UQ helps fishing industry with environmental management

As the Australian fishing industry goes through a period of massive change, a University of Queensland researcher is helping to make their lives a little bit easier.

Kellie Williams, a research assistant at UQ’s Environmental Management Centre, launched national guidelines to assist commercial fisherman in making their industry sustainable, through an Environmental Management System (EMS).

As the EMS Pilot Project Manager for Queensland, Ms Williams said she had experienced very positive reception for the program.

“Despite much of the negative media published about commercial fishers, it is refreshing and sometimes surprising to hear how committed many fishers are to protecting the environment,” Ms Williams said.

She said fisherman around Australia were embracing EMS as a way to maintain access to fishing grounds and take some responsibility for the future of such areas, especially as access is dwindling to many fishing grounds.

“Approximately 70% of Queensland’s fishing grounds have been closed down, most of which has occurred over the past five years,” she said.

“If this was the agriculture industry, this would equate to nearly 19 million hectares of farmland, or $5.1 billion dollars of gross value of production.

“Despite this, every fisher that I have spoken to is keen to make a formal commitment to environmental sustainability through an EMS.

“I believe this is a good-news story that we can all admire, given the cultural change that has occurred in Queensland to enable EMS plans to even get off the ground.”

Ms Williams launched the Green Chooser document on Friday 15 April at a breakfast in Brisbane attended by Senator Richard Colbeck, Federal Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Russ Neal, CEO of the Australian Seafood Industry Council.

Media: For more information contact Kellie Williams (telephone 07 3365 4370 or 0409 594 487) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2802).