The Port Lincoln tuna industry has unfairly been restricted by the new tuna quota, industry leaders feel. (Photo: Stock File)

Tuna decision pummels Port Lincoln industry

AUSTRALIA
Tuesday, January 05, 2010, 21:40 (GMT + 9)

Tuna industry workers in the seafood capital of Adelaide are facing hard times as they struggle with the after effects of a decision to slash tuna quotas, low fish prices and high costs. 

The state's AUD 400 million (USD 366 million) seafood industry centre - Port Lincoln - was hard hit by a decision taken late last year by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) to reduce Australia's tuna quota by 24.7 per cent in 2010, and again in 2011, with the goal of protecting fish stocks.

Fishing companies are accordingly adjusting their staffs to the new quota, which was announced just five weeks before tuna vessels began the annual pilgrimage to the Great Australian Bight, Adelaide Now reports. Low tuna prices and high costs have also taken their toll.

Some companies have reported firing half of their employees in an attempt to get through the summer tuna harvest without going bankrupt.

Port Lincoln's AUD 200 million (AUD 183 million)-a-year tuna industry employs close to 2,000 local residents.

Dave Blacker, a Port Lincoln-based tuna fisherman and co-owner of Eyre Tuna, says the quota decision has pushed his company to the brink of bankruptcy.

"The truth of it is the companies here haven't made money for three years - they have just been keeping their heads above water," he said. "I have had to drop staff, and it is not like they can go to work for one of the other companies because you are seeing the same situation right across town."

Stehr Group financial controller Anthony Ellin said if tuna prices remained at last year's lows, it could mean the end of Port Lincoln as a fishing centre, saying: "It is not just the quota cut, it is the quota cut on top of last year which was just awful. It was the perfect storm, low price, low dollar, low everything.

"If we get prices like last year, then the banks are going to own one big tuna company in Port Lincoln."

The town's fishermen say the commission's decision unfairly punishes the Australian industry, which has respected regulations for the past 20 years, while Japan has admitted to overcatching the species by 200,000 tonnes over that period.

They further contend the scientific models used to justify the allowance change does not follow what they are witnessing at sea, and the decision is politically motivated.

Industry leader Hagen Stehr agrees, saying his firm caught two-thirds of its annual quota in a day-and-a-half of fishing in December - the quickest catch in 45 years.

He is certain there are more abundant stocks, but to adjust to the new requirements the Stehr Group will employ 25 per cent less staff and send only nine cages compared to 16 last year.

Stehr estimates the 2,500-tonne quota cut over the next two years will cost the industry AUD 62.5 million (USD 57.2 million).

"It will have a waterfall effect with the whole fishing industry, with packaging, producing, aeroplanes, services."

Industry peer Joe Puglisi says the science used by the commission, which is based on a 1940s stock assessment, clashes with what he is seeing on the ground.

"I can remember taking out three aircraft and they would fly all day to find one patch of fish, now one aircraft can fly and find 300 patches; the species is in very healthy condition," he said.

"It is ridiculous crap, there is a lot of politics going on. (Environment Minister Peter) Garrett had to have a win and the tuna industry was the one that copped it."

Related articles:

- Southern bluefin tuna quota set
- Bluefin tuna cut to decimate Australian jobs, increase poaching

By Denise Recalde
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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