Season off to busy start
The whitebait season is under way.
But beneath the chest-high waders and early morning starts, there’s a looming question – just how much is it affecting the fish species involved?
Anecdotal evidence is spotty. Many say the fish aren’t as plentiful as they once were; other whitebaiters reported last year’s season was their best ever.
Department of Conservation ( DOC) whitebait fishery manager Nick Moody said the challenge of understanding whitebait is that their movements at sea are still poorly understood, and they don’t swim up the same rivers that were born in.
Whitebait are the young of six fish species, four of which are classed as declining or threatened.
The fish hatch in freshwater, get washed out into the ocean, and return months later as what’s known as whitebait.
‘‘We count the adults as they’re large, so they’re easier to catch and count, and it’s them that breed the next generation. So it’s their number that’s the key number,’’ Moody said.
This year the whitebait season runs from September 1 to October 30, making it six weeks shorter than previous seasons.
DOC was also holding its first-ever nationwide whitebaiter count to gather more data, Moody said.
‘‘People will see rangers on riverbanks counting the number of fishers and the kind of nets they’re using; also some aerial surveys from planes.’’
Despite tightened regulations over the past two years, the Taranaki whitebait hotspots of Mōkau and Awakino were buzzing at the start of the season.
While asking prices for whitebait stands have reached $60,000 in recent years, it’s not all about the location or gear. Whitebaiter Nichaela Phillips said her ‘‘manky old net’’ could be part of the secret of her whitebaiting ability. ‘‘I think it’s got flavour’’.
In Mōkau signs advertising accommodation read ‘‘no vacancy’’, boat trailers crowded the launchsite, and plenty of hungry punters stopped by the Whitebait Inn. Inn owner Jodie Death said the start of the whitebait season has been ‘‘just crazy’’.
She buys more than a tonne of the ‘‘white gold’’ every year – importing some from the South Island as the fish they received from the Mōkau River couldn’t keep up with demand. Near the bridge Rachell and Paul Penberth were keeping an eye on their setnet. The pair of avid fishers had woken up at 4.30am and driven from Inglewood for the start of the season, the attraction of whitebaiting is the challenge. ‘‘Paul fell into the water the first year, there’s heaps of mud so it can get quite slippery.’’
Forest & Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay said the environmental advocacy group has been pushing ‘‘really hard’’ for what it considers to be three essential elements of a managed fishery: a licensing system, a catch limit, and some sort of data collection.
There are many issues affecting whitebait populations, such as habitat destruction and water quality,but fishing – particularly commercially – adds pressure, Kay said. ‘‘And while it might not be the biggest pressure, it’s one that we can kind of correct pretty quickly. You can almost overnight say actually we’re going to change the rules or we’re going to put a limit.’’