Fremantle will play host to nationwide crisis talks aimed at tackling a range of issues in the fishing industy, including the Western Rock Lobster debate, next month.
Peak-body Seafood Industry Australia will meet with local and interstate fishing councils in the port city on February 6.
Seafood is coming under heat as industry leaders question how long before the government wipes it out. Credit: WAFIC
SIA chief executive Jane Lovell said the meeting was called to deal with a "nervousness" felt in almost every state's fishing industry.
“In WA, you’ve got the rock lobster 17 per cent ordeal happening,” she said.
“In Victoria, Port Phillip Bay is shutting off commercial fishing with all nets phased out by 2022 to allow more recreational fishers.
“Due to that King George Whiting prices surged from $30 to $90 per kilo. We’ve had to bring in fish from South Australia to make up for depletion in the Melbourne market."
Ms Lovell said it was hard to sustain a livelihood and provide Australians with locally-caught seafood if the government kept stripping fishers of their entitlements.
“Our governments have a responsibility to help us contribute ... this requires leadership, not popularist policies and unfounded lock-outs designed to secure votes or increase government revenue,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly said the minister was aware of the SIA meeting and "looked forward" to hearing about the issues raised.
“[With] respect to the rock lobster plan, the government negotiated this plan for five weeks with the Western Rock Lobster Council last year and an agreement was signed," she said.
The spokeswoman said the plan addresses fishing property rights, concerns around seafood imports and is one-part of the process to enact the most modern fisheries management legalisation.
Ms Lovell said changes like this were provoking financial difficulty.
“Banks are asking some to prove surety of financial stability. How do you prove that when the fundamental driver of surety, a license or ownership of your fish, for example, isn’t in your control?” she said.
Beyond the fear of property rights being restricted, Ms Lovell said recent country of origin laws would also be discussed at the meeting.
According to the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science 67 per cent of seafood consumed locally is imported.
In a bid to address these concerns, mandatory July 2018 laws now require supermarkets and fishmongers to label products with a percentage amount indicating a primary country of origin.
Western Australia Fishing Industry Council chief executive John Harrison said the government needed to extend this to restaurants serving seafood.
“I think consumers should be given information on their menus if that fish is Australian or imported,” he said.
Mr Harrison said the labelling needs to be more precise since some products aren't marketed properly.
“Barramundi is not just native to Australia but found in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. But the way it’s marketed currently, you’d think it was from here,” he said.
“Now, what happens when we call one … Atlantic Salmon, but the species is grown in large spaces in Tasmania? Is that Tasmanian ... or Atlantic then?”
Mr Harrison said one goal of the meeting was to move its “seafood trail” plans into action.
“We’ve designed a trail within the triangle of Mandurah to Bunbury [and] Margaret River to Albany, where we label local products ... and give consumers the choice to say, ‘I’m eating fish from Kalbarri'," he said.
“We’re working with the restaurant and caterers association to have it rolled out.”
After the meeting Ms Lovell said the industry would take its outcomes to WA and federal ministers.