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of animals. Ching complained that the damage caused by harpooning was 'utterly
ruining' his business, and he argued that the use of 36-inch mesh nets should be
mandatory for dugong fishers. However, since a suckling dugong calf without a
mother would be unlikely to survive, even the exclusive use of large mesh-size
nets may have been an insufficient conservation measure. Ching also reported
that he had imported a steam plant from England for boiling down dugong oil
more efficiently (Fison, 1888, p764).
By 1888, the low reproductive rate of the dugong was beginning to be
appreciated. Fison (1888, p764) stated that dugongs 'breed once a year, and have
only one calf at a time'; modern research indicates that dugongs actually breed
much less frequently than that (Marsh et al., 2011). Fison (1888, p764) also
reported that, of the sixteen dugongs caught in Moreton Bay in 1888, almost
all 'were cows in calf, or the young calves were found attending the mother'.
The unsustainability of such a harvest was recognised, and restrictions on
dugong fishing in Moreton Bay were introduced for a two-year period under the
Queensland Fisheries Act (1887) in an attempt to prevent 'the utter extermination
of the herd'. By 1889, the sporadic presence of a small herd of dugongs had been
reported on the western side of Moreton Island, but Fison (1889, p939) stated
that these animals were protected under the same clause of the Queensland
Fisheries Act (1887) .
Fison's reports indicate that concerns about the unsustainability of the harvest
prompted an early legal intervention to conserve dugongs in Queensland. The
excessive destruction of dugongs was also reported by Saville-Kent (1890b, p713):
A great amount of harm is done to the legitimate dugong fishery through the
wasteful destruction of the animal in Wide Bay by means of harpooning, and
also through the extensive slaughter of the young calves.
Saville-Kent (1890b) recommended that dugong fishing should be restricted
exclusively to the use of stake-nets with a mesh-size of at least one yard square,
which he believed would allow the calves to escape.
In 1892, the restrictions on the dugong fishery expired and commercial
dugong fishing recommenced at North Stradbroke Island. Concerns about the
unsustainability of the fishery had not been allayed and, in response to the scale of
the resumption in dugong fishing, a second two-year closure was introduced on 1
January 1893. That closure was rescinded in June of the same year, however, after
large herds of dugongs entered Moreton Bay; Johnson (2002, p36) associated that
migration with extensive flooding in south-eastern Queensland during February
1892. The complete closure of the fishery was replaced with an annual three-
month open season. Harpooning was prohibited and a more comprehensive
licensing system was introduced (Welsby, 1907; 1931, p69). By the end of 1893,
the Queensland commercial dugong fisheries had been regulated in similar ways
to other commercial fisheries, with restrictions of permitted equipment and with
spatial and temporal closures of fishing grounds.
 
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