FROM: Bob Lamason, Great Barrier Reef Tuna, Queensland

SIR:

I am writing to you about the performance of AFMA and the ridiculous management fees that have now been increased a further 100 percent beyond a justifiable level.

Now new staff moves into AFMA and change things that change the whole industry direction and security.

If this industry goes to quota it will be destroyed as most operators will find it too hard to manage the multi species and at what cost – additional administration charges, transfer fees, compliance, surveillance and new systems that need to be implemented in to the fishery.

The other immediate problem is AFMA’s management fees. My company, Great Barrier Reef Tuna, holds seven licences yet operates only four boats. The three extra licences are to give the four operating boats enough work for 12 months. For this we pay an astonishing $166,535.74.

One of AFMA’ s legislative objectives is cost effective management which, with fees like this, is outside their scope. As the major contributor to the management costs, we have no say on who is employed or how such an amount of money is spent.

I could employ two staff at $60,000 each. That leaves $46,535 for other things. The two staff I employ could do all data entry, etcetera, four hours a week, observe coverage and tag fish as well (research) and still have thumb twiddling time.

With less than 35 boats operating in the ETBF, the total average cost is over $50,000 per boat. This means every two boats pay in excess of $100,000. This is a 75 percent reduction in the fleet size, yet the costs continue to increase, even though the management was to be more cost effective and should have been reduced.

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