It's very easy for people who are not convinced about the need for turtle excluders, to make them ineffective. They've called on the Federal Government to list trawling as a key threat to turtles. Now the action at the moment is piecemeal and at the 11th hour for loggerhead turtles, it's not good enough. The Federal Government will make a decision soon on the listing. But the fishing industry believes it's being unfairly targeted and is pushing governments to focus on other threats, like pollution and boat strikes.
Fishing is one of many impacts.
We've got speed boat strikes, we've got water quality, we've got disease and a whole range of pollution, plastics, et cetera. Now we've got the runs on the board I believe, and we have taken positive action at a very severe cost to our members to make sure that turtles are conserved. Environmentalists admit there are other issues. They say better management of indigenous hunting of green turtles, both in Australia and overseas, is vital. Indigenous people have been accustomed to harvesting green turtles, for instance, sustainably for centuries.