Algal Bloom

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. What specific measures is the government taking to preserve and restore fish stock in affected regions to ensure a sustainable recovery for the industry? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: The former Liberal government implemented a further fish stock assessment: they bred fingerlings for fish stocking releases in both gulfs, deployed and built artificial habitats known as reefs, did extensive promotions to enhance rec fishing effort, closed catch on fish species that were under depletion and supported charter boat operators through that time of uncertainty.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (15:02): Of course, I am not the primary industries minister and will allow for her to add anything necessary to my answer, but generally, of course, what we are seeing through this bloom is the great clarity of the health of the environment being essential in order to have the health of the local economy. It has never been drawn more to our attention that unless we have a healthy marine environment we don't have healthy fisheries, as indeed the member has been pointing out.

Alongside the work that is being done to make sure that there are clear lines of communication about the bloom, that there's support for industry and communities that are affected, there is preparation for summer known as the summer plan. We are working hard on what will be a recovery plan, how we make sure that as the bloom recedes that recovery is accelerated so that nature comes back as fast as possible in order to facilitate healthy fisheries, coastal community life and so on. The scientists are working on that at present but elements of that are pretty clear. One is the idea of artificial reefs that can accelerate the return of oysters and other marine life that become the fish nurseries for the return of healthy fish stocks.

The member refers to reefs that were opened under the previous term but, of course, had been, as I understand it, funded and negotiated—including with the federal government and assistance from the Nature Conservancy—to have these reefs established. There is one off Glenelg that is still in good condition the last time a diver went down and checked very recently and there is one off Ardrossan. We went to our country cabinet there and met with the council and oyster fishers—very successful in hosting particularly oysters.

As has become clear I think—and all of our science literacy about the marine environment has increased in the last few months—bivalves, but oysters in this case, are important in the response to blooms because they eat algae. They are filter feeders, they clean up the seas and they eat algae. In fact, if we had all of the native oysters that we had 200 years ago that were cleaned out, we would not have had the experience of the bloom that we are having at present; we would have had a far more robust ecology in dealing with the bloom.

There have been attempts to start to restore those, as has been mentioned by the member. The Premier announced recently as part of our response an additional 15 shellfish reefs to be established over 15 different hectares. That will be rolled out by the environment department and also by the University of Adelaide, along with communities—including Aboriginal communities and schools—to build these small-scale reefs. There was an announcement alongside RecFish SA of a $300,000 recreational fishing reef that is being established, and I have no doubt that, as we move into the detail of the recovery plan, addressing the question of fish stocks, building up fingerlings and restoring them to the gulfs, and any other species that it might be possible to repopulate, is all being worked through in detail as part of this recovery plan.

It has never been clearer that we are utterly dependent on the health of nature. We have asked too much of nature in the past—for example, the way that the native oyster beds were removed in the first 50 years or so of European arrival here—and there is an utter necessity for us to pay attention to what science has to tell us about the way in which we can accelerate recovery in order to continue to have healthy fishing, both for commercial and recreational purposes.