2019-07-18 OM Agenda - Item 1 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Fishing Futures

            OPTIONS FOR THE NOOSA COUNCIL AND THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT TO WORK MORE
         CLOSELY ON FUTURE FISHERIES MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS INCLUDING THE STATUS QUO,
                                                 SHORT-TERM, MEDIUM-TERM & LONGER-TERM

                                                                                                     STATUS QUO

The Noosa Council have articulated in numerous submissions to the Queensland Government desire to have a
greater say in the permitted activities allowed in the Noosa River, estuary and beaches. To a large extent this
has not occurred in a meaningful way whereby change has been affected. The issues before Council include
the proliferation of moored vessels including house boats and holiday vessels, an increase in the volume of
traffic using the rivers and lakes, the continuation of commercial, recreational and charter fishing with virtually
no locally-initiated changes to management arrangements in an environment where population has continued
to grow and visitor numbers continue to increase. The 2011 Australian Census10 for the Noosa region listed
47,040 residents with 24,026 private dwellings compared to the 2016 Census11 counting 52,149 residents and
26,099 private dwellings. Overnight and day-trip visitor numbers since 2015 – 2018 have increased 18.5%. The
Noosa region welcomed 2 million overnight and day-trip visitors who spent almost $900 million in the year to
March 201812. These trends are likely to continue to impact the region and importantly, one of the top four
reasons people list as their reason to visit Noosa; the beach, the food, the national park and the natural beauty
and amenity of the region.

Whilst there is an expectation identified from the stakeholder analysis that at some point in the future there is
likely to be a change to the permitted activities on the Noosa waterways, the broader community has yet to
formally consulted on their views. Some of the reasons given for no change is to preserve what has always
been; that includes beam trawling on the rivers and catching a bag of mullet, bream or flathead to put food on
the table and there is a view from some commercial fishers that they do not want to see that change and
further, see no reason to change it. Other state a very different view, including the river is being loved too
death and commercial fishing in the waterways needs to stop. Local conservation groups have been very clear
in their message that profound change is required and the sooner the better. Other groups are ambivalent and
take only a passing interest in the health of the waterways in as much as it being a priority in the daily lives.

The Noosa Council seeks to identify and respond to community concerns regarding the health of the
waterways and beaches. The question is if the regulatory oversight of the permitted activities should be left to
others or whether there can be more local input into these activities that better reflects the Noosa community
values and expectations. There is little short-term cost to the status quo but there may be a longer-term cost
to doing nothing.




10
     https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SED30065
11
     https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SED30065
12
     https://www.visitnoosa.com.au/image/members/agm2018/Tourism-Noosa-Annual-Report-2018.pdf

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