No moratorium on dugong hunting in Australia

Brisbane Times 8 Jun 10;

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will not support a moratorium on killing dugongs, believing better policing and education will stop the gentle animals being hunted to extinction.

Mr Garrett was in Cairns today to commit $15 million to measure water quality improvements made through a federal program that supports farmers to cut the amount of nutrients that leave their farms and flow into the Great Barrier Reef.

Calls for a crackdown on illegal dugong netting in far north Queensland have been growing since the bodies of three of the endangered creatures were discovered near Cairns in April.

Only one could be saved.

Former federal Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who is contesting the next election, believes indigenous people have taken advantage of laws that allow them to hunt dugong and have set up a lucrative dugong meat industry.

Traditional owners can hunt the animals using traditional means, but netting is banned.

Conservationist Bob Irwin, father of the late "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin, is calling for a moratorium.

But Mr Garrett said it was unnecessary at this point.

Compliance officers and training programs to ensure dugongs were hunted in sustainable numbers would take time to have an effect, he said.

"I am confident that if we put those measures in place and see them through then it's an issue that can be properly addressed without a moratorium," Mr Garrett told reporters.

Traditional land owners would welcome the support, Mr Garrett said.

"We recognise that some indigenous people have specific rights, they are cultural rights, they are not commercial rights," he said.

"It is just a question of making sure that everybody understands what their rights and responsibilities are and make sure that they put them into practice."

AAP