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The alliance opposed to the Geelong Star super trawler has released photos it says came from a crew member who witnessed the capture of a whale shark earlier this year on the Far South Coast.
The Stop the Trawler Alliance said an informant who claimed to be a crew member of factory vessel had provided the pictures.
They appear to show a whale shark aboard the Star and also hanging by its tail.
AFMA said the fishing vessel Geelong Star on February 11 had an interaction with a whale shark while fishing in the Small Pelagic Fishery (SPF).
On February 17, AFMA said the whale shark had run “into the outside of the net and two fins had to be freed”.
“It wasn’t inside the net but got snagged on the outside.
“The whale shark swam away without difficulty. There were no injuries, including any blood loss, observed.
“An AFMA observer was present during the release of the whale shark from the net and saw it swimming away.”
Later that month, AFMA said it had reviewed video footage.
“The video footage shows that the whale shark spent no more than four minutes out of the water. That is, the time from the animal being brought onto the boat, freed and being released back into the water was estimated to be 3min 35sec.”
This was at odds with a statement after the incident by industry body, The Small Pelagic Fishery Industry Association, which posted on social media: “… a whale shark had come alongside the net, the vessel manoeuvered away and the whale shark had swum off unharmed.”
On Thursday, June 29, the alliance said the whale shark has been at the centre of a Freedom of Information battle with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and government since March.
“It’s time for the government to come clean and release the footage of the whale shark incident” spokeswoman Rebecca Hubbard said.
“The public wants the truth; releasing the actual evidence is the only way the government can put this controversy to bed and restore public confidence in management of our fisheries.”
“This type of leak - showing a possibly dead whale shark strung up by its tail – reignite concerns that the Australian Fisheries Management Authority haven’t revealed the whole truth about the monster trawlers treatment of protected species. There is no way the government can in all honesty now repeat that it isn’t in the public interest to release video footage of what actually happened,” Ms Hubbard said.
“Recreational fishers are sick to death of government refusing to release the evidence of the super trawler’s fishing practices,” said Nobby Clark, Game Fish Tasmania Sports Fishing Club.
“If they have nothing to hide, if they haven’t breached their shark handling protocol, then why the hell are they so scared to release the footage and why are we reliant on leaked, blurry images to get to the truth” Clark said.
Fairfax Media has sent the photographs to AFMA and the office of Eden-Monaro MP Dr Peter Hendy for comment.