The commercial fishing industry in Australia fears a $100 million assistance package will not be enough to compensate people affected by the proclamation of the world’s biggest network of marine reserves.
More than 2.3 million square kilometres of ocean environment around Australia will be protected from July 2014.
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says the government recognises there will be impacts on some fishers which is why $100 million is being allocated under a fisheries adjustment assistance package.
Furious commercial fishers and charter operators say the move will doom their trade and end in a skyrocketing price and more imported seafood for consumers.
The Commonwealth Fisheries Association, which represents the interests of commercial fishers, is concerned compensation is being capped.
However, Protect Our Coral Sea and marine conservation groups such as the Pew Foundation welcomed the proclamation as “one of the most significant” in the nation’s conservation history.
Under the plan, no new “on-the-water” changes will come into effect until July 2014 after the next federal election, after which the Coalition has promised to revoke any declaration should it win government.
Veteran Nationals senator Ron Boswell, a fierce opponent of the marine reserves, said the $100 million allocation would not go far enough.
“There is going to be a lot of people put out of business with no compensation.”
Mr Burke dismissed the criticism, saying people needed to know the parameters of any assistance.
“You can’t have an open-ended bottomless pit,” he said.
The average recreational angler in a runabout is unlikely to be affected with the closest new “no-go zones” 440km out from Brisbane, 330km from Townsville, and 210km from Cairns.
Commercial operators in the Coral Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria including tuna long-liners and prawn trawlers out of Mooloolaba, Cairns and Karumba, will negotiate over a $100 million fisheries adjustment package.
“Australia is a world leader when it comes to protecting our oceans,” Mr Burke said.
“And so we should be, we’ve got responsibility for more of the ocean than almost any other country on Earth.
“Many of the world’s endangered marine animals, including green turtle, blue whale, southern right whale, Australian sea lion and the whale shark, are found in these protected waters,” Mr Burke said.
Most of 80,000 submissions supported the national marine network plan – that will cover an area roughly equal to Australia’s land mass, he said.
Catch-and-release fishing practised by the marlin fishing game boats will still be allowed in the Coral Sea except in the designated green zone over the eastern half of the proposed marine park.
Outraged third-generation aquarium collector Lyall Squire Jr, of Cairns Marine, said the decision had the potential to put his family-owned $6 million-a-year company out of business.
“We have grave fears for our survival, worse, this is not about science,” said the director of Australia’s largest aquarium supplier, who exports species such as clown fish, sharks and rays to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US.