fish for 18,000 tonnes of redbait and mackerel, a quota the company says has been backed by a group of eminent marine scientists.

Confirmation of the ship's arrival came as Greenpeace released a series of photos it claims were taken aboard a similar vessel in 2006.

The photos appear to show dead by-catch, including sharks and dolphins.

Seafish immediately dismissed them as misleading, saying they showed a different boat in a different fishery and were six years old.

The company says sophisticated new "excluders" in their nets, developed after 12 months' research with underwater video cameras, will prevent by-catch.

"AFMA (the Australian Fisheries Management Authority) is putting in place underwater cameras on the first fishing trip of the Margiris in Australian waters to monitor the excluder to ensure that it is working as it was designed to work," Seafish director Gerry Geen said in a statement on Wednesday.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has expressed concerns about the impacts on by-catch, warning he could use his powers to ban the ship from Australian waters.

Greens leader Christine Milne said Mr Burke needed to back his tough talk with action.

"There is no management plan for local depletion and there's no answer to local depletion," Senator Milne told reporters.

"So what I'm calling on Minister Burke to do is not only express his concerns but actually stop the super-trawler."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/supertrawler-bound-for-south-australia-20120829-250pz.html

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they have banned the used of this vessel in South Africa as it almost killed off their fisheries... I love fishing too much and want to make sure that my kids and their kids will be able to fish the amazing Australian waters..

The big trawlers get every thing in those massive nets, dolphins, seals, you name it they will get stocked in the nets. This will have a massive impact on our fishing population.

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Here is the latest info from Fishing World about the ship.

This ship has obviously been around the world fishing hence all the name changes! You have to ask yourself why isn't it fishing where it has in the past????

Hopefully the government will see some sense - fancy on one hand spending all the time and money developing all these marine parks, changing bag limits, fish legal sizes etc then letting this thing into "our" Australian waters...what gives the government the right to have "its" say for all Australians.

Maybe someone should talk to Tony Abbott and he can then promise to get rid of it along with the carbon tax when the ginger ninja gets the bullet!

Cheers

Damo

Super Trawler: Name-changer for Australian waters

03 Sep 2012

SEAFISH Tasmania has defended its decision to change the name of the super trawler FV Margiris to the Abel Tasman. The 142-metre ship is currently docked at Port Lincoln where it awaits final approval to be reflagged as an Australian ship, before fishing its 18,000 tonne baitfish quota.

The ABC news reports that the trawler may go straight out and start fishing in Commonwealth waters without first docking in Devonport in Tasmania.

The arrival of the Margiris has been strongly opposed by rec fishers, who are concerned about the long term affects of the ship fishing for small baitfish in Commonwealth waters. Conservation groups have expressed concern that the ship will catch large number of other species.

Seafish has said the trawler's netting operations will be overseen by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) using underwater cameras to monitor by-catch.

The ABC reports the bid to rename the vessel has angered independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie.

"To now use that man's name which has such an important historical significance in this state, it's almost a final insult," he said.

Seafish director Gerry Geen defended the decision.

"We're in a partnership with a Dutch company so we think it's an appropriate name," he said.

According to shipping databases, the Margiris has previously been called the Annelies Ilena, the Atlantic Star and the Siberian Enterprise.

Seafish hopes to have the super trawler renamed and approved for its fishing operations in Australia today.

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I am absolutely appalled at the situation we find ourselves in with regards to this trawler.

What puzzles me more was earlier in the thread some people in a strange way were defending it's activities and catch quotas

It's views like these that anger me that voting is compulsory, because it's these morons that put labour in government which is causing our country to go in the insane direction we are heading.

It is our god given right to defend our shores against these greedy mongrels, so hopefully our kids and grandchildren get to enjoy our oceans the way we have, so I encourage all of the readers to write a letter to joe ludwick in protest, make no mistake about it unless something happens to stop this ,its going to happen.

In conclusion any of you who support this trawler please do us all a favor ,and immigrate to another country where they accept this bull s...t

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... immigrate to another country where they accept this bull s...t

thats the other part of the problem !

Aus may support sustainable fishing (cough - massive trawler - cough), but alot of other countries are raping our oceans.

FAD tuna fishing

shark fin fishing

bottom trawling

what happens when the fish are gone ?

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In South Korea, oceans have been over fished so for Rec fishers to actually catch any fish, they need to take a few hours journy on a boat.

Do we want this in Australia?

thats the other part of the problem !

Aus may support sustainable fishing (cough - massive trawler - cough), but alot of other countries are raping our oceans.

FAD tuna fishing

shark fin fishing

bottom trawling

what happens when the fish are gone ?

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Hi

Everyone knows that this situation makes no sense. Unfortunately,unless everyone makes their voice heard it will happen. From what I have been led to understand, the only way this can now be stopped is by Joe Ludwig under section 91 Fisheries Management Act 'exceptional circumstances'. For this to happen it will take a lot of pressure from all opposed. Send Joe an Email and ask him to stand up using the above Act. We all need to stand up for what we believe in these days as leadership is very thin.

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On the surface the Supertrawler smells like a bad idea.

That's my gut feeling too.

But let's try and take the emotion out and analyse objectively for a minute.

1. Are quotas increasing? doesn't appear so.

2. Obviously capacity (of the nets) is huge relative to other trawlers, right?

3. How many regular sized trawlers does this supertrawler otherwise replace on the water? Is it 10, 20, 50?

My question is; what is the evidence that this supertrawler effect will be greater than the aggregate effect all the other trawlers it replaces? It's tempting to think that huge nets would obviously reap far more havoc (by-catch etc) simply due to their volume/capacity alone. But is that really true? I would hazard a guess YES myself - but how do we know? Look, if it was up to me I would NOT allow the supertrawler into our waters whatsoever. But at the same time I want to understand the effect relative to all the other (current) operators. Anyone who is really concerned really should be asking these questions. The answer could be different to what you suspect. Perhaps it's impossible to know the answer. If the supertralwer really is capable of taking all its quota in one set of the net, who is to say that is good or bad? Sure it sounds bad but perhaps it's better from a holistic environmental perspective (relative to 50 trawlers chugging around for days or weeks). Does anyone have any research material on the facts?

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On the surface the Supertrawler smells like a bad idea.

That's my gut feeling too.

But let's try and take the emotion out and analyse objectively for a minute.

1. Are quotas increasing? doesn't appear so.

2. Obviously capacity (of the nets) is huge relative to other trawlers, right?

3. How many regular sized trawlers does this supertrawler otherwise replace on the water? Is it 10, 20, 50?

My question is; what is the evidence that this supertrawler effect will be greater than the aggregate effect all the other trawlers it replaces? It's tempting to think that huge nets would obviously reap far more havoc (by-catch etc) simply due to their volume/capacity alone. But is that really true? I would hazard a guess YES myself - but how do we know? Look, if it was up to me I would NOT allow the supertrawler into our waters whatsoever. But at the same time I want to understand the effect relative to all the other (current) operators. Anyone who is really concerned really should be asking these questions. The answer could be different to what you suspect. Perhaps it's impossible to know the answer. If the supertralwer really is capable of taking all its quota in one set of the net, who is to say that is good or bad? Sure it sounds bad but perhaps it's better from a holistic environmental perspective (relative to 50 trawlers chugging around for days or weeks). Does anyone have any research material on the facts?

AFMA (Australian fisheries management authority) doubled the quota of Jack mackeral to 10600 tonnes last year. Gerry Geen owner of Seafish the company that has leased the MV Margiris also happens to sit on the AFMA board.

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On the surface the Supertrawler smells like a bad idea.

That's my gut feeling too.

But let's try and take the emotion out and analyse objectively for a minute.

1. Are quotas increasing? doesn't appear so.

2. Obviously capacity (of the nets) is huge relative to other trawlers, right?

3. How many regular sized trawlers does this supertrawler otherwise replace on the water? Is it 10, 20, 50?

My question is; what is the evidence that this supertrawler effect will be greater than the aggregate effect all the other trawlers it replaces? It's tempting to think that huge nets would obviously reap far more havoc (by-catch etc) simply due to their volume/capacity alone. But is that really true? I would hazard a guess YES myself - but how do we know? Look, if it was up to me I would NOT allow the supertrawler into our waters whatsoever. But at the same time I want to understand the effect relative to all the other (current) operators. Anyone who is really concerned really should be asking these questions. The answer could be different to what you suspect. Perhaps it's impossible to know the answer. If the supertralwer really is capable of taking all its quota in one set of the net, who is to say that is good or bad? Sure it sounds bad but perhaps it's better from a holistic environmental perspective (relative to 50 trawlers chugging around for days or weeks). Does anyone have any research material on the facts?

The 4 key issues are surely:

  1. The quota was doubled to make it economically viable for the super trawler - NO NEW SCIENCE
  2. Local depletions will occur due to the size of this thing - no bait = no predators
  3. The multitude of small boats will be lost - loss of jobs and local economy
  4. Lots of small boats spread around cannot result in local depletions

The pollies and vested interests have avoided answering these :ranting2:

I hope the Sea Shepherd can stop this thing! :biggrin2:

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AFMA (Australian fisheries management authority) doubled the quota of Jack mackeral to 10600 tonnes last year. Gerry Geen owner of Seafish the company that has leased the MV Margiris also happens to sit on the AFMA board.

Nothing like a bit of inside trading.

Isn't thing like this illegal :mad3:

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There has been a massive public campaign against the supertrawler led by Greenpeace, rec fishing groups in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. Check out the website: http://stopthetrawler.net/

They have petitioned the Federal Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig. The pressure has led to Environment Minister Tony Burke implementing a number of restrictions on the supertrawler's operation (but not enough to stop it - yet!). Labor backbencher Melissa Parke is putting up a private member's bill this week to ban the supertrawler with support from the Greens.

The Libs are basically supporting the supertrawler, although at least Wilson Tuckey has questioned the logic of this ship strip-mining our pelagic fishery.

Get onto Twitter, Facebook and join the protest against the supertrawler - the more voices the more chance of getting the powers that be to ban the thing (don't hold out on the Libs doing anything - it's been the Greens who've pushed to get this bloody thing banned against Labor and Liberal support for the venture!).

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