Prawn trawlers accused of large fish kills

Original story by Carl Curtain, ABC Rural

Recreational fishermen in the Northern Territory are venting concern over recent fish kills, which they say are being caused by prawn trawlers.

The Nhulunbuy Fishing Club, on the north east Arnhem Land coast, has received photos of small trevally and mackerel which were apparently found on floating in the ocean.

The NT Game Fishing Association executive officer, Peter Cox, told ABC Local Radio the dead fish are the by-catch from trawlers operating nearby.

“Our concern is how close they’re working to some of our reefs and seagrass patches, especially with dugong and turtles.

“It’s the by-catch. We have photos of just acres of dead fish floating on the water after the trawlers have been through,” he said.

There are 52 prawn trawlers operating in the Northern Prawn Fishery, with the season running from August 1 through until November 30.

Austral Fisheries general manager, Andrew Prendergast, says he’s surprised to hear about large fish kills.

“I’m not so much [surprised] about what they’re claiming they saw, but the fact that they believe we’re trawling on top of reefs, which we simply can’t do.

“We’ve got closures all around the fishery to protect our seagrass beds because that’s where our tiger prawns breed,” he said.

“It would be commercial suicide for us to go near seagrass beds.”

He says prawn trawlers use mechanical devices to prevent the netting of large fish and turtles, which also reduce the by-catch.

“There is a 100 per cent compliance with the towing of these devices in the nets, you simply cannot go to work without them.

“We tend to get a very good relationship between by-catch and the prawn during the night part of our trawl,” he said.

“All fishermen do their best to avoid [a fish kill], but if they’ve trawled through until eight o’clock in the morning, they may have encountered a small patch of fish which, as they’ve discarded it from the catch, has floated on the surface.”