new licenses to fishers to catch up to 700 tonnes of sharks each year and also to catch sharks with nets over a kilometre long in our off-shore waters

An alarming new proposal by the Queensland Government will establish a dedicated shark fishery in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area which will service the international trade in shark fin. The Australian Marine Conservation Society (and anyone who cares for our oceans) is astonished by this proposal, in which Queensland's fisheries department (DPI&F) plans to legitimise one of the most unsustainable forms of fishing on the planet - shark fin fishing. With over 90% of the world's sharks and other big fish gone from our oceans, this project is unsustainable, unethical and will be flatly rejected by the Australian public. Not only is the Queensland Government proposing to hand out specific fishing licenses for shark fin fishing, which will entrench the practice for years, they are planning to legitimise shark fishing in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and in the Marine Parks of Moreton Bay and the Great Sandy Straits with this new license proposal.
The proposal will create new licenses to fishers to catch up to 700 tonnes of sharks each year and also to catch sharks with nets over a kilometre long in our off-shore waters.

Read more about this................http://www.amcs.org.au/default2.asp?active_page_id=490