Queensland commercial fishermen are set to be affected by some major changes, with GPS trackers to be fitted to all boats.
As part of the Queensland Government's Sustainable Fisheries Strategy, all boats including small tender boats used to drag out nets will need to fit the tracking devices to help collect data used to assess the sustainability of fish stocks.
Gulf of Carpentaria Commercial Fishermen's Association chairman Gary Ward said having the devices on all vessels was an unnecessary expense.
"We've got no problem with the fact that it will be on the primary vessel," Mr Ward said.
"But we do object pretty strongly to the fact that it would be going on our tenders as well."
One of the units being trialled costs about $230 to install and $30 to $40 a month to send location data, a cost Mr Ward said would add up to a major expense.
"It all adds up to costs again and the fishing industry's got enough costs at the moment, with everything else involved," he said.
"[Tenders] are limited to 5 or 6 kilometres from the main boat. That's why we consider that it's not necessary."
Making the fishery more efficient
With most commercial fishermen recording their catch data on hard-copy log books, the vessel monitoring system (VMS) aims to make data collection more efficient.
Fisheries Queensland executive director Claire Andersen said VMS allowed data on fisheries to be gathered in real time.
"That helps us from a compliance perspective, because we know where people are fishing so we can check that they're doing the right thing," Ms Andersen said.
"When we assess the sustainability of our fish stocks, we need to know how much catch is coming out of different areas, and vessel tracking gives us great detailed information."
Ms Andersen said VMS was not a new concept for the Queensland fishing industry, and the information gathered would not be made public.
"The trawl industry on the east coast have had vessel tracking for more than 10 years now," she said.
"People can be assured that we're not going to give their private information about their fishing location out publicly."
