Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / AFANT's David Ciaravolo provides an update on a number of fishing initiatives and water issues

Transcript

AFANT's David Ciaravolo provides an update on a number of fishing initiatives and water issues · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it's been a while since we've caught up with
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: the Amateur Fishermen's Association of the Northern Territory and joining
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: me to give us a bit of an update on
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: some of the current issues and projects. Is David cheer Revolo.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, David, Good morning Katie. Good to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: have you on the show. It's been a while mate.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to be here, good to have a chat,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: and so good morning to you and to your listeners
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: and it's will be good to catch up on some
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of the things that are happening at the moment.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Well, and I understand that there is a survey that
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: are you wanting fishows to take part in? What's this
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: one all about?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, So I guess fishes and probably the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: broader community would have heard by now about plans for
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct. And that's not only
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: about a new industrial area at Middle Arm but also
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: a new port facility in the East Arm. And so
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: it's really important that people do have their say at
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the moment. There's a survey which is a social survey
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: seeking to understand how people use the area, people use
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the harbor and of course recreational fishes. That's a really
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: popular area for recreational fishing. It's an area that's really
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: popular for crabbing, and you know, if you think about
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: port development, that usually involves dredging and changes to habitat.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So it's really important that fishes do get on there
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and have their say and register their values and then
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: how they're using the area at the moment.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: And so where's the best place for people to go
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to sort of have their say on that one, because
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  Speaker 1: like you said, I know that it is you know,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it's something that a lot of people who use that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: area are going to be sort of concerned about or
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: want to make sure that they have their voices heard on.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely and on that AFAN both through the Darwin
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  Speaker 2: Harbor Advisory Committee, which we're a member of and also
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: through a committee that's been appointed to advise on potential
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: social impacts, is advocating for fishes in this area. But
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: there is no substitute for fishes to have their say themselves,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: but also for the broader community to have their say.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: So the Have Your Say NT website is the place
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  Speaker 2: to go to, which is have your Say dot NT
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  Speaker 2: dot gov dot AU and you can follow the links
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: from there the survey. I've done it recently. It doesn't
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: take a really long time, but it does give you
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity not only to do the survey by clicking
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: a few buttons, but also to write your own comments
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and have you say in your own words.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand that there's also a bit of citizen
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: science happening at the moment. Fish tagging program underway.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: How's it all going, Yeah, well, that's right. We're always
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: always working on our fish tagging program, which we've been
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: running for some over twenty years now with the Department
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: of Fisheries, and in some more exciting developments recently, we've
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: actually been partnering with some of our sponsor stores. It's
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of the independent tackle shops and some of
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the marine shops around town where when someone does catch
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: a fan tag fish, we will send them a voucher
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  Speaker 2: and they can go and pick up a Ready's beef
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to too in store. So that's been one of the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: exciting developments. And the other thing, of course, is with
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the build up occurring and the Barra Mundy fishing hiding up,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: both in dah And Harbor and especially shol Bay, we've
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: had quite a number of recaptures, so it's really good
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: to see that the fishing is htting up too.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is good to hear, and I mean there's
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: been quite a bit happening around the place obviously. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: know that there's been a bit happening when it comes
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to the water and the rope of Gulf an important
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: area obviously with the a aquifer, given the fact that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it's an important spot for Barra Mundy.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Oh look, Katie, the Roper River is just an absolute gem.
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  Speaker 2: It's the longest river in the Northern Territory, it's one
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  Speaker 2: of the only and best free flowing rivers in Northern
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  Speaker 2: Australia and it really is such a special special place.
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  Speaker 2: It's obviously provide amazing barrow Monday fishing and the water
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  Speaker 2: flows in that river are absolutely critical, which is why
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  Speaker 2: it's something that we've been working on for a number
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: of years. A couple of recent developments I think that
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: will be important or interesting for your listeners is to
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: understand that one of the applications recently for from a
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: mining company, Australian Aluminite Resources, to double its water take
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: has actually been rejected. So they've had their initial water
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: allocation upheld for another four years, but the water Controller
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: considered that decision and announced earlier in the months that
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: any plan to double their water allocation has been has
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: been not considered, and they've been asked to go and
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  Speaker 2: I guess get approvals from the EPA and do a
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: full environmental approval before before they apply for another water license.
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  Speaker 2: So that's really positive, and that's something that once again
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Oppan provided comments on that application for to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that the recreational fishing voice has been heard. But it
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: is good news for people concerned about water in the Roper.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, What else has been happening? I mean, it
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: has been such a long time since you and I
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: last caught, but I'm sure that there is plenty going
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: on from our fans distinctive.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look sure, and more I guess on the waterfront.
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  Speaker 2: There's been some reporting recently about the potential for the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Matteranca springs or aquifer to flow backwards, and that's come
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: as a result of an FOI that was done by
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  Speaker 2: the Environment Center. And you know, I want to start
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  Speaker 2: by saying, I think it's really important that there's higher
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  Speaker 2: levels of community interest in the way that water is
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  Speaker 2: managed and that's why, you know, we've been so passionate
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: about being involved in providing advice to the government on
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: developing a water allocation plan, and we've got a commitment
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: from the government at the last election to develop water
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  Speaker 2: allocation plans for all of these major equifers. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: whilst it is it is tempting, I think sometimes to
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: get caught up in the hype of these things, I
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: think it is really important to understand that it is complex.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: You've got major stakeholders like our fans and the Northern
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Land Council, and you've got scientists from CDU as well
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: as the government employees themselves working to develop a water
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  Speaker 2: allocation plan and having a scenario where the water is
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: drawn down over one hundred years without a plan is
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: not the future we're heading towards. That's not what everybody's
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: working towards. We're working towards having a formal allocation plan
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and we want to keep the rope of river flowing
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: and I'm really confident that that's the future that we're
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: going to have in the very near future.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: So, David, do you feel as though people got a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: bit sort of excited here or what do you reckon happened.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's always tempting to try to grab a
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: headline with a figure. One of the things that is
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: a bit concerning is somebody who does spend a lot
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: of time working in it. It's a little bit galling
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to think that, you know, we wouldn't have noticed this,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: or that we wouldn't be doing things to try to
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: prevent it to happen, and of course we are. But
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: on the other side of it, it is really important
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: for the community to maintain their interest and concern, and
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: we're also encouraging the government to do the best job
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: that they can in communicating the processes that occur and
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the levels of attraction that are occurring, because accessing the
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: facts can be really, really difficult, and we shouldn't be
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: accessing facts in a you know, a haphazard or sort
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: of gotcha moment. But that information should be available to
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the community as a matter of course, Mae. We should
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: be able to look it up quite easily. So very
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: passionate about improving the accessibility to that information when a
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: new water allocation plan is introduced in the future.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a very fair point to make. David,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: how are things going out on the water. Mate, are
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the fish biting?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Oh? Well, look the fish are biding. Had an opportunity
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: to head out actually with a Minister for Environment last
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: week we went out in Doe and Harbor to talk
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: about the water quality in Dawn Harbor after a good
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: report card on the water quality, and it just so
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: happened that the boat was very quickly surrounded by a
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: pelagic species was broad bar mackerel, travali and queenfish really
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: sort of schooling up from Stokeshill all the way down
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  Speaker 2: to Larakir and they'n out through the harbor towards six
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: mile and you'd expect that on the neap tide that
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the neaps are also really good for fishing in Shoal
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Bay for Barramunday. Lots of reports of some decent catches,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: but probably even more reports of frustrating scenes of people
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: seeing the fish on their sound but having challenged to
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: get them to tempt them to buy it. But it
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: is really positive that the fishing is heating up. And
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I guess with all that water that was dumped around
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Darwin yesterday that's probably going to stir things up a
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: little bit more. But it really is that time of
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: year now where people do start to fish more for
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Barrow Monday with the increasing temperature. But also there's still
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: great pelagic fishing on offer, and apart from those storms,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: we tend to get a little bit more stable weather
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: coming up too, So it is a really good time
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: for fishing in the territory if you can.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Handle the heat. Well, I think you've got to be
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: able to handle the heat, don't you live in the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: territory in.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: General, David, Well, yeah, look, fishes are used to the heat,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and obviously you just want to make sure that you're
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: drinking plenty of water, that you've got enough water for
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: everybody on board, and you know, the discomfort disappears at
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the moment you hook up and having a great day
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: with your family and friends on the water. So yeah,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: that's the least of our worries.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Your spot on mate, spot On, David Giravolo from a
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: fat It's always good to catch up with you. Let's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: not leave it so long between the next interview, mate.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you soon, thanks, Katie, and I do
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: hope people jump on they have your say and do
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the survey. It's open till the end of October.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Good stuff, good on you, David. Thanks for your time
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you