Restaurateur takes a stand: ‘Demand line-caught fish’
A Christchurch fish and chip shop is urging other businesses to stop selling one of New Zealand’s favourite fish over fears for the species’ survival.
Fush owner Anton Matthews stopped serving tarakihi this week after hearing stocks of the fish have dropped to worrying levels.
A Fisheries New Zealand assessment estimated the abundance of tarakihi on the East Coast to be 15.9 per cent of what it would be in the absence of all fishing. The fishery was considered to be sustainable at 40 per cent.
Matthews said 16 per cent was something to worry about and he wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem. He called for New Zealanders to demand their fish be caught on lines rather than in nets.
Fush sources its fish from West Coast fishing company Westfleet, which catches its fish using lines.
‘‘New Zealanders should be demanding fish is line-caught in the same way they demand their eggs are free range.’’
Fush customers chewed through between 150 kilograms and 200kg of fish each week and up until this week about a third of that (50kg) had been filleted tarakihi.
Matthews said New Zealanders needed to be open and try other fish.
‘‘One of the problems I have experienced with New Zealanders is they are only accustomed to eating a few varieties of fish – mostly gurnard, snapper, tarakihi and blue cod.
‘‘Open your eyes and your taste buds to other varieties of fish. It’s supply and demand. We need to all be part of the solution.’’
Matthews has been encouraging customers to try the deep sea fish ribaldo and is trialling cardinal, ling and warehou as replacements for tarakihi. ‘‘They kind of look at you as an alien. They eat it and say ‘wow’ and they’re converted.’’
The reaction to the ban from customers had been positive because many did not realise the state the fishery was in, he said.
Matthews said he would keep tarakihi off the menu until the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) was happy with the stock levels.
An MPI spokesman said tarakihi stock levels were lower than where they should be and the 20 per cent quota cut and proposals being considered were part of the plan to help the fishery recover.
MPI’s system had led to the successful rebuild of other fish stock in the past, including hoki, snapper, crayfish and orange roughy.
Matthews’ stance is supported by Forest and Bird. Spokesman Geoff Keey said Matthews was ‘‘hitting the nail on the head’’ with his refusal to sell tarakihi. ‘‘Tarakihi stocks have been too low for too long. It’s not like it just happened yesterday.’’
The Press contacted several other Christchurch fish and chip shops and found they were all still selling tarakihi.
One said they sourced their fish from three companies, but had no idea how any of it was caught. When explained what bottom trawling involved, they said ‘‘what’s wrong with that?’’
None of the others knew how their suppliers caught tarakihi.
‘‘It’s been very popular, but too dear now,’’ one shop owner said.
The fishing industry believes there is no need for people to stop eating the fish.
Fisheries Inshore chief executive Jeremy Helson said Matthews was entitled to take that position, but while the tarakihi stock was lower than it should be, it was rebuilding and not in crisis. ‘‘If you do absolutely nothing does a crisis fix itself? The housing crisis is not going to fix itself, climate change is not going to fix itself. Tarakihi is rebuilding.’’
The Government cut the tarakihi quota by 20 per cent last year and was considering reducing the commercial catch by a further 31 per cent.
Helson believed there were other ways to rebuild the stock without a further quota reduction, including increasing the size of the tarakihi caught.
Tarakihi was a really important fishery for a lot of coastal communities, he said.
Forest and Bird is pushing for a 40 per cent reduction in commercial quota alongside protections for important juvenile nursery grounds.
Helson said the quota system was based on science and ensured the catch was sustainable regardless of whether the fish was caught on a line or with a net. ‘‘If you catch a fish on a line or a with a net, it’s still a dead fish.’’