A GROUP of seafood trawlers have declared their practice environmentally damaging and say the federal government should buy them out and expand a proposed conservation sanctuary earmarked for the temperate east marine region.
All five trawler operators from Nelson Bay in New South Wales have written to environment groups urging them to support their plan as the region has unique biodiversity and marine habitats not existing in other parts of the country.
''Trawling destroys the habitats which supports fish and marine life,'' the letter says. ''The announcement of the federal government marine reserve planned for the Hunter has us, the trawlermen, concerned that our method, trawling, does not act in the best way to protect fish stock and marine life.''
The letter says the economic benefits from phasing out trawling for recreational fishing and tourism will vastly outweigh the benefits of the industry.
But the group of Nelson Bay trawlers - who target prawns and fish - say they need to be fairly compensated for leaving the industry.
Members of the group would not say how much they wanted yesterday.
Labor has committed to rolling out a network of marine reserves by the end of the year around the Australian coast.
While large reserves have been proposed for the Coral Sea off Queensland and the waters off south-west Western Australia, the government has only put forward a modest proposal for the eastern temperate region off south-east Queensland and the NSW coast.
During the 2010 federal election Opposition Leader Tony Abbott targeted eastern seaboard fishing towns, including in the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro, promising to halt the rollout of reserves and protect fishing industries.
The proposed Hunter Commonwealth Marine Reserve near Nelson Bay would be a so-called multipurpose zone, which would allow recreational and some commercial fishing, but ban other intense forms of fishing such as trawling.
Environmental groups have jumped on the proposal as a potential boost to protection for Australia's eastern waters.
Australian Conservation Foundation's Chris Smyth said ''the rocky reefs, canyons and shelf offshore from Nelson Bay and Port Stephens support humpback whales, green turtles, albatross, southern bluefin tuna, blue grenadier, red rock cod, anglerfish, sea garfish, black-spotted wrasse, squid and much more marine life.
''If this proposal is adopted, it will be a win for the oceans and a win for the local community.''
But Port Stephens mayor Bob Westbury said the trawlers had been driven to their proposal out of desperation, and said that while he supported their efforts for ''proper compensation'' he did not back the expansion of the proposed reserve.
He said the trawlers should be compensated between $300,000 and $400,000 each.
A spokeswoman for the federal Environment Department said the department was in the middle of a public consultation on the proposed eastern region marine reserves and that ''suggestions such as those from Nelson Bay for changes to the marine reserves will be considered at the end of the public consultation process''.
She said the government's Fisheries Adjustment Policy would apply to fishermen displaced by the creation of the marine reserves.
Under this policy, fishermen are eligible on a case-by-case basis for financial help.
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