They always warmly return my smile and wave as I pass them so I would like them to know that I, and possibly many others give them a thought and appreciate what they do.

The comments by the Cattle Bay developer’s PR spokesman last week make Trump’s press secretary Sarah Huckabee Saunders look like an amateur.  “Business as usual”…really? This PR guy is right up there with Monty Python’s Black Knight for optimism.

Let’s take a quick look at the list of “flesh wounds” currently affecting the health of this farcical non-development.

The whole project is listed for sale with Knight Frank, including the marina – hardly only the sale of one “non-core asset”, the deferred development consent for the marina DA has lapsed, they have no easement over the council owned foreshore to access the marina, they have no Crown Land lease for the water area required for a marina and they have no wave attenuator. But the PR guy says it is “ready to go”.

The PR guy is hoping to establish a “spirit of goodwill with our council”. He is clearly quite confident the the council will overlook the extreme costs in time and money this litigious non-performing developer has imposed on our ratepayers.

The PR guy is quite convinced the community should ignore the fact that the Cattle Bay site has been kept a toxic wasteland since 2000 and ignore the fact that the community has been locked out of our own beach reserve for that whole time.

We should also ignore the fact that, the developer, through years of ignoring their maintenance liability, will quite likely leave the community to foot the $1million plus bill for the repairs to our wharf.

In the words of Sarah Huckabee Saunders: “People are just looking for honesty and authenticity more than anything.” Clearly the PR guy is from the same school as Sarah.

I wish to bring to your attention a bad situation that currently exists with regards to our fishing rules and regulation, which has flow on effects for everyone and not just our recreational anglers.

Last Sunday the Merimbula fishing club held its annual social day called “Salmon Sunday” which was held at Haycock Beach. There were prizes for the biggest salmon caught, and I estimate that 12 of our members fished the beach.  Some fished from before dawn and others  until noon and we then had a picnic with our families. All in all a great day out except for one thing, there were no fish about, apart  for one salmon caught early which was very small and was thrown back.

You may well ask how can this be, 12 anglers spread out along the beach 25 to 30 meters apart, and no one even gets a bite. The answer is simple, there are no fish there any more, the place is fished out, not by recreational anglers, but by the commercial netting that goes on in this area. Why are they allowed to come into these tourist areas and take all our fish in one fell swoop?.

Already the tourists are waking up to the fact that the fishing here and along other parts of the South Coast is very poor, our estuaries and rivers are also affected. 

Recreational anglers have a bag limit of five salmon per person per day, the commercial guys have no limit and can take as much as they can carry, tonnes and tonnes per day. The South Australian government has seen the value in protecting the tourism industry and banned salmon netting, why can’t we do the same?

What is at risk here is the state of our tourism industry. An independent survey by the University of Wollongong in 2012 found anglers spent more than $15billion on fishing related expenses in NSW which includes purchasing fishing tackle, accommodation, boats etc. Can we afford to turn our backs on this travesty that is threatening the financial health and wellbeing of our tourist dependent communities.

It’s time our state and local government stood up together with our local Chambers of Commerce and our sister fishing clubs,  and put a stop to commercial fishing in these tourist sensitive areas.