Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation (Senator Abetz) to a question without notice asked by Senator Siewert today relating to marine life entanglements.

There has been much comment in the media about Australia’s strong stand on whaling over the last couple of months and particularly, of course, over the last week when the IWC meeting was held. I am looking forward to some strong action from this government, and hopefully they will take some legal action on this issue. However, I do think that we need to get our own house in order. Whale and turtle entanglements in lobster pot ropes occurs mostly in the months of May and June off the coast of Western Australia. Every time one is reported within the range of media helicopters in the West, officers from the Department of Conservation and Land Management rush out and engage in efforts to attempt to free them. I understand that that has been successful on four out of five occasions recently.

The tension on pot ropes in deeper water is affected by wind and current. Relaxed ropes under low current conditions will throw loops making them effective snares for whales and the far more threatened leatherback turtles. As long as these pot ropes continue to be used in the fishery the problem will continue. Although fishers shortening ropes when moving pots from deep to shallow water may produce some reduction in entanglements, other management options might include moving the fishing season in some areas a little, and in developing pots that can be recovered using new technology such as telemetry and gas flotation devices.

Many whales clearly become entangled and move offshore never to be seen again, so we probably do not have a very good handle on their mortality and morbidity rates. As I said, five rescues have been reported in the last four weeks, four of which have apparently been successful. There are, undoubtedly, many more entanglements that we do not know about. In the western rock lobster fishery code of practice it states that there were a total of 33 whale entanglements reported from 1990 to 2004. Five in a month seems to be well above the average—keeping in mind that these are the ones we know about—and suggests that entanglements are increasing.

In the department of environment’s Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans, the issue is noted. It says:

Dolphins and small whales are lost by entanglement in set-net fisheries elsewhere in Australia, and buoy-lines on pots set for rock lobster, crab and octopus and long-lines set for tuna and other fish occasionally entangle large species such as southern right and sperm whales. However, few incidents are reported and the extent of mortality is unknown.

This document is dated 1996, and I presume the DEH has a better idea 10 years on about the extent of mortality. It is likely that Australia—it is very unfortunate to say—is probably responsible for killing more humpback whales than the Japanese. However, the federal minister for the environment exempted the western rock lobster fishery from export controls under part 13 of the EPBC Act following a strategic environmental assessment which disclosed, although probably underestimated, the whale catch problem. He has effectively approved the ongoing take of humpback whales in Australian waters. This issue was raised and not dealt with. They were given an exemption.

The WA environment minister, Mark McGowan, entered the fray this week calling a meeting for the industry to look at the issue of whale entanglements. The problem is that, since the introduction of the EPBC Act, he longer has effective powers over this particular issue at sea. It has been exempted under the EPBC Act. It is all very well for the minister to say that the state government will not impose regulations and then merely advise fisheries; it is my understanding that, under the exemption they have been provided, he cannot. The industry has undertaken to solve the problem by paying CALM some more money to produce an educational DVD. At this stage, I am left wondering where the whales are going to gather to watch the DVD to ensure they do not become entangled.

This is a federal government issue. I appreciate that the minister for fisheries, representing the minister for the environment, gave me additional information and undertook to take the issue on notice, but it is not good enough for him to say that this is not a federal government issue. The plain and simple fact is: this fishery has been exempted under the EPBC Act. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.