Fresh Local Sea Food - The Facts
Unfortunately, truth and facts have been largely absent in the public campaign being waged against "correcting" our Great Sandy Marine Park and removing the “Designated Great Sandy Area” which is an “anomaly” that does not exist in any other marine park in the country!
The "Designated Great Sandy Area” only makes up approx. 11% of the total Great Sandy Marine Park – so removing commercial netting from areas already identified as Yellow Conservation Zones will not stop all commercial fishing. You will see the actual commercial harvest facts and figures presented by Fisheries Queensland, which will enable you to understand the real viability issues facing the industry.
Like it or not, Queensland purchasers and consumers of "fresh fish" are choosing to buy product largely based on price position in the marketplace, not the place of origin. Go into any supermarket and look in the seafood cabinet and you are unlikely to find any fresh fish for sale caught by the inshore commercial netting sector. But you will find ample supplies of farmed and imported fish for sale.
ABS figures reveal that around 70% of seafood purchased by Australians is through major supermarket chains.
Supermarkets only stock products with high sales records, so if there really was a strong demand for local fresh fish among consumers, they most certainly would be catering to it – but they aren’t because that market segment is so small as to be of little consequence to the large retailers.
So, where are the fish that are being netted from our waters ending up?
The overwhelming majority of the catch is immediately dispatched and sold into southern and some international markets, with a very small percentage ever sold in local fish shops and retail outlets. It’s a simple matter of economics – you always sell to the highest bidder and a buyer willing and able to take all your product. I’m sure we’d all do the same thing, and this is not something that netters should be criticized for.
The real, local consumers of inshore fresh fish are the 60,000+ recreational anglers who live and fish across our Fraser Coast. We like nothing better than coming home after a day’s fishing with a feed of fish for the family – whiting, flathead, Blue salmon, a barra and a mackerel or three - yum!
Sadly, few of us can do this these days from our inshore waters, so we buy bigger boats and head further offshore in search of reef & pelagic fish whose stocks are still in reasonable shape at present...
NOTE: "Locally Caught" - broadly suggests it has to have been caught with-in Australian water - It Does NOT necessarily mean it was actually caught in the region/area you are purchasing it in. "Fresh" suggests it should not have been frozen at ANY stage prior to you purchasing it.
Please email Hon Meaghan Scanlon - environment@ministerial.qld.gov.au
And ask for an update on when we can all expect to see the DRAFT Re-Zoning plan released, and you expect it to see it with NO RED CROSS HATCHING ON IT!