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

                                                                  MEDIUM TERM – OPTION ONE
                          ESTABLISH A PROCESS TO REMOVE NETS FROM THE NOOSA RIVER AND LAKES

A medium-term option includes establishing a process of removing netting from the Noosa River and Lakes
Cootharaba, Cooroibah and Weyba. If Council were to support this approach the support of the Queensland
Government is required;

    1. Acceptance by the Queensland Government of the numerous initiatives included in Council’s
       submission that focus on addressing N1 net fishery issues in the rivers and lakes;
    2. Noosa Council builds on those initiatives with further proposed reforms that achieve a higher
       conservation value outcome that begins the process of removing nets from the three lakes and the
       Noosa River; and,
    3. Addresses the finer scale spatial data collection and more granular economic analysis required to
       accurately measure the fishing effort and the costs of removing the N1 nets from the system, over the
       next three years.

The N1 mullet component of the net fishery in the lakes and rivers (W35, Site 16) is the key data point which
records the catch for the river and lakes, however, there is an issue with this data set. The issue is Site 16 also
includes some N1 ocean beach catch and there’s no way of identifying the river and lakes catch as distinct from
the recorded catch offshore. To indicate this, the following diagram shows the Method, Grid, Site, Number of
Boats, Species and Catch Volume in tonnes for Site 16 since 2015. Data for 2014 is not provided as there were
less than 5 boats active in Site 16.

The ring netting data from Site 16 only suggests the total catch is not significant however much finer scale
examination is required to get a very accurate estimate of the overall catch and effort for the purposes of
progressing a proposal that would meet the Fisheries Reallocation Policy requirements.

    2015    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           6   Mullet - unspecified                  106.48
    2015    Ring Netting               W35      16           5   Bream - unspecified                     0.21
    2015    Ring Netting               W35      16           5   Mullet - unspecified                   17.33
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           7   Bream - unspecified                     0.13
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           7   Milkfish                                0.09
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           8   Mullet - unspecified                  144.53
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           7   Queenfish - unspecified                 0.02
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           7   Tailor                                  0.08
    2016    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           7   Whiting - unspecified                   0.09
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16          11   Bream - unspecified                     0.73
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16           5   Eel (marine)                            0.16
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16           8   Flathead - unspecified                  0.66
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16          12   Mullet - unspecified                   50.24
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16           8   Trevally - unspecified                  1.88
    2016    Ring Netting               W35      16           6   Whiting - unspecified                   0.57
    2017    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           5   Dart - unspecified                      0.11
    2017    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           8   Mullet - unspecified                   70.35
    2017    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           5   Shark - whaler unspecified              0.13
    2017    Ocean Beach Netting        W35      16           5   Trevally - unspecified                  0.70
    2017    Ring Netting               W35      16           6   Flathead - unspecified                  0.26
    2017    Ring Netting               W35      16           5   Grunter - unspecified                   0.16
    2017    Ring Netting               W35      16           5   John dory                               0.03
    2017    Ring Netting               W35      16          12   Mullet - unspecified                   26.32

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