Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

(South Australia) (): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig. My question is about dolphin and sea lion deaths in Commonwealth waters off South Australia. I refer the minister to a 2010 report by the South Australian Research and Development Institute, SARDI, Mitigating seal interactions in the southern rock lobster fishery and the gillnet sector of the southern and eastern scalefish and shark fishery in South Australia.an estimated 256 sea lions are killed each year within these fisheries. The Humane Society International, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, the Conservation Council of South Australia, the Wilderness Society and the Australian Marine Conservation Society have all called for an immediate ban on the use of gillnets in these fisheries to prevent these deaths and to support the ecology and tourism industries in areas such as the sea lion colonies of Kangaroo Island. Will the government consider such a ban?