The impacts of coral and shell collecting - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 142

applications for coral collecting were made, such as A. F. Paterson's application
for a licence to remove coral from Otter Reef, near Cardwell. However, regarding
that application, the Harbour Master at Townsville stated that:
Present policy requires that coral leases are normally submerged at all times
and remote from public areas. This proposed lease on 'Otter Reef' is a popular
fishing ground and anchorage for amateur fishermen. I recommend that this
application should be refuse d. 21
Therefore, one requirement of the coral areas was that they should not be visible
from the surface; the coral areas were required to remain below low-water mark.
Nonetheless, some coral was removed from Otter Reef, as Paterson stated that
live coral was 'easily obtained at low water and is abundant'.
The impacts of commercial coral collectors were greater than those of
individual tourists, although the numbers of the former were far smaller.
Commercial operators sometimes took coral from protected reefs, such as Green
Island reef, as one oral history informant revealed, and some collectors removed
large quantities of corals from individual reefs . 22 A n example of commercial coral
collecting is shown in Figure 9.7, which illustrates the collecting business of the
pioneer aviator, Tom McDonald, who also operated a jewellery trade using coral
specimens. McDonald and his co-workers collected coral from reefs in the Cairns
area, including Double Island reef, yet no documentary evidence of their business
was found in the QSA; their coral collecting pre-dated the coral licence system.
Hence extensive commercial coral collecting had probably already occurred by
the time that coral leases were first issued.
Therefore, during most of the period of European settlement in Queensland,
widespread coral collecting occurred. An indication of the scale of the activity
is provided in the Annual Reports of the QDHM, in which the numbers of coral
and shell-grit licences issued in Queensland for the period 1931-1968 were
reported; by the end of that period, more than 1,000 coral and shell-grit licences
had been issued. These data suggest that, by 1962, a significant industry had been
established - and probably operated along similar lines - until the formation
of the first marine parks in the region, in 1974. As Lawrence et al. (2002, p27)
stated:
Coral collecting remained a popular pastime for tourists. The limited
restrictions on collecting under Queensland Fisheries legislation that
remained in force well into the 1970s were an indication that coral souveniring
continued to be a popular activity. The Queensland Government declared
marine park status over two heavily used reef sites, the Heron-Wistari Reef
and Green Island Reef in 1974, under the Queensland Forestry Act 1959 .
Overall, from the earliest regulation of coral collecting in 1933 until the 1980s,
coral collection in the Great Barrier Reef increased (Harriott, 2001). Since the