BERMAGUI drop-liner Matt Creek is keeping a close eye on the proposed changes to the NSW commercial fishery.
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He has echoed the Bermagui Fisherman’s Co-operative management’s dire warning that the loss of just one more commercial licence holder could have severe consequences for the co-op and port of Bermagui.
“We are very concerned,” Mr Creek said.
“We’ve had the restructure in the Commonwealth fishery and then from the Batemans Marine Park.
“Before those restructures, the Bermagui co-op had 29 active licence holders and that is now down to seven.
“We can’t afford to lose just one more or we won’t have the infrastructure to support our industry.”
Active commercial fishers such as Mr Creek were also worried they themselves would be made to buy back the “latent” or unused licences, when they were of the view the State Government should use the $16 million earmarked for the restructure to pay for any buy-backs.
Mr Creek for the past six months has served on the structural adjustment stakeholder reference group representing NSW’s “ocean, trap and line” fishermen.
The good news was that the fishers had a good working relationship with the NSW Department of Primary Industries bureaucrats and Commercial Fisheries director.
And proof of this was that the director this week released a question and answer document to help commercial fishers make sense of the recommendations.
The document is due to be up on the NSW Department of Primary Industries website by today.
Mr Creek said he pushed for the document after fielding dozens of calls from fellow fishermen trying to make sense of the proposed changes.
“It is very complex and hopefully this helps,” he said.
He has held a commercial licence out of Bermagui for 22 years and has operated his vessel Marcello in the “ocean, trap and line” fishery since 1999.
His fishing trips start in pre-dawn where he drops up to 10 lines outside 100 fathoms each holding 50 hooks.
He then returns by mid-morning to lift each drop line and hopefully bring back to port mainly blue-eye, but also ling, gemfish and hapuka groper.
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