Commercial fishers fear gillnet ban on Great Barrier Reef will destroy business, communities

Fishing is all Clint Waldon has ever known, but he's worried new regulations banning the use of gillnets will see the end of his 80-year-old family business. Key points: The Queensland and federal governments are phasing out gillnet fishing on the Great Barrier Reef from this year Third-generation fisherman Clint Waldon says the gillnet bans will decimate the industry Gillnets are long, rectangular nets used to catch fish in the moving tide "I've got an 18 month-old daughter and I don't know how I'll provide for her at the end of the year," Mr Waldon said. The federal and Queensland governments announced in June they would ban gillnet fishing on the Great Barrier Reef by mid-2027, phasing out gillnet licences from December 2023. But Mr Waldon said he fished about 150 kilometres away from the Great Barrier Reef and had never killed dugongs, turtles, or dolphins while using gillnets. "No gillnet is ever set on the Great Barrier Reef, they're mainly coastal in estuaries, on mud flats," Mr Bobbermen said.