Member for Hill Shane Knuth has slammed the Queensland Labor Government and Department of Fisheries on their management of the Spanish Mackerel fishery.
Mr Knuth said this issue had been boiling since the initial meeting of Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Spanish Mackerel Working Group in May, last year.
“The working group was provided a presentation on the results of the 2021 east coast Spanish Mackerel stock assessment by Fisheries Queensland which advised them the draft biomass was estimated to be at 17 per cent of unfished biomass,” Mr Knuth said.
“Twenty per cent triggers the closure of a fishery under the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy and under National Guidelines.”
However, Mr Knuth noted in the departments own 2018 stock assessment of Australian East Coast Spanish Mackerel Predictions of stock status and reference points that annual harvests of around 550t (across all sectors) will build biomass towards the 60 per cent level, consistent with the 2027 management targets set in the Governments Sustainable Fisheries Strategy.
Astonishingly, just 3 years later, the working group were informed that the fishery biomass was 17 per cent, despite commercial harvest averaging 300t annually since 2004, well below the current total annual allowable commercial catch for the species.
“Even adding in 170t annually for recreational fishers, the annual total harvest is still well below the 550t recommended by Fisheries Qld to have a healthy fishery,” said Mr Knuth.
“My point is this, how can a fishery, that was deemed healthy at an estimate of 60 per cent biomass in 2018, with the annual harvest well under the allowable mark of 550t each year since 2004, suddenly just 3 years later completely drop of a cliff to 17per cent?
“It simply doesn’t make any sense.”
Mr Knuth said the assessment model for measuring Biomass was changed in 2018, further adding to fishermens’ anger.
“Either Fisheries Queensland has been telling fishermen the wrong information since 2004 and are responsible for mismanaging the fishery, or the assessment model used to measure biomass is flawed.”
Mr Knuth said he has questioned the Minister in Parliament and he had not addressed the anomaly.
‘The Minister will say that the biomass model has been peer reviewed, but this was not done in conjunction with industry. Fishermen are out on the water constantly and they are telling me that Spanish Mackerel stocks are high, which is a completely different story to the Minister and his department,” he said.
Mr Knuth said the statement by the Minister recently in a media release where he said the Queensland Government has moved to protect fishing jobs and give Queenslanders a say on future management of Spanish mackerel stocks was laughable.
“The working group has met once since last year and have had zero input into the peer review or any other strategy since then, yet suddenly the Minister wants to give the industry a say, after the damage is done?” he said
“Closing the fishery will destroy jobs and affect restaurants, fish and chip shops and people who enjoy battered and crumbed fish throughout North Queensland.
“The Minister and DAF need to come clean, admit they got it wrong and work closely with the industry to get it right, so jobs, businesses and catching a mackerel is not lost.”
Thanks Lindsey there is no doubt about this. Ed
The Marxist-Leninist state has been wrecking primary producers for years. The wrecking of the fishing industry and the wrecking of the family owned and operated trawler has been going for decades. All of this is political. The political parties operate a scissors strategy and cut the social fabric to order.
They are not going to get their UN approved 17 SDG achieved with a wild-caught fishing industry. Only CCP owned fish farms are sustainable. Only Labor Collectives are sustainable.
“Any Chinese residents in Australia who cannot speak Australian, should be expelled.”
One should rather expel ALL involved and on the payroll with the Australian foreign investment review board. Strip ALL of them of their assets for treason and “reeducate them” in Canberra after the “National capital” is fenced in and transformed into a political correct wellness center for the democratically incorrect.
NO ONE who “invests” millions of $$$$ in Australia does “officially” need to speak English. It is just a matter of baksheesh to the “high caste FIRB officials” that are above any law and the amount of foreign funds to be transferred into very dark & deep Australian coffers, that “buy” permanent residencies without too many “reviews”.
https://firb.gov.au/
By the way, China over fishes off the coasts in international waters big time anywhere in the world and hardly anyone in international politics complains.
Your shout mate. Ed
Any Chinese residents in Australia who cannot speak Australian, should be expelled.
Any money sent from China to Chinese residents should be taxed as a 100% land and commodity investment tax.
That would loosen up a lot of land to house Australian families, and feed the nation.
The Victorian Government did something similar decades ago, when they shut down the fish shop at the local wharves.
In those days you could go down on a Sunday and buy absolutely fresh fish, straight off the boats.
But this was too much like free enterprise and anathema to the government’s communistic instincts, so our egalitarian fishmongers’ just had to go, didn’t it.
I have just rung Senator Antic’s office and spoken with his electorate office man.
He was unaware of the chain of emails between Klaus Schwab and Scott Morrison, so I said I would send the PDF I got of it from this site.
Senator Rennick’s answering machine said my call was outside business hours-this at around 12:15 pm today, but that is okay.
I told Senator Antic, and his office guy today, that when he was in illegal quarantine, he should bill whatever “authorities” that put him there, for his time inside.
At my standard rate, $250 per hour, or part thereof, I told his office guy that the Senator would be in for around $82k, and that he could send me a percentage for my good advice.
Good call, Marianne Pleming. The Chinese have been sneaking around all over our northern coast for a long time. And they are desperate to feed their people, because they have great difficulty doing so. So to me, if we want to upset China, nationalise all the farms and land they have been able to buy, unlawfully. The CCP will go down in a ball of flames if their people starve, and the Taiwanese allegedly have 20 missiles pointed at Three Gorges Dam, which, if it goes, will destroy the CCP via all the damage that will do.
Don’t consult the fishermen. What would they know? “The working group has “met once since last year” and have had zero input into the peer review or any other strategy since then, yet suddenly the Minister wants to give the industry a say, after the damage is done?” he said.
Bottom line is there is no legitimate parliament in Qld and those outlaws have got their business running just as they like. Laughing all the way to their off shore accounts.
End of story.
Shane Knuth MP is a fighter for the people of Queensland.
We need more fighters for the people.
Vote in the fighters in the next election.
From his 5 April post – GREAT NEWS WITH THE REMOVAL OF SOME OF THE VACCINATION MANDATES BUT MORE IS NEEDED.
👇👇👇 LATEST MEDIA RELEASE BELOW 👇👇👇
Reduction in vaccination mandates is a start but more is needed
The Government has finally seen common sense after announcing that they will remove SOME vaccination mandates as of 1am on April 14.
Member for Hill Shane Knuth said it was great to hear that the mandates will end for pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, weddings, museums, showgrounds, galleries, libraries, and stadiums.
However, the remainder of the mandates needed to be fully lifted so that our health care workers and teachers, who have lost their jobs, could also return to work.
“I know a number of small businesses in my electorate will be celebrating now that some of the mandates have ended but many teachers and health workers are sad can still not return to work,” Mr Knuth said. “While this will be a much-needed boost to our hospitality and tourism sector we now need to think about the elderly, the frail and the disabled who are going without the much-needed care they deserve.
“Our health and disability services and schools are short-staffed and overworked.
“We are seeing the strain on our systems with the long delays for surgeries.
“I am calling on the State Government to end all health directives so that ALL Queenslanders can return to work, no matter what career they chose.”
Robbie Katter MP Nick Dametto MP
– Shane Knuth MP
https://www.facebook.com/shaneknuthmp
Where is the challenge, form anyone, to the validity of the Queensland Parliament?
Really, there has been no Upper House in many decades, so the QLD Parliament is not a lawful Parliament, and none of their legislation or statues have any validity.
QLD is also properly regarded as a foreign country, because f this bogus parliament they have.
The only problem with the above is that the bogus parliament has control of all the mechanisms and the jack-booted police troops, etc.
So where is Bob Katter on all this?
If he piped up he would really be the “maverick” they try to say he is.
Is it possible that the Chinese or other fisheries have gotten in and fished without the authorities noticing? Or have they just not been paying attention? Someone should go right back and do an audit on this and find out where the leaks are? the deficiencies are? Or is it as bad as it is? and always has been. Have we just been fishing when we should not have been fishing?