Blue cod catch limit cut mixed bag, says leader

New blue cod rules for the top of the south are a mixed blessing, says long-time recreational fishing leader Geoff Rowling.

Rowling, immediate past president of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council, said the changes announced by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy in Picton on Thursday might be ‘‘pretty close’’ to what was needed for the inner Marlborough Sounds.

But there was no justification for cutting the cod quota on the coastline west of French Pass from three to two fish, he said.

Guy scrapped the muchcriticised ‘‘slot rule’’ that meant only cod between 30 and 35cm could be taken from within the Sounds.

This has been replaced with a minimum size of 33cm across the whole Challenger East zone, from the Clarence River on the east coast across the top of the South Island and west to Farewell Spit. The existing minimum size outside the Sounds was 30cm.

Guy has also widened the twofish limit to cover the entire zone. Previously it was two fish within the Sounds, and three from French Pass to Farewell Spit.

He has also dropped the transit rule, which meant that only fish caught within the Sounds could be landed there, and has included commercial fishing in the annual Sounds season closure from September 1 to December 19.

Rowling said the 33cm minimum size was a good change but the others made him want to give up involvement in the ministry process.

The one-third cut in the Tasman and Golden Bay bag limit was brought in with ‘‘no science at all’’, he said. He believed most recreational fishers would be ‘‘reasonably accepting’’ of the increase in minimum size, but the reduction in the bag limit was ‘‘really just a bit of a head-shaker.’’

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