SNAPPER FISHERY

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:53): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question regarding the statewide snapper annual spawning closure.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Members may recall that on 18 October of this year I raised the inconsistency between the reduced charter, individual and boat limits for snapper over 60 centimetres under the new management arrangements. Those new arrangements set out that for a charter boat with four to six passengers the new restrictions set a limit of three snapper per boat. However, the individual daily catch limit on a charter boat carrying seven passengers or more is one snapper per person. The minister was unable to provide the reasons for the inconsistency to the council on that occasion. My questions are:

1. Will the minister clarify the basis upon which the determination was made to have different limits for charter boats carrying between four and six passengers and those carrying seven passengers or more?

2. Will the minister also clarify whether the snapper limits for the 2012 season will return to 2011 levels when the season opens in December 2013?

3. Are there any further changes the government intends to implement for charter boats from 2013?

4. Have those charter operators in the industry affected by the new limits been approached by PIRSA with a view to negotiating possible terms of compensation for lost revenue?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. The management of our fisheries is a critical issue for this state. We have many extremely successful commercial fishers, and the health of our fisheries is paramount to their businesses. It is an industry that generates a significant economic contribution to this state, so the management of the fisheries for the long-term sustainability of the sector is most important, and of course PIRSA has a very important role to play in assisting in that management.

It is absolutely in the interests of all, not just commercial fishers but others who have commercial interests through charter operations—it has a very important tourism value to this state as well—as well as recreational fishers. I think fishing is the single largest sporting activity participated in by a large number of South Australians. Many people enjoy fishing, and snapper is one of those iconic species. I am sure you would be well aware, Mr President, that it is quite a wonderful eating fish, so it has great importance to both the industry and the community.

There was a review of snapper management arrangements in South Australia which commenced back in 2011, so it has been going for some time. That is now completed, as I have reported in this place before. The review was initiated by PIRSA following concerns about the future sustainability of the fisheries as a result of increasing commercial catch and effort levels and also the practice of concentrated target fishing activity on breeding aggregations by all fishing sectors. So, even though a recreational fisher might not be taking much stock per boat from the water, the fact that the boat is going through a spawning area at a particular time of the year can disrupt spawning activities and have quite a detrimental effect on following years' biomass.

SARDI fisheries scientists have advised that available information indicates that there has been over-exploitation of a number of regional subpopulations in the fishery as well as poor recruitment or stock replenishment, particularly in the Spencer Gulf, since the last strong recruitment event, which was in 1999. So the performance of the snapper fishery is obviously strongly influenced by stock replenishment, which is variable from year to year. As a long-lived and relatively slow-growing species, snapper are also slow to recover from overfishing as well as rapid environmental changes when compared to some other species.

A number of new management arrangements were put in place—and I have been through those before in this place—which involve an extension of the annual statewide snapper fishing closure applying to commercial fishers. Recreational and charter fishers will be able to fish for snapper during a 15-day extension period, from 30 November to midday 15 December. However, during these 15 days, reduced snapper bag and boat limits will apply. Then, from the 23^rd and onwards, the 15-day extension to the snapper fishing closure will apply to all fishing sectors, commercial, recreational and charter.

In effect, snapper fishing will be completely banned in all South Australian waters from midday 1 November to midday 15 December on an annual basis to afford increased protection of the spawning aggregations from disturbance caused by fishing activity. So, effective from midday 15 December, the daily commercial catch limit of 50 kilograms (reduced from 800 kilograms) will apply across all of South Australian waters to control the level of commercial impact. In addition, effective from midday on 15 December, commercial fishers will be restricted to using 200 hooks on set lines (reduced from 400 hooks) when operating in Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent.

The introduction of these new fishing arrangements aims to control the level of commercial catch and to minimise disturbance. PIRSA will undertake additional work and community consultation on the development and implementation of snapper spacial closures to further protect selected key spawning aggregations in Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent, which will be announced early in 2013. So, some of those discussions and consultations have already commenced, but we are looking at introducing further spatial closures. These new arrangements are in addition to the existing fisheries management arrangements, and we are aware of those: size limit, boat and bag limits and such like.

This is absolutely about the interests of the industry and the preservation of a species to ensure that it remains a sustainably commercial fishery, and a number of decisions were made in relation to that. We attempted to be as even-handed as we possibly could—the lightest touch possible—while, at the same time, putting adequate measures in place to address the data which came in which indicated the potential for over-fishing. So, a number of decisions were made. What I meant to say was that the reduction was to 500 kilograms from 800 kilograms, thank you, Mr President. I accidentally said 50 kilograms, but Mr President, you would have known what I meant. I just needed to correct that.

We tried to share the burden as best we could, and we were very generous, I think, and responsive to the charter boat industry. When we initially announced the closures, the commercial charterers came to us and said that they had already taken bookings for the summer Christmas period. So, we listened to their concerns and gave an exemption for that period for this year to honour the commitments they had already entered into, but the quid pro quo was decreasing the bag size for those vessels to help overcome that. As I said, we made a judgement, weighing up the pros and cons, and tried to share the effort, if you like, across all of the sectors involved.