IT weighs 9500 tonnes, drags a net the size of a football field and if stood on end would be taller than South Australia's tallest building.

The pending arrival of super-trawler FV Margiris in Australian waters has sparked intense debate about whether it should be allowed to plunder our fish stocks.

Twice the size of the previous largest vessel ever to fish Australian waters, the 140m monster is due to arrive early next month. It will largely be based in Tasmania, but it is expected to trawl the waters of the Great Australian Bight and will likely dock in Port Lincoln.

Southern Bluefin Tuna Association chief executive Brian Jeffries said the trawler would prove an economic boon for SA.

It could also help pioneer more economical ways to provide feed for tuna farms.

But opponents, including Greenpeace and federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, say the Australian Fisheries Management Authority should not have issued it with a 19,000-tonne annual quota for catching jack mackerel, blue mackerel and redbait.



More than 200 boats yesterday formed a convoy on Hobart's River Derwent to protest against the super-trawler's pending arrival.

Activists say there is no way the jack mackerel and redbait fishery can remain sustainable if the trawler is allowed into reserves.

But Mr Jeffries said the Dutch-owned trawler's quota was based on science.

"Australian fisheries management is based on scientific decisions," he said.

"If the scientists say this is the amount of fish you can catch to sustain the fishery, then it doesn't matter how you catch it - by big boat, small boat, whatever it may be.

"What people are protesting here is against scientifically based management."

Mr Jeffries said the trawler would mostly operate around Tasmania, but the tuna fishing industry would welcome it into SA waters.

"Their real direction is to fish in Tasmania where the concentration of the type of fish they are targeting to catch is," he said.

"But it will probably attempt to fish in the Great Australian Bight and we would welcome it. Any boat which comes into an SA port provides economic activity."

The FV Margiris is on its way to Devonport.

jeand@sundaymail.com.au