The Role of Fishing Industry Based Environmental Lobbies

Abstract

Resource exploiters such as forestry and mining companies are commonly the target of action by environmental groups. The involvement of these industries in environmental issues has tended to be in a defensive vein in an attempt to swing the middle ground of the Australian voting population and thus government (re)actions.Curiously, the fishing industry has not been subject to the same types of environmental scrutiny as have other primary industries, although there is increasing evidence that this situation is changing. Yet the industry has involved itself closely in a wide range of environmental issues ranging from small scale mangrove losses to large and high profile projects like the failed Wesley Vale Pulp Mill.What happened in the ten years between Neil Baird’s warning ‘Beware the “Greenies”’ in 1981 (Professional Fishermen, April 1981) and the times that generated articles such as ‘The Greening of the Fishing Industry’ (Wilson, 1989)?This paper explores the reasons for the fishing industry’s involvement in environmental issues, the characteristics of two of its environmental lobby groups and what the future may hold.