Make sure you have your say

MORE than 2000 marine park users have already backed the Savesol online campaign lobbying government for changes to its Solitary Islands Marine Park review.

With only two weeks left until submissions close, creator of the website, Michael Featherstone, says it’s vitally important locals have their say on the draft zoning plan.

“In doing so we urge all members of the public to visit www.savesol.com read the submission and submit it to help protect the rights of all locals, not just for now but for all our generations to follow,” Mr Featherstone said.

The website offers supporters the chance to sign a form letter, backing an alternative proposal to the draft zoning plan.

Mr Featherstone said the submission was created by the user groups to ensure a balance between protection of biodiversity and continued access to fishing.

“The public also needs to be made aware that the draft zoning plan also proposes to totally remove prawn trawling from the Solitary Islands.

“This means that the traditional right to by our own locally caught fresh prawns and seafood, some of the best in Australia, will disappear.

“The facts are that currently prawn trawling is already removed from 66 per cent of the park, leaving only 34 per cent of the outer extremity of the park in which to work.

“Prawn trawling has been assessed as an environmentally sustainable industry a fact that has been reiterated by Minister Steven Whan in a recent press release,” he said.