Farmers refuse to buy fishing licences
Farmers’ fly rods could be gathering dust this summer as many refuse to buy trout-fishing licences in protest against Fish and Game’s ‘‘political attack’’ on the dairy industry.
Southland Fish and Game ranger Cohen Stewart blamed bad weather for a decrease in licence sales in the region this season.
However, farmers were quick to disagree online, many saying they had not bought a licence in protest against the organisation’s anti-dairying stance.
Bernadette Hunt, who farms north of Gore, said a dismal start to summer in the south wasn’t a factor in her family’s decision not to buy a licence.
Her sentiments were echoed by farmers around the country, some of whom had been paying the annual licence fee for decades.
Hunt, who is vice-president of Federated Farmers in Southland, told that farmers were frustrated with Fish and Game’s unbalanced approach to water quality issues.
‘‘If there’s an issue that can be attributed to anything rural, they’re all over it but if it’s urban, Fish and Game is silent,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s a political attack on farmers and I think if they were being more even-handed, farmers wouldn’t be so put out.’’
Fish and Game national policy manager Robert Sowman said last week just under 70,000 fishing licences had been sold nationally in the season’s first three months of (October 1 to January 7).
That was a drop of around 6000 over the same period last year; however, not all regions were seeing lower sales. Fish and Game has had a strained relationship with dairy farmers since coining the phrase ‘‘dirty dairying’’ in the early 2000s.
Despite farmers’ efforts to improve environmental practices, the organisation had not relented in its criticism, Hunt said.
‘‘Farmers have put a lot of time and money into things like fencing and planting waterways and adopting nutrient management plans but it takes time.’’ Bernadette Hunt
‘‘If there’s an issue that can be attributed to anything rural, they’re all over it but if it’s urban, Fish and Game is silent.’’
Things have been tense between dairy farmers and Fish and Game for more than a decade but the relationship has been even more strained in recent months.
So what’s it all about?
What is Fish and Game?
Fish and Game New Zealand was set up in 1990 to represent the interests of anglers and hunters and manage sports fish and game. It’s made up of 12 regional councils and a national council which includes a representative from each region.
Although it has some statutory powers and reports to the Minister of Conservation, Fish and Game is a public entity, not a government department. It isn’t funded by taxpayers and gets almost all of its money through the sale of hunting and fishing licences.
What does it do?
Fish and Game sets hunting and fishing regulations. Its staff and volunteer rangers monitor anglers and hunters to make sure they are licensed and sticking to the rules. Staff also work with police to stop organised poaching.It also works to protect the habitat of sports fish and game birds.
So what’s its issue with farmers?
According to its website, Fish and Game ‘‘is NOT anti-farming’’ but pro-environmentally sustainable farming.
In short, it says farming – the dairy industry, in particular – is negatively affecting the habitats it’s tasked with protecting.
What does Fish and Game want?
Top of its list is dairy industry acknowledgement that there’s an environmental problem to be solved and that the primary responsibility for solving it lies with the industry.