The NSW Opposition welcomes additional protections the Government has announced for our State fish, the blue groper.
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Since 11 January the Opposition has been calling on the Minns Labor Government to invest in greater education campaigns, to improve signage where spearfishing is occurring and to review penalties to ensure they\u2019re a sufficient deterrent.
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\u201cWe welcome the increased penalties for fishing blue gropers announced by the Government this morning,\u201d Mr Speakman said. \u201cHowever, the announced measures are incomplete.
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\u201cBanning line fishing will do nothing to stop the main problem – spearfishers illegally targeting gropers and being slapped with pathetic fines.
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\u201cWhile the Government has announced increased maximum penalties, it has failed:
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to explain why it has not reviewed the inadequate $800 fine imposed on the illegal spearfisher who killed Gus the Groper in Cronulla;
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to explain what education activities it will carry out; or
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to commit to improved signage especially around known spearfishing spots.\u201d
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\u201cMy local community in Cronulla was outraged by the illegal spearfishing of the iconic Gus the Groper. They want our waterways to be a safe home for these \u2018Labradors of the sea\u2019.\u201d
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Shadow Minister for Environment Kellie Sloane said there have been numerous blue gropers killed across the NSW coastline in the past few months.
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\u201cWhile most fishers do the right thing, there needs to be better measures in place to protect these wonderful animals,\u201d said Ms Sloane.
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\u201cThe Minns Labor Government needs to explain what its proposed education campaign will involve and ensure improved signage so people are properly informed about these iconic fish and the new protections they enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NSW Opposition welcomes additional protections the Government has announced for our State fish, the blue groper.\u00a0Since 11 January the Opposition has been calling on the Minns Labor Government to invest in greater education campaigns, to improve signage where spearfishing is occurring and to review penalties to ensure they\u2019re a sufficient deterrent.\u00a0\u201cWe welcome the increased … Continue reading “NSW Blue Gropers deserve better”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25369,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368\/revisions\/25369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}