SYDNEY, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- All commercial fishing vessels in the Australian state of Queensland will soon be fitted with GPS tracking devices in order to assess the sustainability of fish stocks across the tropical northern waterways.
The mandatory new vessel monitoring policy developed by the Queensland government's Sustainable Fisheries Strategy, is hoped to make complex data collection on marine life more efficient.
Although commercial operators already have to record their fishing information in logbooks, Fisheries Queensland executive director Claire Andersen told local media on Friday, the new method will streamline the process and allow data to be tracked in real time, giving more accurate and up-to date for scientists.
"That helps us from a compliance perspective, because we know where people are fishing so we can check that they're doing the right thing," Andersen said.
"When we assess the sustainability of our fish stocks, we need to know how much catch is coming out of different areas, and vessel tracking gives us great detailed information."
But not everyone's thrilled with the new requirements.
Gulf of Carpentaria Commercial Fishermen's Association chairman Gary Ward said that fitting the GPS trackers is yet another costly expense for fishermen.
"We've got no problem with the fact that it will be on the primary vessel," he said.
"But we do object pretty strongly to the fact that it would be going on our tenders as well."
At a cost of around 230 Australian dollars (180 U.S. dollars) to install and a further 40 Australian dollars (32 U.S. dollars) per month to operate, Ward said, "It all adds up to costs again and the fishing industry's got enough costs at the moment, with everything else involved."
Some fishermen also worry that their favourite secret spots might be recorded and leaked to the public.
But Andersen and the Fisheries Department strongly dispelled the rumours.
"People can be assured that we're not going to give their private information about their fishing location out publicly," she said.
Although the program has already been enacted, it will not be formally enforced by law until 2020.
