How 'Co-Management' and False Prophecies Stole Your Local Seafood
Every time you walk into a fishmonger or order a seafood meal at a restaurant, you are participating in a system that governs a shared public asset. The fish swimming in Australia’s coastal waters do not belong to politicians, commercial netting companies, or recreational fishing clubs—they are the common property of all citizens.
Yet, under the banner of modern fisheries management, a quiet crisis has unfolded. The quiet majority of the population—the 91% to 92% of Australians who rely entirely on commercial fishers to access their shared seafood—have been completely scrubbed from public policy.
To understand how our food security was bargained away, we must confront the failure of "co-management" and the dangerous myths dominating Australian marine science.
1. The Illusion of Co-Management
In theory, "co-management" sounds ideal. It is defined as a system where governments share resource management and decision-making power with local stakeholders.
In Victoria, the Fisheries Act 1995 originally established a structured co-management council designed to bring commercial catchers, recreational groups, aquaculture specialists, and conservationists to the table. It was supposed to ensure that public waters were managed equitably for the net community benefit.
But true co-management died a political death. As historical reviews demonstrate, successive governments systematically dismantled these structured statutory councils, replacing them with weak, "fit-for-purpose" consultation loops. Instead of a fair, shared delegation of public assets, decision-making slid entirely into a closed-door "command-and-control" model.
When independent co-management is gutted, political hegemony moves in. In Victoria, this allowed well-resourced, highly organized recreational lobby groups to completely capture the political narrative. They successfully reframed public, urban food bowls—like Port Phillip Bay—not as vital food production systems, but as private playgrounds reserved exclusively for a leisure activity.
The catastrophic result? Victoria stands alone as the only Australian jurisdiction completely lacking guidelines for proper community involvement in fisheries decisions. The interests of a minimum 5.5 million local seafood consumers were/are simply locked out of the room.
2. Misled by Prophets of Doom: The Bob Kearney Critique
If local seafood consumers are excluded from the policy table, how do governments justify closing down sustainable, highly regulated local commercial fisheries?
This is where the groundbreaking research of Emeritus Professor Robert (Bob) Kearney AM becomes an indispensable weapon for consumer advocacy.
In his landmark papers, including his famous synthesis with Professor Ray Hilborn ("Australian seafood consumers misled by prophets of doom and gloom"), Kearney exposes how the public’s perception of fishing has been radically corrupted by false environmental narratives.
Kearney hits back against these myths with undeniable scientific facts:
- Zero Marine Extinctions: While terrestrial agriculture, mining, and urban development have driven numerous land mammals, birds, and frogs to extinction, not a single species of marine fish has ever been fished to extinction anywhere in the world.
- Unmatched Sustainability: Over 85% of assessed Australian fish stocks are completely sustainable and healthy. Due to our strong governance, overfished stocks rapidly recover under traditional fisheries management.
- The Eco-Labeling Trap: Kearney explicitly argues that because Australian wild-caught fish are already managed under strict regulatory standards, the push for expensive, corporate third-party sustainability certifications is entirely unnecessary for our domestic species. It is a system that jacks up retail prices without adding a shred of protection to the fish.
3. The FRDC Futures Analysis: Biased Allocations
In his strategic reviews and futures submissions for the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) and parliamentary inquiries, Professor Kearney directly identifies why the supply of fresh local seafood is shrinking.
He points out that during the late 1990s and 2000s, Australian authorities implemented "inept and biased" applications of catch controls and share allocations. Instead of managing public waters to achieve the optimum sustainable supply of premium seafood for the 90%+ of the population that need and eat it, governments treated public fish stocks like political currency to buy votes from sectional angling groups.
When a government shuts down a sustainable urban fishery under the guise of "environmental protection," they are rarely protecting the environment. Instead, they are actively creating a food security vacuum. They force local supply chains to shift away from pristine, same-day local catches toward carbon-heavy, freight-dependent interstate transport or cheap, unverified offshore imports.
The Structural Pivot: What Consumers Deserve
Professor Kearney’s lifework leads to a single, powerful conclusion: The ultimate measure of a fishery's value is not the dollar sales of a single business, nor is it the rod-hours of a recreational angler—it is the health, lifestyle, and heritage value delivered to the public via access to fresh local seafood.
We must completely reform our approach to public resource allocation. The Seafood Consumers Association demands an immediate end to backroom regulatory capture. We do not need more hollow public relations or biased closures that starve retail counters to feed recreational playgrounds.
We need a legislated return to genuine co-management—a framework that formally recognizes seafood consumers as the primary, rightful owners of our public marine resources.
We know that seafood is the healthiest protein you can eat, we know that seafood is essential for pregnancy and early child welfare and we are in a cost-of-living crisis. It is time to take fisheries management out of the hands of political lobbyists and put it back on the side of the Australian dinner plate.
Join the Fight for Food Visibility: Tired of seeing local fish missing from the fishmonger's counter or so expensive that it breaks your budget to keep your family healthy? Join with the Seafood Consumers Association today, and let's bring scientific truth and balance back to public policy. Make your comments here.
“26 Million Voices. One Seafood Future.”
Comments
Dinesh Kaippilly
31 May 2026, 06:16 PM
Yes, all the points are worth indeed. Judiciously, the fish of public waters to be brought under public ownership. At the same time, there is an argument that fish belong to the fisher folk. How do you see this concept?