Many recreational fishers and others who don’t fish, but love the unspoilt Nature Coast, were outraged after a previous visit, when the industrial trawler was found to have killed dolphins in its nets.

It was hit with a six-month ban and many hoped they had seen the back of it.

However, quite within its legal rights, the vessel has returned.

The timing, at the height of the tourist season, throws into the sharp relief the dilemma of living on the Nature Coast.

Many who live and visit here do so because they see this stretch of coast as a treasure in a world where marine life is losing the battle to global population growth and demand for resources.

The sheer numbers of people visiting the entire shire, from Batemans Bay to Narooma, over the holiday season is proof the Nature Coast is not immune from the pressures.

Therein lies the rub: the Eurobodalla depends on the tourist dollar, but we must preserve the things that bring visitors: our largely unspoilt environment.

Recreational fishers argue they have submitted to demands for marine parks, so are galled to see trawling on their doorstep at such an industrial scale.

It is a position easy to feel sympathy for.

Recreational fishers do not wish to be responsible for the marine equivalent of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They know preserving fish stocks preserves future fishing trips. 

They are not so sure about the wisdom of allowing a factory trawler to scrape along the Continental Shelf, taking fish in such large numbers.

Sharing their uncertainty is Dr Simon Allen, pictured left, who fears marine mammal populations may not cope with this degree of harvesting.

Supporters of the trawler say it is harvesting for developing communities in Africa.

Proponents of local food economies would see this as no excuse. They would see future strength in local communities around the world becoming self reliant and harvesting sustainably within their own ecosystems, rather than depending on an eco system elsewhere.

Many who value the marine life of the Nature Coast are unlikely to be swayed by the “food for the world” argument either.