The reply to the letter from locals concerned about spear fishing at Marino Rocks has been received from Minister Clare Scriven, Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development.

Unfortunately the letter upholds the lifting of the spear fishing ban. It repeats the responses made by PIRSA and the last government’s minister. It ignores that the consultation was deliberately skewed to groups with an interest in spear fishing, either as clubs or as bait and tackle shops. 

The letter states “The groups included several City Councils, recreational fishing groups, conservation groups, surf lifesaving clubs and sea rescue stakeholders.” It does not acknowledge that very few conservation groups were consulted and no coastal communities apart from SLSCs. It does not admit that only spear fishing clubs and bait shops voted to lift the ban. All other groups including the local councils wanted the ban to remain.

There was an almost 50:50 response to the consultation, slightly more against lifting the ban if anything, and that would normally mean the status quo was retained ie. no change made but not in this case! The response, if you consider the number of people those groups actually represented, like the local councils, was very definitely in favour of keeping the ban but it was lifted anyway. A coincidence that the last Minister’s advisory group was headed by the leader of a spear fishing group?!

The letter also says “The South Australian Government, as custodian of the State’s community-owned fisheries resources, has a fundamental role in managing these resources to ensure they are biologically sustainable” (our bolding) but added that “recreational fishing and commercial fishing activities are to be fostered for the benefit of the whole”. To open up to spear fishing 2 small areas (Marino Rocks – Hallett Cove and Outer Harbor) on the metropolitan coast close to where 1m people live does not bode well for the sustainability of these areas, no matter how well PIRSA police it – and they are not even monitoring the marine life that is disappearing.

A meeting with the minister was requested but the letter did not offer one.  

If you feel that this was an undemocratic decision and will badly affect the local marine life (especially as Marino Rocks is a nursery for juvenile fish), then please sign the petition and write a letter to the Minister. Only continuing public pressure will help reinstate the ban. 5049CC will keep trying but maybe the spear fishers will give up when there is so little marine life left at Marino Rocks that it is not worth their while going there any more.

Read the full letter here.

A group of concerned residents recently sought Freedom of Information documents relating to the lifting of the spearfishing ban in February last year at Marino Rocks. This ban had been in place for 30 years. The FOI documents revealed:

 Only “targeted” stakeholders were invited to respond to a review of the spearfishing ban including retail spearfishing outlets and clubs but not other users such as conservation groups, marine scientists or resident groups.

• To quote the aims of the review, “The need for internal and targeted consultation has been identified as an integral component of the review”.  In other words, the review was not independent and intentionally skewed towards groups who supported the proposition.  
• There was no discussion of a scientific assessment of the impact of lifting the ban on marine life .
• Several submissions opposing the lifting of the ban were apparently ignored including City of Holdfast Bay, Marine Life Society SA, Mike Bossley.
• The substantial submissions of the two councils (Cities of Marion and Onkaparinga) were given the same weight as those of partisan lobbyists such as the spearfishing clubs.

A meeting with the minister has been requested but no date has yet been offered.  

In late March, 2022, beachgoers at Marino Rocks saw a new activity – several people wading in the shallow water and spearing fish.  Dusky morwongs are slow and easy to kill, no matter that they are not good to eat, and one was just left to rot on the walkway. Concerned locals checked up and found that Outer Harbor and Marino – Christies Beach had just been opened up to spearfishing by the then-Minister for Primary Industry, David Basham, overturning a 30-year ban along the whole Adelaide coast and this was just before the state elections. There was meant to have been community consultation but it was limited to a few groups and few people including 5049CC members had heard of the change until after it was passed. Confusion was increased by the fact that new signage was only put up a month later and it was then seen that spearfishing within 100m of the Marino Rocks boat ramp is illegal but by then habits were set and spear fishers now frequent the ramp – unless an inspector is actually present!

Rob George, on behalf of the local “reinstate the ban group” penned a letter to PIRSA and Minister Basham, copied to David Speirs, asking them to reconsider and Lynda Yates started a petition to reinstate the ban on www.change.org/Restore Adelaide Spear Fishing Ban which now has over 1,400 supporters. The Advertiser wrote 2 articles that looked at the issue from both sides.

The response to Rob’s letter and one sent by 5049CC was disappointing – that spearfishing is a sustainable way of fishing (although we pointed out that no monitoring is being done to ensure that this is so, even with the huge number of spear fishers active there) and that the community consultation had shown support for spearfishing. However, we know that both Marion and Onkaparinga Councils did not want this change nor did the few environment groups asked and that the then-Minister’s Advisory Panel had a chair who was President of several spearfishing groups, that he had already asked for this change to allow spearfishing on the urban coast, that many spearfishing clubs were consulted in the ‘community’ consultation, that most coastal residents were not and that the consultation results have not been released at any time to show the actual results.

5049CC supported Rob George and the locals. On 31st May, Lynda Yates wrote to the new Ministers of Primary Industry and the Environment, Ministers Scriven and Close on behalf of 5049 CC . Rob George has also written to them too. We received a reply that the issue was the concern of Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing, Minister Hildyard, and that our letter was being redirected to her but we have not had a reply. It seems no one from the new State Government wants to alter this decision by the previous Liberal State Government.