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Tunnel net fact-checker: IFP getting the facts straight

  • Writer: The Inshore Flats Project
    The Inshore Flats Project
  • Mar 18
  • 2 min read

At the Inshore Flats Project, we’re committed to getting the facts straight about tunnel nets. For this reason, we fact-checked two promotional videos, and a fact sheet, that Fisheries QLD published in mid-January about the tunnel net gear being trialled in Central & North Queensland. 


We thank Fisheries QLD for working constructively with us, and amending the videos and fact sheet to remove several statements about the tunnel net gear type that we identified as being incorrect and/or unsupported by the available scientific data. The removed statements include:


Statements about tunnel nets removed by Fisheries QLD


  • “A net that fish don’t touch” – removed ✅ 


  • “Nothing dies” – removed ✅


  • “Low stress for fish” – removed ✅


  • “Tunnel netting [is] a highly selective…method” – removed ✅


  • “Almost all bycatch survives” – removed ✅


  • “No mortalities of protected species such as turtles or dugongs have been reported from the use of tunnel nets in [South-East] Queensland during the past 3 decades” – removed ✅


  • Placing Barramundi first in a list of tunnel net catch “species”, when barramundi comprise just 3% (approx.) by weight of the 2025 tunnel net trial catch – removed ✅ 


However, the amended Fisheries QLD tunnel net video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7x3Fxp9lJw), the amended FishLIGHT program overview video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eSQvMsS8qM) and the amended (online) version of the fact sheet (https://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/news-media/campaigns/fish-light/gear/tunnel-nets) continue to include other statements about the tunnel net gear that we believe are incorrect, and/or unsupported by the available scientific data. Examples of this include: 


  1. The amended tunnel net video continues to claim that “All the little things we don’t want to catch go through that mesh”, despite the 2025 trial data proving that tunnel nets catch high numbers of small baitfish (e.g. biddies and herring). In our view, this statement should have been removed. 


  1. The amended FishLIGHT program overview video continues to claim that there is “no by-catch” in the context of tunnel nets. Yet in the 2025 tunnel net trials, over 50 different species of fish were captured, including by-catch species. Again, in our view, this statement should have been removed.


  1. The amended (online) fact sheet continues to claim that tunnel nets pose “minimal risk of harm to protected species”, despite the hyperlinked Fisheries QLD document identifying the South-East Queensland tunnel net fishery as posing a “medium” (not “minimal”) or “high” risk to the seven species of conservation concern that were studied. Further, Fisheries QLD’s “Protected Species Management Strategy for the East Coast Inshore Fishery” (July 2021) identifies tunnel nets as a “key driver of risk for turtles” (on pages 13-14). 


We will continue to fact check information that Fisheries QLD and other interested parties release about the tunnel net gear type. In the meantime, you can click below to access our letters to Fisheries QLD about this issue and their response. Our aim in publishing these letters is to help interested members of the public to assess the risks posed by tunnel nets. 


Letter 27 January 2026

Letter 28 January 2026

Letter Response 28 February 2026

Letter Response 18 March 2026


 
 
 

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