Fraser Island News

Sunfish mulls legal action against marine park zoning plan

Last Update: Tuesday, April 18, 2006. 10:23am (AEST)

Recreational fishing lobby group Sunfish has announced it will consider a legal challenge against the Queensland Government's new Great Sandy marine park zoning plan.

The plan extends from Baffle Creek north of Bundaberg to Double Island Point on the Cooloola Coast, including Fraser Island.

It bans intensive fish farming and introduces a conservation area between the southern half of the island and the mainland.

But Sunfish Fraser Coast chairman Randal McLellan says netting will still be allowed in the conservation zone - a condition that is inconsistent with other yellow zones.

"Now yellow zones are the second highest level of protection, but the yellow zone is not a true yellow zone anyway, it's a yellow zone that has a special designation over it allowing commercial netting to continue," he said.
"It just makes a joke of the zoning. Our concern is that the Great Sandy Strait does not get the protection it deserves."