Heartening news from the deep

The big change, he says, is in moving from talk of environmentally sustainable development (ESD) to actually measuring it, and preparing environmental scorecards that can withstand independent scientific scrutiny.

Several State and Commonwealth fisheries can now lay claim to be either sustainable or well on the way. Examples are the Spencer Gulf (SA) and Exmouth Gulf (WA) prawn fisheries, the western rock lobster industry and even small fisheries such as those on Moreton Bay, the Clarence River and Hawkesbury. More than 30 of WA’s commercial fisheries now operate according to science-based ESD rules and the Australian system is being taken up or emulated around the world.

The problem of bycatch is being overcome by smart nets and better marketing, aquaculture is rapidly adopting ESD and the introduction of Marine Protected areas is already helping to replenish depleted stocks. Reflecting this, fishing companies are increasingly being recommended by brokers as an ethical investment.

Unfortunately most Australians don’t know this. Fishers have yet to make the metamorphosis in the public mind which farmers achieved through the advent of Landcare, as responsible stewards of their resource.

Through the 20th century fisheries researchers were the Cassandras of global science. What they had to say was doom-laden, unpopular, disbelieved and widely ignored, particularly by governments. Sadly, it has often proved to be no more than the truth.

The challenge now for Australian fisheries science is to convince a public, media and policymakers conditioned to thinking in terms of aquatic disaster that our brand of sustainable marine management actually works and that industry is well advanced in adopting it. And that means our children will continue to enjoy seafood and healthy hearts when most of the world’s commercial fish stocks are long gone.