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Ref:749/03 |
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australia
- May 23, 2003 |
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RAG urges openness |
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By Kellie Dolan
The Recherche
Advisory Group has written to key bodies encouraging
liaison with the group following the rekindling of the
tuna farming issue.
The group wants organisations such as the Esperance
Shire Council, Department of Conservation and Land
Management, Fisheries Department and the Environmental
Protection Authority to liaise with RAG should a
commercial sea-based aquaculture proposal come
forward.
The move came after a visit from newly employed Kailis
consultant Ron Edwards to "test the waters" for tuna
farming in Esperance by speaking to different
organisations to gauge opinions.
Kailis did not have a proposal for the area and he
could not indicate their next move.
"It was really a question of testing the water for
them," Mr Edwards said.
"I have to talk to them (Kailis) further about where
to from here."
Mr Edwards, a former Federal politician based in
Perth, said a range of opinions came through from his
visit.
Some people did not want to see sea-cage tuna farming
at all, others believed there was a role for it
providing it was guided by research, which is
currently underway, and others thought it could go
ahead now.
He said if the community did not want tuna farming it
would have to be tested whether it would still go
ahead.
"Again I think that's subject to research outcomes,"
Mr Edwards said.
He described the community as still "bruised"
following a failed attempt by the former Fisheries WA
department in 1998 to introduce southern bluefin tuna
farming in four sites in the Recherche Archipelago.
Community group RAG started from this and wants its
three main targets well underway before seeing any
other aquaculture proposals for the archipelago
introduced.
This includes research, widespread community education
and a management plan for the archipelago.
RAG chairman Ross Ainsworth said if a tuna proposal or
major aquaculture development for the archipelago came
forward now it would be premature.
"We have to be a bit more mature about it as a
community and not just be lured by the dazzle of big
dollars.
"Let's get it right so everyone's got a chance of
being informed and making a better decision," Mr
Ainsworth said.
"If these concerns are met then there's a higher
likelihood a program of whatever nature would be able
to start and be successful."
A project was unlikely to get community support unless
there was early consultation with RAG. |
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