Ten fish wholesalers across Queensland, Australia, have taken fresh, local fish off the menu for this week, in protest of imminent net fishing bans.
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Audio: Fish wholesaler Vicki Bush joins protest against net free zones. (ABC Rural)
The seafood stores say the bans, which will come into place on November 1, will limit the amount of fresh fish they will be able to source, meaning most produce after that date will be frozen and sourced from elsewhere.
The commercial net fishing bans will come into effect in Cairns, Mackay, and on the Capricorn coast.
Rockhampton wholesaler Glenmore Seafood is participating in the protest and owner Vicki Bush said she hoped it would show customers how important the local commercial fishing industry is.
“The majority of the fish that we get in this area comes from the area they are looking at closing,” she said.
“If these closures go ahead the king salmon, barramundi, triple tail, flat salmon, grunter [will become hard to source].
“Some of those fish we can’t get from other areas, some of them we can, but it is harder and it will push the price up because there’s going to be more people competing for the same product.”
Mrs Bush said she hoped consumers would get on board with the protest before it was too late.
“We’d like a compromise… we just want the general public to be aware of how this is going to affect them because I think a lot of them don’t realise.
“We are doing this (protest) to show people what it will be like so that they can turn around and use their voice prior to anything becoming finalised.
“Because once it is introduced there is nothing they can do and there’s going to be a lot of businesses in town that are going to suffer.”
Minister for the Agriculture and Fisheries Bill Byrne has responded in a statement saying that both the Queensland and Australian Governments have signed off on the Reef 2050 plan which actions these three net free zones.
According to the minister, despite this protest, the zones will be in place as planned by the 1st of November 2015.
2015 ABC