November 28, 2019
A Draft 2020-2025 Coastcare Victoria Strategy has been released for public comment by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). According to DELWP, Coastcare Victoria is a community-based movement that supports the community stewardship of Victoria’s marine and coastal environments. It focuses on three strategic pillars:
- Marine and Coastal Stewardship
- Thriving Volunteer Groups and Networks
- Victorians Valuing the Coast
Interestingly, all three pillars resonate extremely well with recreational fishers by unfortunately the draft plan lacks the foresight of involving recreational fishers or even considering us as stewards of Victoria’s marine and coastal environments. Disappointingly, the plan lists recreational fishing as a threat to the marine and coastal environment.
New challenges have emerged since Coastcare’s inception. Marine and coastal environments are facing many threats, including population growth and urbanisation, commercial and recreational fishing, invasive species, climate change, droughts and floods.
Page 7 Draft Coastcare Victoria Strategy
To get involved you can download the draft strategy and complete an online survey on the Engage Victoria website. Submissions close 24 January 2020.
As always we welcome the your comments to help us compile a VRFish submission. You can drop us a line at [email protected].
