A recent article - "Aquaculture Threatens North Queensland Fishery" - by Vern Veitch published in the latest Sunfish NQ magazine unfortunately misrepresents the practices and management of aquaculture in Queensland.

The Queensland Government supports the sustainable development of aquaculture. It is an industry that creates wealth and jobs in rural areas, and supplies healthy seafood for local and export markets. From the Governments' perspective, sustainability is the primary focus in fostering growth of the industry. Similarly, protecting the legitimate interests of other users of aquatic resources, such as recreational and commercial fishers, is vitally important.

The article referred to aquaculture, which is a very diverse activity covering oysters, pearl farming, marine and freshwater fish and crustaceans. However, the issues raised relate primarily to production of marine prawns in coastal ponds.

The following comments refer to that element of Queensland's aquaculture industry.
Vern's article contained many erroneous opinions presented as facts. Rather than responding to each of these, it is more constructive to deal with the two major concerns presented.

1. Pond development alienating or damaging fisheries habitat.
DPI is the agency with the primary responsibility for protecting fisheries habitat. With respect to aquaculture, the following habitat protection policies guide the licensing process:
· Coastal pond development is not to be undertaken below high tide level;
· Only minimal disturbance to marine plants is allowed and only for intakes/outlets;
· Works on acid sulphate soils are avoided wherever possible; if not possible, activity must be in accordance with an approved acid sulphate soil management plan;
· Pond development is not permitted on freshwater wetlands or ephemeral swamps which provide significant fisheries nursery or habitat areas;
· Farm design must not significantly alter local hydrology.

2. Pond discharge water impacting deleteriously on the receiving environment.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposes strict licensing conditions on all aquaculture farms to ensure that release waters do not cause significant change to natural ecosystems.

The conditions of licence are, of necessity, site specific, and are developed within the following environmental considerations:
· The size and assimilation of the receiving water body;
· The size and mixing zone associated with individual farms;
· Proximity to sensitive aquatic communities.
Limits are also placed on total discharge volumes (which are currently 5-10% per day of total farm volume).

Several agencies are conducting research on the impacts of prawn pond discharge water on receiving environments. The longest running study covers 3 years so far at a prawn farm in NQ, from which the discharge water enters a mangrove creek. Sampling has consistently failed to detect any elevated nutrient levels further than 1000 metres from the discharge.

Furthermore, no apparent change can be seen in various aspects of mangrove ecology .
It is clear that the licensing conditions of DPI and EPA (and other agencies with legislative jurisdiction for the coast) impose tight controls on pond development. Within the bounds of present knowledge these controls adequately safeguard fisheries habitat and the ecology of adjacent waterways.

Prawn farming attracts a lot of attention because it operates in an environmentally sensitive area, and because it is a new and obvious activity. In terms of coastal management, we certainly need to manage every area along the coast. Hence the strong management focus government agencies have on the development of the prawn farming industry.

At the same time, our attention and management efforts should maintain a perspective on the big picture. There are currently about 450 ha of prawn farms in Queensland, resulting in the release of about 180 t of Nitrogen to the environment each year. Cane farming in Queensland releases about 20,000 t of Nitrogen per year. And the total run-off of Nitrogen to coastal waters in Queensland is estimated at 77,000t per year.

The Department of Primary Industries believes commercial and recreational fishing can and should co-exist with the aquaculture industry in Queensland, for the benefit of the entire community.