A 51-year-old commercial licence-holder from Darwin has been ordered to pay more than $214,000 for offences related to the collection and recording of marine aquarium fish off the Kimberley coast in 2021.
The man pleaded guilty in Broome Magistrates Court last week (10/9) to eight counts of intentionally or recklessly contravening clauses of the Marine Aquarium Fish Managed Fishery (MAFMF) Management Plan 2018.
The contraventions are specified in the plan to be an offence, contrary to section 74(1) of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994.
WA’s Marine Aquarium Fish Managed Fishery operates in all WA waters from the Northern Territory border to the South Australian border, excluding marine protected areas.
The fishery comprises more than 1,500 species of marine aquarium fish, including hard and soft coral, giant clams, syngnathiformes, algae, invertebrates and live rock. The fishery supplies domestic and international marine aquarium markets, with different species targeted each year based on market demand.
In the matter before Broome Court, it was heard the licence-holder had fished in the waters of the MAFMF on four occasions from 25-30 May and each time had failed to submit the required pre-fishing nominations.
The licence holder landed his catch at Gantheaume Beach on 1 June, where it was transferred to Broome airport without the required landing nomination or completed landing form. It is an offence to leave a landing place without first submitting a landing form within DPIRD’s Fish Eye reporting system, under clause 29 of the management plan. On 3 June he committed three counts of providing false or misleading information to the department.
Supervising Fisheries and Marine Officer Darren Schofield said the work of the fisheries officers on this case was comprehensive to identify and gather evidence of the offences.
“The Marine Aquarium Fishery was declared an approved Wildlife Trade Operation (WTO) five years ago, which permits the international export of Australian native plant or animal specimens for commercial purposes,” Mr Schofield said.
“Non-compliance with the fishery’s management arrangements, especially by individual licence-holders or operators may put the WTO approval in jeopardy, which could result in exports from the fishery being banned.
“The fishery’s coral thresholds and quota entitlements were developed with DPIRD research, management and compliance to ensure ecological sustainability and economic return for the licence holders and operators.
“Fishing beyond coral thresholds and individual quotas could lead to sustainability concerns for coral species due to their slow-growing and highly sensitive nature.”
The above is an official media release by the Government of Western Australia.
Main image credit Chaetodon plebeius, Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, by Rick Stuart-Smith / Reef Life Survey, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
