06/08/2006 Another NCC Con Job on Fish
Recently a report titled ‘Empty Oceans, Empty Nets’ on the state of NSW fisheries produced by Paul Winn, from the Nature Conservation Council, formed the basis of claims by various green groups of declining fish stocks.
At the time the claims by the NCC were widely parroted in the media, especially by the ABC and SMH. Despite widespread criticism of the report including solid catch evidence to the contrary and even the senior scientist of the NSW Fisheries flatly denying the reports conclusions, the media continued to echo the Green's claims about "collapsing fisheries".
Well now the "report" has been slammed by the some of the foremost fisheries experts in the world from the University of British Columbia. Their comments speak for themselves:
“The report lacks both consistency and rigour, analytical methods are not clearly described, fisheries science is not appropriately applied and there is a failure to comprehend the management systems and responsibilities in Australian fisheries. In summary, the published report is so seriously flawed that it should not be used or quoted”.
“The report is poorly formulated, and provides no evidence to support it’s claims, at best is liable to provide an incomplete picture of the status of the fishery and, at worst, serves to perpetrate confusion and misinformation."
The Australian public deserves to be properly informed on the issue of marine conservation ..... Care needs to be taken that the genuine concerns for sustainability are not obscured by value-laden rhetoric masquerading as science”.
”We recommend that the Pew Charitable Trust withdraw this report from any further mailings and publish a statement recognising the ill informed and misleading nature of the arguments presented within the report”.
The full report can be found here
I trust that the media will cover this scientific rebuttal with equal vigour and reflect the true nature of fisheries management when reporting on issues like Marine Parks and fishing bans!
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