Whitebaiting to continue but ‘changes needed’
Whitebaiters have been promised the Government will not put an end to whitebait fishing, but some changes are needed.
About 300 people attended a meeting of the West Coast Whitebaiters Association in Hokitika yesterday.
West Coast-tasman MP Damien O’connor told the meeting he supported the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill, which has passed its first reading in Parliament. More public consultation will be held before its becomes law.
‘‘It will not stop whitebaiting on the West Coast. Yes I can promise you that, but I can’t promise it won’t adjust some things,’’ he told the meeting.
‘‘If you think you can keep going as you are then you have your head in the sand.’’
The bill gave the Department of Conservation (DOC) the power to close fishing in an area for up to five years. Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said changes were needed to protect the 74 per cent of New Zealand’s native fish that were threatened or at risk of extinction.
O’connor said he was in favour of a licensing regime that gave priority to people living in the region, as the fishery had been affected by people coming from elsewhere and catching tonnes of whitebait for commercial sales.
Dairy intensification had also affected the fishery, but the West Coast enjoyed better spawning conditions because many of its rivers were on Conservation land, he said.
The Government had considered 3000 submissions and the legislation would be used as a ‘‘toolbox’’ for DOC to manage the fishery.
The most strongly supported options were habitat protection, licensing, catch limits and the closure of some rivers.
O’connor described National’s claims whitebaiting was going to be banned as ‘‘alternative facts’’.
He acknowledged the Government did not have proper data on whitebait levels, but put that back on whitebaiters to report honestly on catch amounts.
Former West Coast Whitebait Association president Des Mcenaney said whitebaiters needed assurance their information would be kept confidential and not used as a ‘‘back door for the IRD’’.
Westland mayor Bruce Smith said people felt uncomfortable with the conservation minister having sole power to close rivers, which he felt undermined the public submission process.
The West Coast already had the most restrictive fishery in the country, and the rest of New Zealand should be brought into line with it, rather than any further restriction put on the Coast, he said. The Coast’s whitebaiting season was shorter than the rest of the country and 61 rivers and creeks were already closed to whitebait fishing.
A Karamea resident said banning whitebait would kill the town’s economy. The habitat in the Karamea River was being polluted by dairy farming, which did more harm than people catching whitebait for food, he said.
Some called for a ban on commercial fishing of whitebait.
Westland district councillor Helen Lash said a quota system or a ban on commercial fishing would create a black market and would be difficult to police.
‘‘If you think you can keep going as you are then you have your head in the sand.’’ West Coast-tasman MP Damien O’connor addresses whitebaiters