Update 7 June 2023:
Thanks to you, the Queensland and Australian Governments have heard our call and recently committed to a Net-Free Reef by 2027, an incredible outcome for our Reef’s threatened wildlife.
We are currently working to understand the full details of the commitment and will continue our advocacy to ensure that it is fully implemented.
See our Media Release for further information.
Our Great Barrier Reef should be a refuge for our threatened marine wildlife. It is home to globally significant populations of dugongs, turtles, dolphins and sawfish. But commercial gillnets catch these iconic species in their thousands. Gillnets are indiscriminate killers, easily entangling species like dugongs and turtles where they can quickly drown.
If every fisher had their nets in the water, they would stretch more than 159km, that’s further than from Brisbane to Noosa.
Late last year, UNESCO and IUCN, scientific advisors to the World Heritage Centre, made 22 recommendations to address the key threats to the Great Barrier Reef. One of their priority recommendations was to remove commercial gillnets from the World Heritage Area.
The Queensland Government cannot keep turning a blind eye to the deaths of our iconic protected species. We need to show that there is strong public support for getting rid of destructive gillnets for good.
Add your name to help make 2023 gillnet free for our Great Barrier Reef.
See below the email that will be sent, once you add your name, to Hon Leanne Linard the Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef:
Dear Minister Linard,
I’m contacting you as someone who is deeply concerned about ongoing bycatch of threatened species such as dugongs and turtles in commercial gillnets on the Great Barrier Reef.
Gillnets are indiscriminate killers that are contributing to the declines of populations of dugongs, turtles, dolphins and sawfish within our world heritage listed reef. Our Reef should be a refuge for these species.
Late last year, UNESCO and IUCN, scientific advisors to the World Heritage Centre, made 22 recommendations to address the key threats to the Great Barrier Reef and preserve its world heritage values. One of their priority recommendations was to remove commercial gillnets from the World Heritage Area.
I therefore ask the Queensland Government to permanently remove all large mesh gillnets from the Great Barrier Reef. Doing so will give our dugongs and turtles a fighting chance and help maintain the world heritage values of our beautiful Reef.
Thank you,
Your name, postcode.