Federal court fines company after skipper ‘inadvertently’ trawled in protected area of what is now world heritage site
theguardian.com, Tuesday 27 January 2015 08.47 GMT
The federal court has ordered a commercial fishing company to pay almost $90,000 for trawling in what is now a world heritage-listed marine park at Ningaloo reef, off the Western Australian coast.
The boat, operated by South Australian company Lucky S Fishing Pty Ltd, was spotted fishing in the Ningaloo commonwealth marine reserve by a surveillance aircraft on 2 September 2010.
Its fishing activities were later confirmed by the ship’s logs.
Fishing has been prohibited in the area since 1987, and it received a world heritage listing in June 2011.
Ningaloo is one of only three marine world heritage areas in Australia, alongside the Great Barrier Reef and Shark Bay, and is host to six endangered and vulnerable marine species, including the whale shark.
It stretches for 300km from Carnarvon to Exmouth and is the longest fringing barrier reef in Australia.
In a decision handed down in the federal court in Canberra on Thursday, Justice Lindsay Foster said the skipper of the fishing boat Nansei, which was contracted to Lucky S, “inadvertently” trawled in part of the protected area that overlaps the Western Deepwater trawl fishery.
Maps tabled in court show the reserve overlaps the deepwater fishery, which is popular for snapper and orange roughy, along its western fringe.
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