Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-28 Daily Xml

Contents

NORTHERN ZONE ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): By way of supplementary question, what courses of action are open to those fishers if, in the event, your information is wrong and the fishery is overfished?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:34): The honourable member knows or should know, but regularly fails to comprehend, that we monitor our fisheries regularly. Our scientists are out there, our PIRSA people and SARDI are out there, year in year out, monitoring our fisheries, doing surveys of our fisheries, measuring biomass so that we know well in advance, basically at the egg stage, what size our fishery is likely to be in a year or two years' time. We are able to predict ahead what our fish stocks are likely to be. We continue to monitor our fisheries and carefully consider any implications that science brings back to us.