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Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders):
At last, the bluefin tuna's place on the international list of threatened
species is being reviewed. Brian Jeffries, the Chairman of the Tuna Boat
Owners Association, has welcomed the review, stating on ABC radio today:
We actually have asked 13 times in writing to the group who run that
list, exactly for any documents which could justify the listing. As of this
stage, they haven't produced one document. Now what they're doing to their
credit is now reviewing the whole situation as to whether that should've
been listed or not.
The Australian southern bluefin tuna industry is estimated to be worth about
$1 billion, almost all of which is in South Australia.
The industry has had many ups and downs in the almost 50 years of its
operation. That led to tuna farming and a rebirth of the fishing industry in
a new direction.
The Hon. M.J. Atkinson:
Why did the tuna barons back Hank?
Mrs PENFOLD:
Hagan, I think, not industry. The majority of southern bluefin tuna caught
in Australian waters is caught off the South Australian coast. The fish are
transferred to cages to fatten and grow, then sold on the lucrative Japanese
sashimi market. While southern bluefin tuna are not the only fish used for
sashimi, they are considered among the best for this purpose.
For many decades some of those in the industry have experimented to
find ways to close the tuna cycle. This has been recognised by other nations
that fish for southern bluefin tuna, principally Japan, as a necessary
factor if the fishery is to continue and expand in the future. Some of that
research and experimentation is being done here in South Australia
and on
Eyre Peninsula by the Stehr group at
Arno
Bay.
The leaders in the Australian section of this worldwide fishery have
been concerned for decades about the future of their industry. They were
among the first—if not the first—to push for quotas and a reduction of
effort. Australia has consistently obeyed the restrictions. It is ironic
that, while Australian fishers obey the rules, some other nations that fish
for southern bluefin tuna do not necessarily see quotas as a constraint to
be observed.
An increase in the effort required to catch the same tonnage of fish in
the wild as in past years was noted decades ago, when leaders began to push
for limitations. They were concerned about the sustainability long before
sustainability became a catchword trotted out on almost every occasion by a
certain group of people in relation to anything and almost everything.
The Hon. M.J. Atkinson:
Why did you lose two of the three Port Lincoln booths?
Mrs PENFOLD:
I didn't.
The Hon. M.J. Atkinson:
You did.
Mrs PENFOLD:
Labor lost 3.3 per cent of their vote on the
Eyre Peninsula. Those both inside and outside the industry who are genuinely
concerned about sustainability worked together for solutions. The formation
of a worldwide body that included all countries that fish for southern
bluefin tuna was a major step forward in the introduction of quotas that
were eventually accepted by participating nations.
The ones who have the most to lose if the fishery collapses are those
involved in it, or depending on it for their livelihood. Conversely, they
are the ones to gain most by ensuring that the fishery is stable and
recovering in the wild so that any suggestion that southern bluefin tuna is
an endangered species is removed. When tuna fishing, as an industry, took
off in Port Lincoln in the 1950s there was also a thriving tuna industry
operating out of Eden in New South Wales.
That base and cannery have long since gone. While the Port Lincoln cannery
is thriving, the tuna species is no longer the valuable southern bluefin
tuna.
Longliners have been credited with seriously depleting southern bluefin
tuna boats. Local boats preferred poling and later purse seining. In poling
a line with a barbless hook on the end was attached to a pole about three
metres in length. The hook was flung into the school of tuna and the fish
were flipped aboard, when caught. It was extremely physical and tiring work.
Purse seining is a method where a long net is run around a school of fish
and then pulled in at the bottom so the fish cannot escape.
The fish are often caught in the
Great Australian Bight
and are carefully pulled to Port Lincoln, where they are artificially fed
until they reach their optimum weight for the Japanese market, when they are
humanely killed and flown chilled or frozen and shipped to the lucrative
Asian markets. The value to this state of the employment and associated
industries that live off the tuna industry is probably, in its own right,
worth much more than a billion dollars. There are boats and crews, shipyards
and slips that build and maintain the boats and the staff employed.
Time expired.
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