wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  The Australian 5 Jul 06
Surge in shark poachers
Paige Taylor

THE number of Indonesian shark poachers sighted off Australia's north coast has risen dramatically, with depleted stocks placing the livelihoods of legal fishermen in jeopardy.

Reported sightings of poachers by local fishermen and the public have risen from 8000 in 2004 to 13,000 last year. Authorities have caught a total of 197 Indonesian boatloads of poachers in northern waters in the first six months of the year, almost double the 107 boats intercepted at the same time last year.

The arrests, which include 426 Indonesians aboard 49 vessels stopped off Broome alone since November last year, came as a sharp depletion of stocks forced the West Australian Government to slash the shark catch for eight commercial fishers operating in the Kimberley.

The commercial operators in the northern shark fishery, whose total 2003-2004 catch of 591 tonnes was worth $1.7 million, have been bracing for the inevitable closure of the fishery off Broome.

The state Government reduced their maximum catch by 90 per cent last July.

But the federal Government's promised increase in patrols of the state's northern waters, announced in the May budget, has renewed hopes the commercial shark fishery can continue.

Details of extra patrols across the nation's north will be discussed at a meeting in Sydney next Tuesday between federal Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz and state counterparts John Ford from Western Australia, Timothy Mulherin (Queensland) and the Northern Territory's Konstantine Vatskalis.

According to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the number of illegal fishing boats caught in all Australian waters has increased each year from 111 in 2002 to 281 last year.

Mr Ford claims the commercial shark fishery off Broome could still close depending on the number of extra patrols the commonwealth intends to allocate to the region as part of $388.9 million it has announced in the fight against poachers.
links
Related articles on Shark's fins
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com