Super Trawler - Fact Sheet
The Super Trawler Proposal
Seafish Tasmania (an Australian fishing company) is proposing a joint venture with the Dutch owners of
the
giant freezer trawler FV Margiris, to bring this factory ship into Australian waters to fish for small pelagicfish. The Margiris is 142m long, weighs 9499 tonnes, can process over 250 tonnes of fish a day, and has acargo capacity of 6,200 tonnes
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. Seafish Tasmania wants to bring this super trawler to Devonport, Tasmaniaand use it to catch over 18,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish (blue mackerel, jack mackerel and redbait) off the coast of Australia. It would employ approximately 40 people, at least 15 of whom are likely to be fromoverseas. There is no formal requirement that any of the crew have to be Australian for this ship to operatein Australian waters.
What is the impact on our oceans and marine life?
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Localised depletionThis ship will concentrate the catch of small pelagic species due to its large capacity. There are norestrictions on where this ship can operate in the small pelagic fishery, and fuel costs alone are likely toconcentrate effort around Tasmania until local stocks are depleted and the ship is forced to move to otherareas. It is believed that localised depletions have already occurred around Tasmania. Large surface schoolsof jack mackerel were once common off Tasmania until they were targeted by trawlers more than 20 yearsago. These surface schools soon disappeared and have not been seen since. Data on the size and age of these fish populations indicate fishing had an impact on these fish
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. Over the last decade or so theTasmanian mid
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water trawl fishery for redbait developed, then failed when these fish could no longer befound. Industry claimed that this was due to warmer surface waters rather than overfishing, but noevidence has been produced to support that claim and overfishing and localised depletion may haveoccurred.It is important to note that there is currently no Government (Australian Fisheries Management Authority)or industry strategy to deal with the problem of localised depletions. There is currently no way to estimatehow long it will take for small pelagic fish to repopulate local areas once fish have been removed by thisfishery.
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Key species in the Food chainRedbait, jack mackerel and blue mackerel are important species in the food chain. Sometimes referred toas baitfish, they are food for a wide range of predator species, including bottlenose dolphins, Australian furseals and other marine mammals, sea birds, and larger fish such as southern bluefin tuna and sharks. Theimpacts on the entire marine ecosystem are of serious concern.
There is currently little science available to allow an assessment of the ecosystem impacts of taking thisquantity of pelagic fish from around Tasmania.
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By-catchSuper trawlers threaten fish and other marine life, such as dolphins, seals and seabirds that they are not
“targeting” because they simply have such huge nets. There are some systems in place to minimise this,
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such as Seal Exclusion Devices and independent observers on board. The Seal Exclusion Devices have notbeen shown to be effective on the gear that this ship will use and we do not know if they will actuallyprotect seals and dolphins or just dispose of dead animals before they are brought to the surface.Lanternfish are another small and important species of fish in the food chain. Due to their size they usuallyslip through the trawl nets without being captured; however, they are incredibly sensitive fish and can bekilled from a touch, yet there has been no assessment of these mortalities or ecosystem impacts.Claims that there will be 100% observer coverage on the Margiris are of only minor consolation and to acertain extent misleading. We expect that this ship will be undertaking fishing and/or processing operationsfor extended periods of time, and at times may be working continuously for periods of 24 hours or more.For observer coverage to be effective, and for this coverage to actually be 100%, there would need to be atleast three observers on the ship who could then work 8 hour shifts. We have been informed that thecompany is only planning to have a single observer on this ship, so it seems unlikely that 100% observercoverage would be possible. Observers in any case are only able to report on the outcomes of fishingoperations. While they contribute to compliance, they cannot prevent environmental damage fromoccurring. If some form of video/e-monitoring was to be used to lighten the load on the observer/s, therewould need to be funding to support the analysis of this data. There has been no commitment by thecompany to fund this work, and it appears that AFMA is no position to do this analysis.
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Stock assessments and fisheries management issues
Stock assessments are based on just one or two years of sampling and are too old to ensure an accurateestimate of fish numbers or how the populations of these fish change over time. Blue mackerel were lastsurveyed in 2004, redbait were surveyed in 2005 and 2006 and data for jack mackerel comes from 2003
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.Due to the poor track record of small pelagic fisheries around the world
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and the failure of two smallpelagic fisheries in the Tasmanian regions where large quantities have been taken and local depletionappears to have occurred, it is a matter of urgency for these assessments to be updated, so that we can besure that the quota will not risk the population or broader marine ecosystem. During the development of the Commonwealth Fisheries Harvest Strategy, regular Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) stockassessments were included as a necessary way of assessing population health and supported byconservation representatives. However, this was removed by AFMA at the last minute.
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Industry has made commitments to DEPM stock assessments in the past and has repeatedly walked awayfrom them
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Seafish Tasmania has said they will support DEPM assessments of jack mackerel and redbait inOctober (two months after they propose to start fishing) and to repeat them biannually thereafter.However, they will not agree to this being included in the conditions of their quota.
The Small Pelagic Fishery
Seafish Tasmania has been allocated a quota of around 18,000 tonnes of jack mackerel, blue mackerel andredbait for the coming year, to be taken equally from the west and east zones of southern Australia (westincluding west coast of Tasmania to Western Australia, and east including east coast of Tasmania up to NewSouth Wales). Jack mackerel quota was doubled this year on the basis of old data from 2003 that was noteven collected for this type of assessment, and may not provide an accurate assessment of current fishstocks.
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Woodhams, J,Stobutzki, I, Viera, S, Curtotti, R & Begg, GA (eds) (2011) Fishery Status Reports 2010: status of fishstocks and fisheries managed by the Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and ResourceEconomics and Sciences, Canberra
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Beverton, R. J. 1990. Small Marine Pelagic Fish and the Threat of Fishing: are they Endangered? Jour. Fish. Biol. 37:5-16. Around the world, many small pelagic fish stocks have collapsed due to overfishing, including: Atlantic Herring,Icelandic Spring Herring, SE Atlantic Pilchard, Peruvian Anchovette, Capelin, Pacific Mackerel and Pacific Sardine.
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Concerns remain with the quota allowed for these species because the stock assessments are old
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andregular stock assessments using the Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) are not required to ensure thatthey are not being overfished on a regular basis under the Tier 2 level of exploitation
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If the super trawler catches its Australian quota in six months, it might then go into neighbouringinternational waters where its fishing activities will be subject to inadequate and potentially non-existentmanagement.
Tasmanian Company Seafish Tasmania and Feasibility
Seafish Tasmania has been in operation for some years, and formed a joint venture in Tasmania in 2000 todevelop the pelagic fishery in southern Australia. They trawled for small pelagics and redbait on and off from 2000 until 2009 when schools disappeared.Seafish Tasmania say that they will need to catch 15,000 tonnes of their newly expanded 18,000 tonnequota to ensure the FV Margiris breaks even. After catching the fish, it will be frozen into 20kg blocks of whole fish and sold to Nigeria for $1/kg. The operation is a joint venture with the Dutch ship owner,Parlevliet & Van Der Plas, who will share the profits and the risk. It is to be expected that a large proportionof running costs and profits will go overseas.
The Global Fishing Disaster Sending Australia Super Trawler Margiris
The ship owner, Parlevliet & Van Der Plas, is a member of the European Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association(PFA), which consists of 34 factory trawlers that are among the biggest and most powerful in the world. ThePFA and its member trawlers, such as the FV Margiris, receive European taxpayer funds to subsidise their
fishing of international waters. The EU paid an estimated €142.7 million to secure fishing rights for PFA
vessels in Mauritanian and Moroccan waters between 2006- 2012. EU taxpayers pay more than 90% of theaccess costs to allow these companies to fish
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These European companies have recently been in the mediadue to their involvement in the South Pacific Mackerel Fishery which has failed with the fish stockcollapsing to less than 10% of original estimates
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.The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation concluded in 1998 that global fishing capacity was 2.5times greater than global fish stocks could sustain; since then capacity has increased
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. The UN and WorldBank have assessed that overcapacity and overfishing are costing the global economy US$50billionannually.Principles established in the UN FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries, to which Australia is asignatory, direct states to take steps to reduce overcapacity and avoid management actions that contributeto overcapacity
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. These principles were reaffirmed by Prime Minister Gillard this month in Rio along with acommitment to work towards cuts to fishing subsidies
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.Subsidies that expand fishing capacity, including for vessel construction and modernisation and operatingcosts (particularly fuel), are estimated to total about $16 billion globally each year. This represents close to20 percent of the total value of marine catch. By making it profitable to fish when stocks are in decline,subsidies offset the economic incentive to fishing operators that would otherwise exit the industry.
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‘UN FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries’
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Super Trawler Fact Sheet_July 2012_1
Right now, one of the world’s most notorious fishing vessels is on its way to Australian shores.
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