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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-24 Daily Xml
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SHARK FISHING, NORMANVILLE

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:25): I just want to raise in the house today a matter that drew some public attention last week in relation to shark fishing off Normanville jetty. It concerned me, and it concerned deeply the Yankalilla district council. Yesterday I had a briefing with a representative from the minister's office and the department of fisheries over the matter. In brief, what has been happening is that some people, very few people, have been berleying off the end of the Normanville jetty, which is only 30 metres long, at high tide in an attempt to catch sharks or rays.

The regulations are quite specific about what you can use to fish with: hooks up to size 12, you cannot put mammals in the water to attract sharks, and tuna oil is quite permissible. What has happened is that the shark fishing down there has concerned deeply the locals around this very, very popular beach and the lifesaving club where the Nippers train in that water.

The outcome is that the Yankalilla district council was seeking to have changes made to the regulations or the act in an attempt to prevent shark fishing off these jetties. These people also tend to go fishing, these few who want to do it, off metropolitan jetties and numbers of others, for sharks, around the state.

The very, very few people who do this I think will probably learn a lesson from what has happened at Normanville. Fisheries compliance officers and police are taking an added interest in it. The reality is also that you can go fishing with any sort of a hook and catch a shark or a ray; it is impossible. The vast majority of people and families who want to go fishing are not out there doing that.

So, it is an issue that fisheries and the minister's office are going to come back to me on. It is going to take some time to work through this. Unfortunately, the Yankalilla district council in the short term are not going to have any outcome apart from additional compliance officers visiting the beach and the wharf. I am reliably informed that, since the compliance officers have upped the ante since last week, there has been absolutely no sighting of anybody shark fishing down there in any way, shape or form.

For the benefit of the house, the jetty is only 30 metres long, and at low tide you can walk around the end of the jetty and not get your feet wet. I do not want to discourage anybody from fishing off jetties. It is an enormous pastime in South Australia. Many people who have not got boats or simply can not go to sea for health reasons, or whatever, get enormous pleasure out of fishing off jetties such as Normanville in my electorate, Rapid Bay, Cape Jervis, the Bluff at Victor Harbor, the jetty at Port Elliot, or the causeway and a multitude of wharfs on Kangaroo Island. So, it is a longstanding habit.

I do not want to put any impediment in the way of those people whatsoever, but I think it is an important issue. I know the council has written to, I believe, every member in the parliament both in this place and the other place about the matter. Members may be interested to know what action I have taken. It has been the subject of The Times newspaper at Victor Harbor that picked up on it.

I will be writing back to the Yankalilla council and I shall be writing to the minister offering a few suggestions. I have also put forward the suggestion, to one of the councillors at Yankalilla, that they should take it up through their local government association network, raise it at their regional meeting and raise it at their state meeting if they feel it is necessary.

I think it is something that we will have to grapple with. More and more people want to go fishing, and more people want to catch big ones. For the life of me I see no good reason being served by catching a 9 foot or 10 foot bronze whaler off Normanville jetty and dragging it up on the beach to rot; I think it is a waste of time, quite frankly. I am very much of the opinion that if you want to go and catch fish, you eat them, not chase them for blood sport. It is something I do not agree with. If you go tuna fishing, you eat the tuna, within limitations.

When we go gummy shark fishing it is a different ballgame entirely, but the bronze whalers, white pointers and other sharks do come in around the coastal areas in the spring and the summer as the water warms up, for breeding purposes. They are always there, and the people who like to go and attract them do so.

It is probably important to note also that there were lamb shanks floating in the water there, which is a breach of the regulations In the act: you cannot use any mammal. People will go on and, hopefully, we will get some common sense in this matter.

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