THE future of local fisheries could be at risk, thanks to a rather adorable furry animal that likes fish as much as we do.
The Lakes and Coorong fishery, and the 32 commercial fishers who work in it, are seeing an increase in numbers of the long-nosed fur seal, formerly known as the New Zealand fur seal, which is putting pressure on those businesses.
Tracy Hill, who manages Coorong Wild Seafood with husband Glen, out of Meningie, said the fishery had always prided itself on being environmentally friendly and sustainable, but the impact of fur seals was getting worse.
Mrs Hill said the seals started to appear at the Coorong mouth in significant numbers about 2007.
"After that we started to see them in the Coorong system and they started being a bit of a nuisance," she said. "Now they are also in the lakes and river."
The Department of Environment, Water & Natural Resources estimates the number of fur seals in SA waters at 100,000, expected to rise by 5.5 per cent annually.
Mrs Hill said the seals would often follow fishermen around and take fish out of the nets, often just biting off its tail or belly and leaving the rest.
"We've got some fish with bite marks and you can't sell them," she said.
"We also don't know what we've already lost out of those nets."
Mrs Hill said one fishermen, when checking his nets at Port Pomanda, found most of his catch of Golden Perch had their tails bitten off.
"That was close to $200-300 worth of fish for the day that he couldn't sell," she said.
The seals were also damaging nets, which could cost up to $200 each.
"Nets that would last maybe a year now only last a couple of months," she said.
The fishermen had already made changes to their habits.
"Our current strategies are - number-one we try to avoid them, number-two we hope there are lots of fish out as the seals have less impact," she said. "We also fish in the lakes to hedge our bets a bit."
They had also started to look into options adopted by other fisheries in the same situation, and one was a pyrotechnic set-off underwater to scare off seals.
"It is a growing problem worldwide and most of the things they've tried don't work because the seals get used to them," Mrs Hill said.
She was also concerned that the increasing numbers of seals could see the number of fish reduced, which could then be blamed on fishermen, with more "management measures" brought in.
A DEWNR spokesperson said seals were a protected species and the government was not in support of a cull.
An option was to relocate the marine mammal to less-troublesome areas, a tactic used by Tas salmon farmers.
They said previous attempts at relocation, overseas and interstate, had little success.
"The same seals quickly return or are replaced by other seals," the spokesperson said.
They said the SA Research & Development Institute had started a research project funded by the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation, to look at the diet and eating habits of seals in key aquaculture and commercial and recreational fishing areas in SA.
This project would also look at their commercial fishing, other aquaculture species and possible effects a growing population could have in the future.
This is due in June 2016.
Mrs Hill said there needed to be ongoing conversations with department members, conservation groups and fishery members.
"Otherwise we may have fishermen going slowly broke," she said.
She warned if it came to that, Australia would lose a good local industry.
"This is not just an issue in the Lakes and Coorong - this is happening along the coast of SA,'' she said.
"There are food security issues where we are going to have no local seafood."
This could result in Australians being reliant on overseas fishermen, she said.
"But overseas fishermen may not have as good environmental credentials," Mrs Hill said.
"All Australian fisheries have to have the highest environmental and sustainability standards.
"The fishing industry shouldn't be allowed to die a slow, lingering death. If we can't manage it, we need to look at what other options there are."