You may be very well correct and the science is not perfect hence why the precautionary effect is used in determining targets.
AFMA is not backward in closing fisheries - the Bass Strait Scallop fishery was closed (may still be closed) for many years even despite evidence of recovery as AFMA believed it had not recovered enough - so if they thought there were any sustainability issues they would have been acted upon.
In this case I think the low TAC as a % of biomass and the Pelagic nature of the fish mitigate against localised loss of fish stocks (noting that large purse sein trawlers up to 5000t have been operating in the south east before and certainly did not create the feared localised effects - or Margiris hysteria). If the small pelagics were like orange roughy which are slow breeding and just live around sea mounts and cannot swim to other sea mounts to repopulate them then i doubt AFMA would approve the use of large vessels that could wipe out sea mount populations (large Russian trawlers did this many years ago to many Southern Ocean seamounts and the orange roughy stocks either no longer exist on some or are taking a long time to recover).
Any way enough of my rambling
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