THE SUPER TRAWLER - Monday 22 October 2012

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: It was a multimillion dollar fishing venture that hit the perfect political storm.

MELISSA PARKE, LABOR MEMBER FOR FREMANTLE: It's a short-term, destructive, unsustainable operation.

KERRY O'BRIEN: It caught the Government unprepared and business floundering.

(Boats in a recreational fishers' protest in Tasmania)

GERRY GEEN, DIRECTOR, SEAFISH AUSTRALIA: I was absolutely astonished that that could happen in Australia. It felt unreal to me, it felt that it was like third world decision making.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Democracy in action, or political incompetence?

MARIAN WILKINSON, REPORTER: In the safe harbour of Port Lincoln in South Australia, the second biggest fishing trawler in the world sits uselessly tethered to the wharf.

It's shackled by the Australian Government, willing to sink its own fisheries regulator to stop the super trawler plying our waters.

No-one knows when she will cast off or where she will go.

(Different angles of the super trawler)

Its nets are idle, its crew disbursed and its owners bleeding money. But the most extraordinary part of this story is why on earth Australian officials gave the super trawler every encouragement to leave Holland and sail right into a political firestorm.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners was invited on board the super trawler by Gerry Geen, the aggrieved Tasmanian businessman who brought her to Australia with his New Zealand and Dutch partners.

GERRY GEEN, DIRECTOR, SEAFISH AUSTRALIA: We turned to the Dutch because they are experts in this kind of fishing and they had a number of vessels, all of which would have been suitable for fishing in Australia.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Before she was flagged the Abel Tasman, the super trawler was known by her Dutch name the FV Margiris.

(Aerial shot of the trawler in open sea with nets visible behind)

At 142 metres, she runs the length of two Qantas A380 Airbuses. Her huge nets are more than twice that length.

But it's the super trawler's enormous industrial scale fish factory below deck that galvanises her critics.

Here the crew can process and store 4,500 tonnes of fish, allowing the boat to stay out fishing weeks longer than any Australian trawler.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Why did you want to get this boat here?

GERRY GEEN: This boat would allow us to catch this fish at least cost so that we could afford to sell them into international markets. This boat allows us to catch a high quality fish for human consumption.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Controversy follows super trawlers around the globe.

But that's exactly why Gerry Geen asked his Dutch partners to come to Canberra to meet with regulators at the headquarters of AFMA, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.

The Dutch arrived in February this year, long before the Margiris.

DIRK VAN DER PLAS, CO-OWNER, MARGIRIS: Me, together with my colleague, we decided 'Well let's hop on a flight, let's take a flight, let's fly to Australia and see what's there.'

MARIAN WILKINSON: Dirk van der Plas is one of the owners of the Margiris.

DIRK VAN DER PLAS: We had a meeting with the senior management of AFMA, which was a key actually for us in this in this visit to Australia.

We were seeking for con- for re-confirmation from their side that there would be not any problem if we would bring a vessel all the way from Holland to Australia, and actually that's what they confirmed.

Literally what they said, "We will back you up, no no matter what happens if you follow the rules".

And we said "Well, we can accept that of course".

MARIAN WILKINSON: How important were these assurances for your Dutch partners and how acutely aware of the politics of this situation were they?

GERRY GEEN: Absolutely pivotal. This was crucial information.

If they hadn't have received that assurance, the joint venture would not have gone ahead.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The Dutch and Geen were acutely aware the super trawler would be a political target for environmentalists in Australia because shortly after their meeting with Australian officials, the Margiris was half way around the world, in the poorly regulated fishing grounds off West Africa, under attack by Greenpeace.

(Footage of Greenpeace activists in a raft next to the Margiris and the word "PLUNDER!" in huge yellow letters)

In a high profile exploit, Greenpeace steered their inflatable raft up to Margiris and painted "PLUNDER" on her hull.

DAVID RITTER, CEO OF GREENPEACE AUSTRALIA PACIFIC: It's trying to get across in a single word that this is the rich developed world that is exporting its problem to the developing world.

A coalition of local fishing communities and local leaders joined with Greenpeace to start documenting what was going on and the Margiris was among the boats that were there off the west coast of Africa.

(African fishing boats next to the Greenpeace ship with a sign saying "WELCOME ARCTIC SUNRISE")

MARIAN WILKINSON: Local fisherman from Senegal to Mauritania were pressuring their governments to ban super trawlers off their coast, arguing they were having a catastrophic effect on their catches.

(Shots of a busy African fish market)

QUENTIN HANICH, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CENTRE FOR OCEAN RESOURCES AND SECURITY: You have a large population of artisanal fishers who depend every day on what they can catch in very small boats, bring to shore and then sell at a local market.

A super trawler can come in and catch far more, sell it far more cheaply at the local market as well. And then these artisanal fishers have got no industry, no employment, no livelihood.

So there's all those social impacts that have been causing concerns too.

MARIAN WILKINSON: So how big was the political problem for the super trawlers in West Africa?

QUENTIN HANICH: Very big.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Bringing a super trawler to Australia would also be a big political problem. And Gerry Geen knew it. But one surprising factor driving him was climate change.

As the waters warmed in his old fishing grounds off Tasmania's east coast, his catches got smaller.

GERRY GEEN: The fish that we were targeting, which prefer cooler waters, were disappearing. So they were going off the edge of the Continental Shelf to the deeper water where they were harder to catch.

(Under water shot of schools of fish)

MARIAN WILKINSON: Jack mackerel and redbait were his target species. He caught them by the tonne as fish food for his company Seafish Tasmania.

Many locals argued the stocks disappeared because they'd been overfished.

But evidence that warming waters had at least some impact on his fishing grounds was being observed at the CSIRO in Hobart.

DR ALISTAIR HOBDAY, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, CSIRO: The jack mackerel is still there but they may be further south or in deeper water off the Continental Shelf.

Because they're not visible at the surface, it's a lot harder for fishing vessels to find them. So the actual act of finding fish has got harder as well.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gerry Geen's answer was a super trawler. It could roam further, fish longer and be far more profitable.

It took him seven years lobbying to persuade Australia's fisheries regulator, AFMA, a super trawler would not be a risk to the environment or the local fishery.

GERRY GEEN: We spent seven years developing those operating rules for the fishery and they were finally passed by Parliament in 2009.

MARIAN WILKINSON: For many Australians, a super trawler in our seas was always going to be a big risk. And from the outset, the most vocal opponents were Australia's powerful recreational fishing lobby.

(Graham Pike sets up his rod on a beach)

GRAHAM PIKE, RECFISH AUSTRALIA: There are five million recreational fishers in Australia - about a quarter of the population.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Graham Pike is co-founder of Recfish Australia. He's also their voice on a key AFMA committee that advises on small pelagic fish like jack mackerel and red bait.

GRAHAM PIKE: They're small fish and just about everything in the ocean hates them or eats them.

If you wipe out the small pelagic fish, you do damage to other fin fish species, threatened and endangered bird species, whales, dolphins, seals.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Pike feared the super trawler could decimate the pelagic fishery.

GRAHAM PIKE: I was extremely concerned with the proposal but the proponents of the super trawler at that stage met the CEO of AFMA and I renewed my determination to ensure that we had the science covered.

(Map of Australia with a dotted line in the sea indicating the pelagic fishery)

MARIAN WILKINSON: Under AFMA's rules, the small pelagic fishery stretches from Tasmania to Western Australia and east to Queensland. This year the total recommended sustainable catch is around 36,000 tonnes of fish.

Gerry Geen's group has about half the quota, 18,000 tonnes.

In February this year, AFMA headquarters in Canberra held an advisory committee meeting on the small pelagic fishery. Graham Pike was representing the recreational fishers. Gerry Geen was also present as a commercial fishers' voice.

As the meeting unfolded, Pike became alarmed.

GRAHAM PIKE: My feeling was that AFMA, the Fisheries Management Authority, was quite keen about a super trawler. It was going to revitalise the small pelagic fishery, it was going to inject funds into research - but only after the fishing had begun, and that in my view was very wrong - and there was going to be economic benefit to other commercial fishermen who were going to receive payments from the super trawler enterprise for quota.

(A small fishing boat pulls into dock in Eden)

MARIAN WILKINSON: In Eden, on the far south coast of New South Wales, news a super trawler was coming was the talk of the town by April.

Brokers had begun approaching commercial fishermen here to buy up their quotas of jack mackerel and red bait for Gerry Geen and his partners. And many fishermen were delighted to sell.

Monty Thomsen was one of them.

MONTY THOMSEN, FISHERMAN: I was willing to do that and the price was ten cents a kilo for the lease fee for the year so yeah, it was worth $8000 for the year.

I know of some fishermen in Eden who if had have been able to sell their quota would have been making upwards of over half a million dollars.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gerry Geen was initially reluctant to admit the super trawler partners had been trying to buy up more quota.

GERRY GEEN: It's a commercial venture and certainly if it was viable and economic to buy other quotas or lease them, we'd certainly look at that.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But Four Corners was told by numerous commercial fishermen around the country they'd received big offers for their quotas.

The super trawler was planning to fish in Australian waters indefinitely.

DIRK VAN DER PLAS: The vessel left and we hoped it would never come- never come back to Holland. So we all had had the impression it would stay in Australia forever.

MARIAN WILKINSON: However, as late as June, the Minister responsible for Australia's fisheries had little idea of the super trawler's plans. At this point, as far as he was concerned, it was a matter for the independent fisheries regulator, AFMA.

JOE LUDWIG: I don't think anyone had ever raised with me that it was going to operate for an indefinite period because of course, my response even then and now, is that AFMA determines the outcome. They determine the total allowable catch, they determine, what quota you can use - they determine that on annual basis through a management plan.

So the individual fisheries and how they operate is not on vessels, it's by the operator and those who own the total allowable catch.

JAMES FINDLAY, EXECUTIVE MANAGER, AFMA (speaking in 2011): I think there has been quite rightly a very strong focus within Australian fisheries and around the world about making sure that what you're doing now is something you can keep doing.

MARIAN WILKINSON: James Findlay, the head of AFMA, was already publicly defending the super trawler's plans to come to Australia.

JAMES FINDLAY (ABC Radio, June 20, 2012): Less than 10 per cent of fish are going to be caught and that is going to have a very small impact, if any, on the broader eco-system.

MARIAN WILKINSON: By June, a perfect storm was brewing over the super trawler.

That month, Environment Minister Tony Burke had announced Australia was creating the largest network of marine reserves in the world.

TONY BURKE (at the announcement on June 15, 2012): This is a massive step forward in ocean protection. It's a bigger step forward than the globe has ever previously seen.

(Montage of environmental activists typing rapidly on computers, graphic shots of damaged wildlife by the super trawler shown on computer screens and social media comment scrolling up terminals)

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four days after the marine parks announcement, environmentalists around the country launched a fiery social media campaign against the super trawler, posting an online petition on the activist website GET UP.

Within weeks the protest surged, with world champion surfer Kelly Slater and other celebrities tweeting to stop the super trawler.

GERRY GEEN: I heard like everybody else did in the newspapers that Guy Sebastian, a singer in Australia, and Kelly Slater, an American surfer - both of whom have got very large followings on Twitter and I guess on Facebook - added their names to the to the Stop the Trawler campaign.

Our reaction was, how do we deal with this?

(Photo of several dolphins struggling to escape a super trawler net)

MARIAN WILKINSON: By far the most graphic image Greenpeace would use in the campaign was this photo taken from the deck of a Dutch super trawler.

It would brutally focus attention on the most sensitive political issue for the government: By-catch, the marine animals and incidental fish swept up in the super trawler's net as it pursues its target catch.

(Shot of dead, bleeding dolphin on top of a haul of small fish)

JAAPJAN ZEEBERG, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST: Dolphins is only ten percent of the total by-catch taken by these large boats and the other 90 per cent are usually more important ecologically speaking.

Dolphins are the cute species.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The photo and others like it were taken ten years ago by this Dutch scientist. He was hired by his government to investigate by-catch caught by the Dutch super trawlers, including the Margiris, operating off West Africa.

JAAPJAN ZEEBERG: Traditionally when the by-catch is caught in the sieve, it will die. I mean, it will die because of the water pressure or it will die from damages from being taken onboard or from shock.

(Underwater footage of dolphins following schools of fish)

MARIAN WILKINSON: Because dolphins, seals and other big fin fish chase the small pelagic fish for prey, they are always at risk of being tangled in the huge nets.

The aim of the Dutch scientists was to modify the net design of the super trawlers to reduce the by-catch deaths.

JAAPJAN ZEEBERG: That was the whole idea of our operation, that we would develop a net that would release the animals in the water.

Without net adaptations, these animals will all die, and with net adaptations a large number - 40 to 100 per cent - will survive.

GERRY GEEN (inspecting a huge trawler net): And these floats, they're new, aren't they?

ABEL TASMAN SKIPPER: Yeah, it is a small type of kite what we are using. We are sure the kite will open up the panel....that the opening- the exclusion hole is always open.

GERRY GEEN: Okay, so that means that there is a wide opening that the animals can get out of.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gerry Geen knew the super trawler would be vulnerable here to a campaign targeting by-catch, particularly dolphins and seals getting caught in its net.

He spent years working with scientists and AFMA to modify the net to deflect the attacks.

This escape hatch, or seal excluder device, as it's called, was designed after lengthy experiments on one of his smaller vessels.

(Gerry Geen and Skipper climb into the net)

GERRY GEEN: We did a year of underwater camera research. The camera was actually inside the net every time it was set, so that we could actually see how the animals were actually behaving in the net and that helped us to design a device that would guide them safely out of an escape hatch and offer a high degree of protection.

(Black and white underwater footage of seals desperately trying to escape a trawler net)

MARIAN WILKINSON: The extraordinary underwater footage taken during that experiment was suppressed by AFMA and the Department of Environment but Four Corners has obtained part of it.

Some of the footage is extremely distressing. The scientists found few seals could survive more than nine minutes caught in the net because they couldn't surface to breathe.

This seal was recorded minute by minute becoming increasingly disoriented in its bid to escape. It most likely suffering serious injuries as it struggled to finally make it out.

While many seals escaped the net, an estimated 55 died in the net and another twenty probably died of their injuries.

GERRY GEEN: The scientist found that a better organisation of that device would be to have it upwards sloping so that the animals could see an escape hatch on the top of the net.

So, being air breathing animals, this obviously makes sense, so we re-oriented the grid so that it's now gently leading the animals upwards to the escape hatch and that's what we were planning to use.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The lessons learnt from the experiment did improve the seal escape hatch planned for the super trawler. And AFMA was satisfied with the efforts.

But no escape hatch is fool proof and the images of seals dying in the trawler net would later be a red flag for the environment minister.

(More of the underwater footage of the dying seals)

TONY BURKE: What I've seen shows some instances of exclusion devices working well, of a seal coming in and a seal going back out.

Some instances of seals getting caught, and some of the most concerning of seals struggling for very long times - eventually making it out, but you've really got to wonder about the state of health by the time they leave.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But in late June, no-one in the Australian Government raised a red flag.

That was left to Greenpeace in Holland.

The Margiris was there being refitted it for its long journey in Australia when Dutch activists chained themselves to her anchor rope to prevent her leaving.

GREENPEACE ACTIVIST: Greenpeace is now blocking the Margiris, a giant super trawler who is heading to Australian waters.

MARIAN WILKINSON: And despite the highly publicised protest, no-one in AFMA or the Government tried to stop the Margiris leaving Holland as planned on July 3.

GERRY GEEN: There were there were concerns but we were very heartened by the fact that the regulator, the Fisheries Management Authority, and Minister Ludwig were standing firm and just saying, that the rules are set, provided this vessel plays by the rules there is no problem.

MARIAN WILKINSON: You would have been aware that the head of the independent regulator in June was out on radio saying there was not a problem with this boat.

JOE LUDWIG: And that's exactly the same things I was saying in terms of, not the individual boat...

MARIAN WILKINSON: So can you understand why they then decided they would leave Holland on the 4th of July after they had heard you, the Prime Minister and the- James Finlay, the head of AFMA saying they didn't see a problem here?

JOE LUDWIG: They would have also heard from the NGOs, they would have also heard from the rec fishers, they would have also heard . . .

MARIAN WILKINSON: But you're the Government.

JOE LUDWIG: Well, well, let me finish. They would have also heard from the Environmental Minister that he had concerns.

GERRY GEEN: No we heard absolutely nothing to that effect, and you know it would've been very helpful if we had had something from either of those Ministers to even suggest that there could be a problem coming politically.

At that point we could have we could have called it off.

DIRK VAN DER PLAS: They didn't say anything. They just let the vessel come, they let it to appear on the horizon and then everybody start changing their minds.

MARIAN WILKINSON: On August 30 the Margiris ploughed her way into Port Lincoln where she was met by Greenpeace activists.

Her opponents outside and inside the Government were now heavily relying on Burke to stop the super trawler. But he soon discovered there was nothing in the existing environment laws to prevent her going fishing.

TONY BURKE: I think the rules failed. I think the rules failed badly.

I don't think we had the structures in place to be able to deal with a massive change such as is contemplated when you go from ordinary trawling operations to the second biggest on the planet.

MARIAN WILKINSON: With the social media campaign now in overdrive, the super trawler was suddenly becoming a threat to the Government's political stability.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Three days after the Margiris arrived in Australia, Burke announced on the Q and A program he would impose tough environmental conditions on the super trawler if she was going to fish in Australian waters - but not that he was stopping her.

TONY BURKE (on the ABC's Q and A): What I do have is the legal power to impose a number of restrictions on it based on the impact that it can have not on the fish that it's targeting, but on the by-catch - the seals, the dolphins, the other fish that are protected and listed and that I have responsibility for.

GERRY GEEN: We were very relieved. When he came out with a new set of conditions which were strict environmental conditions around by-catch, but conditions that we could live with - and in fact many of them were things that we were implementing on a voluntary basis anyway.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Now did you have any idea at that stage that he'd also asked his department to draw up legislation that would stop this boat?

GERRY GEEN: No.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Burke had secretly asked his department to prepare a new law to stop the super trawler, at least for the short term.

TONY BURKE: I felt when I made that announcement on Q&A that my hands had been tied in a way that I wasn't happy with. With advice from my department saying 'the science on some of these issues we don't know the answer to, but you've gotta put the conditions in without running the checks'.

And there's no doubt I felt a high degree of frustration in that. I didn't know whether Cabinet and the Caucus would end up supporting me in a legislative pathway, so I wasn't able to announce it at that point. But I had the department working on it straight away.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Do you think at that point that you should've warned Gerry Geen what you were doing?

TONY BURKE: Uh... I don't- I don't believe you can ever be in a situation where you break the confidentiality of Cabinet.

(at a press conference on September 11): It's been agreed that I will introduce new legislation to the Parliament to amend National Environment Law which will give me the powers that I had hoped to have to be able to apply a much more precautionary approach to the super trawler.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Overnight the story leaked. Cabinet had backed Burke on a new law to block the super trawler for up to two years while more scientific advice could be sought on its impact.

Ludwig lined up to support it.

DIRK VAN DER PLAS: Absolutely shocked. I was absolutely shocked to have heard this message. I still remember, it was- I was at home and I had a- I had a bad night, because we have the time difference with Australia and every time I woke up during the night I was always checking my emails, what's going on.

And then I read this statement which was made by Minister Burke. I was just shocked.

GERRY GEEN: I was absolutely astonished that that could happen in Australia and it felt like... It felt unreal to me, it felt that it was like third world decision making.

MARIAN WILKINSON: For long time critics of global super trawlers the Government's decision was right even if the route was rough. It is seen as a victory for sustainable fishing, not just in Australia but around the world.

QUENTIN HANICH: I think its sheer size is a symbol of all that's wrong globally with our fishing.

I mean, around the world now we've got to the stage of more than three quarters of our fisheries are basically overfished or at the very limit. There's not much room left anymore.

And the key issue that we have is there are so many big vessels that they just drive overfishing. They have to keep on moving around to find new fisheries to fish. They have to keep on finding new opportunities. And those new opportunities don't exist.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But the super trawler's partners, left high and dry, believe the credibility of Australia's entire fisheries management has been thrown overboard.

GERRY GEEN: We've got no idea what the rules are now. We don't where the goal posts are anymore. We need to know the rules.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Knowing the rules is one thing, liking them is another.

Gerry Geen is still trying to get the Government to agree to limited fishing with strict environmental considerations rather than impose a complete two-year ban.

If this is not successful, he and his Dutch partners will contemplate legal action. On the other hand, environmental campaigners aren't giving up either.