The Queensland Government has announced a catastrophic 80% reduction in commercial Spanish Mackerel quotas in addition to six weeks of closed season.

This devastating blow to both recreational and commercial fishers is based on rubbish science that has been refuted by Industry and peer-review.

As Dr Peter Ridd outlines:

The Queensland government claims the number of mackerel is down to just 17% of what existed before European settlement. This is rubbish – and the scientist selected by the government to peer-review this conclusion strongly disagreed with the methodology to make this claim. The 17% number is based on a new computer model where they chose some unreasonable input parameters.

It is sometimes said of models: rubbish-in then rubbish-out. But in this case, it is carefully selected rubbish-in, the answer they want out. The model also used data on fish catch going back to 1912. But there is no decent data going back that far. They essentially made up the data for before the 1940s: the use of this bogus data is crucial to how the model calculated the 17% figure.

https://www.facebook.com/DrPeterRidd/posts/pfbid0L83VJ3TQJkHjuMPH5FFRN5BLQmii7FCipzZQki9grra1tZxWu94TdD6PUkRpBnwYl

This move from the Queensland Government will destroy livelihoods. To do so on such a flimsy and deceptive scientific basis borders on criminal.

The Queensland Government must cancel the proposed closed season and quota reduction. The junk science this decision is based on must be immediately withdrawn.