Federal minister revokes Queensland fishery licence over inaction on threatened species

Environment minister Sussan Ley has moved to revoke the export of shark fins and other seafood products from a Queensland government fishery over inaction on reforms to protect threatened species. Ley has written to Queensland’s fisheries minister, Mark Furner, saying the state had not met the conditions of its export licence for the East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery, which would be revoked from 30 September. Conservationists and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority have voiced concerns that threatened species including turtles, dolphins and dugongs are at risk of being killed in nets in the fishery. The fishery targets species including barramundi, flathead and whiting for sale domestically and operates both in and out of the Great Barrier Reef. But under an export licence granted by the federal environment minister, fishers also export products – mainly shark fins, mullet roe and the valuable swim bladders of black jewfish used in traditional Chinese medicine. One conservationist told Guardian Australia that revocation of an export licence – known as a Wildlife Trade Operation – was extremely rare. In the letter, Ley wrote: “It is deeply disappointing that the reforms underpinning these conditions have stalled and momentum has been lost in […]

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