We weren’t looking forward to November 2015 when the net free zones (NFZs) were going to be put in place and had we known how banning commercial fishing in those areas would affect a big proportion of the commercial fishers mentally we would have been dreading it even more. Life for a commercial fisher in the Fitzroy River had been largely worry free except for a few recreational fishing extremists who had been, for many years, relentlessly trying to have everything to themselves.

The night I saw Bill Byrne (former Queensland Agriculture and Fisheries Minister) and Kim Martin (former Chairman Capricorn Sunfish) on the news announcing if Bill Byrne were elected they would create three NFZs in Queensland I had a sickening feeling. Within minutes my phone was ringing with calls from other commercial fishermen who were also worried about their futures. Those calls went on for a few days and in fact even now fellow fishermen still mention the NFZs and the ongoing effect on them. Not just financially but mentally.

Keith Harris (QSIA President) and I went into damage control. We virtually all but ceased work entirely for almost a year to attend meetings with various politicians, fisheries managers and commercial fishers. There was a reasonable amount of travel involved along the way too.

The introduction of the NFZ has brought on anxiety and perhaps even depression. Thoughts of the NFZs and their affects don’t just come to mind occasionally, they are a constant thought running around in your head. Even early hours of the morning while trying to sleep it is on your mind.

The vibe from some of the recreational community either at ramps or on social media is such that it can affect you when you go to work. Putting your boat in you can see looks of disdain from others there or if you are particularly unlucky you will cop verbal abuse. I know of instances where fishermen feel intimidated just because they have an esky on the back of their work vehicle while taking their catch to market.

On another occasion a commercial fisher asked a recreational fisher at the pontoon if he wouldn’t mind moving his boat ten feet so he could reverse. The recreational looked at the fisherman’s boat and said “Oh a pro, I should’ve known!” Then while proceeding to his fishing grounds in the dark he noticed navigation lights directly behind him. He then turned on his spotlights in case the recreational fisher couldn’t see him. The recreational fisher didn’t change course and at this stage was no more than fifty yards behind the commercial fisher. He altered course and so did the recreational fisher and continued shadowing him. The commercial fisher decided to pull up to force the other fellow’s hand one way or the other.   With that the recreational fisher went on his way. This was the same recreational fisher who had been at the pontoon.

When myself and other commercial operators are trawling for mackerel quite often recreational fishers are following us closely behind in a bid to stop us catching a fish.

I’ve heard of a couple of blokes who had been commercial fishermen for years and have left the industry in fairly recent years, wonder why they were being treated with such friendliness at the boat ramp by the recreational sector. They were even being asked did they need any help holding their boats. It dawned on them after a while that it had to be because they no longer had yellow and black numbers on their boats.

All these zones have done is create an even bigger divide between both sides of the fishing population.

I lay the blame for this attitude towards commercial fishermen on the greedy element of the recreational fishing sector who wanted the resource for themselves and the Queensland government. The government is mainly to blame as they just looked upon it as a vote catcher. It wasn’t good business practice as it has created unemployment.

In a discussion with Bill Byrne he said to me that ALL of us could become tourist operators by having fishing charters. I said that we couldn’t as we don’t have the right boat licences. He thought that because we had a boat licence we could take tourists out. Wouldn’t make much sense anyway having so many fishing charter operators around. I must add that there doesn’t seem to be much happening in regard to fishing tourism yet which was supposed to be one of the key reasons behind the NFZs.

Brittany Lauga (Queensland Assistant Minister for Education) and Bill Byrne regularly stated that we would still be allowed to line catch from the Fitzroy River. I looked into whether this would be legal and found that it wasn’t as there is no line caught barra symbol.

It’s blatantly obvious that the Queensland government took no notice of the petition the Queensland commercial fishing industry created which received over 27,000 signatures in their favour. It seems to me that the government considers the mental health of the commercial fishermen and women of the state to be collateral damage with their attitude towards us.

The next time I put pen to paper, I will be discussing the shortcomings of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and management of our fisheries.

Author: David Swindells, Senior Vice President – Queensland Seafood Industry Association

Image Credit: D. Swindells

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