The bêche-de-mer, pearl-shell and trochus fisheries - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 59

(a)

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889

Year

(b)

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889

Year

Figure 5.1 (a) Weights and (b) values of bêche-de-mer harvested in Queensland, 1880-
1889. Source: Compiled from data provided in Saville-Kent (1890a, p730)

be harvested at Kennedy Reef, near Hinchinbrook Island. At all the places to the
south of Cape Melville that he had visited, he claimed 'the reefs were skinned';
another area of particular exploitation was reported to be Endeavour Reef, where
bêche-de-mer were scarcely available as a result of intensive harvesting in the
Bloomfield River area (Mackay et al., 1908, p246). José Denis Antonio, a bêche-
de-mer fisher at Bloomfield River, also reported severe depletion of the resources
in that area, stating that as a result of continuous fishing, 'the reef has no chance'
(Mackay et al., 1908, p240).
The report of the Royal Commission, written by Mackay et al. (1908), found
that the animals - which were 'formerly plentiful' in the Great Barrier Reef
- had 'either been exterminated there or driven to seek refuge in the deeper
waters adjacent'; hence, divers were increasingly required to search for the
animals in depths of 6 or 7 fathoms (around 12 metres) of water. As a result,
those authors stated that the bêche-de-mer fishery seemed to have reached its