2019-07-18 OM Agenda - Item 1 - Attachment 3 - Noosa Council Submission to State Fisheries Discussion Paper

Part 2: Further suggested proposals outside the scope of the Discussion Paper,
identified in community consultation during the development of the Noosa
Fishing Futures paper.
2.1     Prohibit the use of 1500m nets in Lakes Cootharaba, Cooroibah and Weyba.

This issue was touched on our response to Proposal 25 in Part 1 of this submission. The Fisheries
Regulations 2008 provides for the holder of an N1 symbol to use up to 1500 metres of net in Lakes
Cootharaba, Cooroibah and Weyba. There are no other provisions in the Queensland Fisheries
Regulations that allow for the use of this length of net. While the regulation states that a fisher must
shoot and haul the net (cannot soak the net), discussions with some stakeholders suggest there are
current practices applied that are outside of the rules.

Local commercial fishers have confirmed there are several N1 fishers currently using this length of net
in the lakes, including a commercial fisher who has relocated to Noosa from another region of
Queensland. Under current fisheries management arrangements anyone with an N1 can access the
lakes for commercial fishing and there are currently 86 N1 symbol holders with access to the fishery.
There are a variety of views put forward by stakeholders, including commercial net fishers, regarding
possible changes to the management arrangements for the lakes including:
     reduce the net length to 600m
     restrict the number of fishers on the lakes and rivers to the few locals with ten or more years
        of recorded catch history in the lakes
     prohibit the use of all nets in the Lakes.

Noosa Council supports a reduction in total net length from 1500m to 600m, consistent with the
proposed net changes for the N2 fishery symbol, however in the long-term would like to explore some
net-free zones in parts of the Noosa River. The environmental improvements to the lakes are likely to
have a community-wide benefit. Given the extremely shallow nature of the lakes the use of nets
provides a high degree of benthic disturbance than in other locations, so reduced netting effort would
have broader environmental impacts.

2.2 Introduce a weekend closure for the Ocean Beach net fishery

A regulated closure in waterways south of Double Island Point from 6pm on Friday to 6pm on Sunday
currently applies to Weyba Creek, the Noosa River and Noosa’s main beach, Lake Como, Kin Kin Creek,
the upper Noosa River and Lake Cootharaba. The closure applies to the river, estuary, lakes, and Noosa
main beach, not Noosa North Shore ,and refers to netting during this period (every weekend) however
commercial fishers are permitted to crab and line fish during this period.

Feedback from some stakeholders and commercial fishers notes this regulation should also be applied
to the Ocean Beach Fishery north of the mouth of the Noosa River in Laguna Bay. The basis for these
views is principally to address conflict issues between recreational and commercial fishers, and
tourists and commercial fishers, particularly when greater numbers of tourists are visiting during
weekends and peak tourist periods.

The potential benefits of introducing a regulated closure on weekends to the ocean beach net fishery,
according to some commercial N1 net fishers and other key stakeholders, would be to further reduce
conflict in the fishery that has historically been a source of concern for commercial fishers and the
community. It was noted that the only reason that some of the conflict had appeared to lessen was
due to some personnel changes among commercial fishers. This suggests that the fragile nature of the