At the business end of a shambolic consultation process that would make you laugh if you didn't want to cry, the most comedic aspect of the announcement, which means Australia will have more than 70 per cent of the world's marine parks, was the closure of an area to fishing at the Rottnest Trench, which they like to call the Perth Canyon.
Burke defended the lockout at the Trench, which followed concerted pressure from environmental groups often funded by overseas interests such as the rich Pew Charitable Trusts (a US-based environmental foundation set up by an oil company), by saying it was the equivalent of the Grand Canyon and demanded similar protection.
Never mind that one is 20-odd miles offshore, covered by hundreds of metres of water and virtually inaccessible to almost everyone, unlike the tourist mecca that is the Grand Canyon, which gets millions of visitors each year.
This decision, Burke said, was based on the need to protect the feeding grounds of the pygmy blue whales that visit the area occasionally.
I am not aware of any evidence of interaction, ever, between recreational anglers and pygmy blue whales at the Rottnest Trench.
In fact, most recreational fishing activity at the Trench involves trolling in the top few metres of water often more than 500m deep for pelagic fish passing through the area, such as marlin.
This occurs for just a few months a year, is almost exclusively a catch and release fishery that involves no resource extraction, and offers a huge economic return per fish caught – sounds like the modern perfect fishery to me and yet some people want it banned. One can only wonder what impact the naval exercises that will no doubt continue at the Trench have on these whales.
It's comedy gold that should have anyone who fishes seriously considering how they vote at the next Federal Election, with the Federal Liberal Party immediately vowing to apply a science-based review of the marine parks if it gets into power.
Perth Game Fishing Club secretary Peter Coote slammed the decision on the Trench.
"PGFC is extremely disappointed that contrary to earlier indications there has been a Marine National Park of some 70 square kilometres proclaimed in the middle of the Rottnest Trench (Perth Canyon). Fish species caught in this area are pelagic (highly mobile) and placing boundaries on the area in which they can be sought will have absolutely no impact on any species of fish or mammal that passes through the area which incidentally remains a high use commercial shipping lane," he said.
