01/10/2026
Why did these words disappear from the FishLIGHT website? 👀
On 18 September, QLD Department of Primary Industries deleted the words shown from its website about the FishLIGHT research program, which is trialling tunnel nets and other commercial fishing gears.
There was no explanation.❓
Have fish now been harvested as part of the trials? Have protected species been harmed? Or both? ⚠️
The timing raises further questions.
Just 10 days earlier, the Inshore Flats Project wrote to the Department to report the observed reduction of flats sports fish stocks (T.Anak permit and golden trevally) to low or negligible numbers in one of the tunnel net trial areas, since after late June.
The Department declined to answer our question asking whether fish had been taken by the FishLIGHT program. It also declined our offer to work co-operatively with researchers by providing greater details about this potential local depletion event.
Meanwhile, the Department’s website was quietly amended. 🖥️
FishLIGHT is a taxpayer funded research program being conducted in shared public waters within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. 🏝️
Anglers, charter guides, local communities and other stakeholders deserve transparency about whether flats sports fish have been taken by FishLIGHT. And transparency about whether protected species have been harmed. 🔎
Watch this space for more on anak permit, trevally and local depletion…
📷 Tropical Sportfisher
