Skip to Content

PROTECT VICTORIA'S FISHERIES

Who Are Fisheries Officers?

Contact Your MP

Find Your Angling Club

PROTECT VICTORIA'S FISHERIES

Who Are Fisheries Officers?

Contact Your MP

Find Your Angling Club

Folder: Learn More

Who Are Fisheries Officers?

Folder: Act Now

Contact Your MP

Find Your Angling Club

Illegal Fishers Convicted, Forfeit 18-metre Boat

23 Apr

Written By Lilly Cross

Cuts to Victorian fisheries officers unites conservationists and fishers

Fisheries Officer Cuts

SIGN THE PETITION

#SaveVicFisheries

Lives Protected… or Lost.
First slide: A healthy, thriving platypus — the result of strong protection.
➡ Following slides: The brutal reality when that protection is taken away.

When Fisheries Officers are cut, illegal nets go unchecked

📘 PART 3: What Happens Without Fisheries Officers?
📚 Lessons from history, before we repeat them again.

From rivers to reefs, Victoria’s fish populations rely on protection, but history shows what happens when that protection disappears.

📉

📗 PART 2: What Happens Without Fisheries Officers?
📚 Lessons from history, before we repeat them again.

The U.S. West Coast groundfish fishery was thriving, until it wasn’t.

⚠️ In the early 2000s, overfishing, poor science, and weak enforce

📕 PART 1: What Happens Without Fisheries Officers?
📚 Lessons from history, before we repeat them again.

Newfoundland once had the richest cod fishery on the planet.
By 1992, it was wiped out.

📉 Overfishing. Weak enforcement.
🔇 Science ignored.

🐬 You know the feeling…
Standing on the jetty, walking along the beach, or casting a line out on the bay — and then you see it: a splash, a fin slicing past. That giddy, heart-flip moment.

It doesn’t matter how many times you&rsq

The Legacy That Shaped Our State

Before 1859, Victoria’s waters were left unprotected — no fisheries laws, no dedicated officers.
As fish stocks collapsed, the public demanded action.

From the first Fisheries Acts…
To the appoint

🚨 MAJOR UPDATE 🚨
Fisheries Officers have officially submitted their alternative proposal to the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA).

The Fisheries Officers have managed to provide a solution that:
✅ Exceeds budget savings requirements
✅ Meets all

Intertidal zones are some of the most biologically rich and vulnerable parts of our coastline.

Stretching from the high tide mark down to 2 metres deep, they’re home to an incredible mix of marine life — sea stars, shellfish, sponges, se

Marine parks are meant to be safe havens.
But right now, more than HALF of inspections find rule-breaking.
That’s before the government cuts the very people who patrol them.

No patrols =
❌ No deterrent
❌ No accountability
❌ No real protection

BREAKING NEWS: 100% of union members have voted NO CONFIDENCE in the CEO of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, Travis Dowling.

This is a massive call and it sends a clear message:
📣 Mismanagement won’t be ignored.
🌊 Victorians won’t st