WWF buys fishing licence to create a Tasmania-sized ‘net-free zone’ in Great Barrier Reef

The organisation is understood to have paid Riesenweber an amount at the lower end of six figures for his licence.

Riesenweber mainly sought to catch barramundi with the gill net, which he said he used on or around river mouths and areas with muddy or sandy bottoms.

The 68-year-old said he would continue to commercially line fish on the outer reefs, but was concerned about rising fuel prices and seafood imports.

Riesenweber said his grandfather had fished Moreton Bay and his dad had died on a trawler in 1971.

WWF has focused on the northern section of the reef as it has the highest proportion of threatened marine wildlife, with the area north of Cape Flattery home to about 7,000 dugongs and 282,000 large juvenile and adult turtles.

Leck said there was no formal recording of the entanglement and drowning of threatened marine species in nets. But WWF points to recent marine deaths they say demonstrate the dangers of gill nets.

In September 2018, six sawfish and two dugongs washed up on a beach south of Townsville. All were believed killed by gill nets.