One of the major problems that takes place on the fishing market is that most people try to avoid the rules in order to gain a quick buck without having to pay taxes or to limit their fishing. Due to this situation, one may ask himself or herself how are the authorities trying to combat this problem. We are here to tell you all about it.
The Fisheries Act
The State Government has proposed reforms in order to modernize the fisheries laws from Queensland. The Minister for Agricultural Industry Development, named Mark Furner, has asked the public to give out feedback for the Government’s most recent discussion paper. The main goal of this paper is to update the laws in order to fit the regulations for the commercial and fishing law so that they fit with modern standards.
What has the Minister proposed?
Well, he has made a number of changes. First of all, the Minister’s main goal is clarify the roles that the people in charge of managing the Queensland fisheries. He also wants to reduce the great number of provisions that Queensland has since they are more than redundant, never being fully used. Another main thing that he wants to stress is that penalties should be stricter for people that break fisheries laws and that inspectors should have more power.
The strictness that the Minister wants to enforce is mainly to target those that fish illegally or that break the laws that Queensland has on this subject. The fishing resources that Queensland has are very valuable so it is only natural that they are meant to be protected. Moreover, illegal fishing hurts the population sizes of various types of fish which, in the long run, could prove to be a factor that hurt the environment and, even more so, the population as well.