A perfect storm is an apt description for what has hit the WA fishing industry, with a litany of issues conspiring to undermine its place as a key economic driver for the state.
RISING costs, a strong Australian dollar, falling catches, increased competition, environmental challenges and the global financial crisis are just some of the issues to have battered the state’s fishing sector, notably its two major earners – rock lobster and pearls.
Unlike the usual perfect storm, however, this confluence of events has taken place over a decade or so, with one issue piling up on top of another.
The outcome can be seen in the statistics provided by WA Department of Fisheries annual reports, which show the state’s total production in the past decade has been in almost-constant decline. From a peak of $767 million in the financial year ending June 30 2000, the value of the WA catch has dived to $448 million at June 30, 2008 – the most recent figures that actually pre-date the GFC.
In real terms the value of the industry has more than halved in that period. Even compared to the last year of the 1990s, when WA’s fishing and pearling sector was worth $593 million in total, the decline is in order of 77 per cent in real terms to end of the 2007-08 financial year.
Furthermore, the value of aquaculture remains insignificant, despite more than a decade of output and growing competition offshore from this form of production in numerous species.
“It is a perfect storm,” Shark Bay Prawn Trawler Operators’ Association executive officer Graeme Stewart said, adding that the issues ranged from the SARS epidemic that hit Asian markets in 2002 to the rise in fuel costs that has corresponded with the boom in commodity prices.
“It has been one thing after another that affects the markets we are involved with.”
The Shark Bay fishery, which is mainly focused on prawns but also catches big volumes of scallops, has had to adapt to this change.
Greater efficiency
Mr Stewart said the fishery had 27 boats operated by about 12 owners a decade ago. That has shrunk to just 18 vessels run by six owners.
But that is not all bad news, he said. The reduction in boats and a focus on higher quality fish species has resulted in more efficient operations and better profits for the remaining operators.
“We made less profit on 2,000 tonnes than we do at 1,500 to 1,600 tonnes,” Mr Stewart told WA Business News.
“We take the top quality species mix that way and leave more in the water.”
A 30 per cent reduction in nights fished also saves operators significant sums.
But there has been a more significant aspect to the changes. The state’s prawn producers have shifted their focus from offshore markets to domestic supplies, bringing a whole new set of issues.
“We have to get used to dealing with Coles and Woolies, that is different than dealing with the Japanese,” Mr Stewart said.
One of the state’s biggest seafood players, MG Kailis Group, has participated directly in this change, withdrawing from the production end of both lobster and pearling in WA where it was once a major export player and retooling itself for a domestic focus in the state.
The company maintains a fishing fleet for prawns and fish in the waters off the north-west coast, through which it supplies its own local seafood distribution and fledgling retail operations in Perth.
MG Kailis managing director Alex Kailis said this strategy allowed the business to have some control over how its product was taken to market.
“We are part of the seafood industry of which fishing is a part,” he said.
“We don’t want to be just a producer and price taker.”
Domestic focus
Mr Kailis said fishing had undergone a big change, from being a relatively big export earner to having an increasingly critical role supplying local markets.
But he is concerned that this change in the economic impact of the industry has been overlooked as industries such as resources have come to dominate the economy.
Mr Kailis believes the politicians and general public don’t understand that locally caught product is vital because it is the only supply of fresh seafood available to the state’s small specialist retailers and hospitality sector.
“There is real economic activity that hangs off that but fishing has lost its impact from a political point of view,” Mr Kailis said.
“It provides diversity in coastal communities and there is economic impact of having fresh seafood in WA which is very important; imagine if restaurants couldn’t get fresh fish.
“As the industry changes economically, our businesses are changing too but politically our position has to change and in the minds of consumers our position has to change.”
One of the threats to the industry is proposed new marine parks, which could restrict or forbid commercial fishing in vast areas of WA’s coastline.
This is a classic problem for fishing where voters in concentrated urban areas accept green-tinged policies without understanding the ramifications for themselves or the communities that rely on fishing.
The issue has become hot enough on the eastern seaboard for the Liberal Party to put significant resources into several marginal seats on the coast.
Western Rock Lobster Council chairman John Cole said past experience with marine park developments had been relatively positive, though there were always concerns with new proposals.
“They always want to lock them (marine resources) up for no good reason,” Mr Cole said.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we can retain access to our fisheries.”
Mr Cole is also optimistic that the lobster catch will revive after being cut by at least half in the past two seasons to about 5,500 tonnes on the basis of scientific concern about a dearth of juvenile lobsters.
The industry is banking on an expected la nina weather pattern to bring the winter storms required to recirculate the juveniles to coastal regions and rebuild the population over the next few years.
