Fund organisers want an answer from State Government
"THEY have still never given us an answer," said Rhiannon Cherry.
Ms Cherry was talking about the government's response to an outbreak of red lesions on barramundi in Gladstone Harbour in 2011 and what commercial fishermen say are ongoing fish health problems.
She and Toni Seeney are trustees of the Gladstone Fishing Research Fund, which they set up late last year to finance scientific research by Dr Matt Landos into fish health in the harbour.
"It's for the public," Ms Seeney said of the new report, "to show them the definite link between the dredging and the fish diseases seen."
Ms Seeney said the trustees were realistic about the battle by commercial fishers for compensation.
For almost two years, the commercial fishing industry and the Queensland Government have been locked in a dispute over whether the malor dredging project on Gladstone Harbour is having an impact on fish health. Fishers and processors have argued they deserve compensation.
Ms Seeney also Dr Landos had been given no orders about his research and was not required to come up with a conclusion that suited fishers.
"All we did was manage the money from the (donors)," she said. "We would have taken money from (Gladstone Ports Corporation) or anyone else."
Ms Cherry said she had seen commercial fishers forced to leave the industry after their catches were diminished.
