‘‘If we want to maintain the public right to fish for the generations that follow, then we must fiercely protect remaining fish stocks.’’
SUNDAY POLITICS, EDITORIAL, LETTERS, CARTOON & QUIZ
Fish are the most political of animals. From the Sealord deal, to John Key’s declaration that Kiwis care more about snapper than spies, to the ongoing wrangle over placing cameras on boats.
Commercial fishers want to make a living. Boaties want to take home a feed after a day on the water. And environmentalists want to guarantee we all have enough fish to eat.
And no-one wants to pay the price of overfishing. After a hands-off approach in their first term, the Government is slowly moving to address destructive and wasteful commercial practices.
Earlier this month, Oceans Minister David Parker agreed to tackle illegal fish dumping by the industry, requiring boats to bring their entire catch back to port and installing cameras on 300 vessels.
And last week, four years after a devastating report into vanishing marine life, he announced proposals to restrict trawling in some parts of the Hauraki Gulf/Tı¯kapa Moana and create some protection to restore its health.
It will take another excruciating three years for any of these plans to come to pass while they consult and draft legislation.
Experts want 30 per cent of the 1.2 million hectares of ocean put into marine reserves. Parker claims his strategy will offer protection to 17.6 per cent – although little of this is in genuine ‘‘no-take’’ reserves.
The gulf, a stretch of ocean from Mangawhai, north of Auckland, to Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula in the south, is an important inshore fishery. It provides one third of New Zealand’s total commercial snapper catch, and other target species are scallops, crayfish and kina.
But its warm and sheltered waters make it one of the country’s busiest areas for recreational boating and fishing. An estimated 37 per cent of recreational
fishers make it their playground, with up to 1000 boats out fishing on a typical summer weekend.
Sustainability rules for the national fleet need to be toughened. But can we continue to ignore the impact of recreational fishing?
An MPI survey of marine rec fishers estimated we caught seven million fish and close to 3.9m shellfish in 2017/18. (Globally, amateur anglers net catch an estimated 47 billion fish.)
Messing about on boats in New Zealand comes with a relatively relaxed regulatory regime – and no cost. Kiwis, and (pre-Covid) tourists, can wet their line at sea pretty much when they want, without a licence.
In most cases, there is no requirement to report your catch, and the bag limits are often generous. (There are other regulations about the size, and accumulation over a multi day trip.)
The recreational catch limit for kahawai is 20 fish. It is seven for snapper (which account for half of all fin fish taken by amateur fishers in a year) and between two and 15 for blue cod, depending on the area.
That is a lot of food. Especially if the whole family is out for the thrill of a bite.
Pre-pandemic, the number of leisure fishers was in decline. But Covid-19 sparked a boat boom, with sales doubling last year and an upswing in enrolment in marine courses.
Amateur fishing has a large impact. It can alter food webs, contribute to habitat and wildlife disturbance, and facilitate the spread of non-native organisms.
Couple these with commercial fishing pressures, marine pollution and climate change – and stocks are getting slammed.
Everyone is part of the problem in taking fish. Seasoned fishers share stories about depletion over generations. A once-thriving scallop fishery at the top of the South Island is a desert, blue cod stocks continue to decline with concerns about overfishing in Southland, and crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf are functionally extinct.
Imposing any limits on leisure fishing makes politicians very nervous – they are usually met with an emotional outcry.
Conservationists were disappointed with recently imposed new rules for whitebait fishing, still virtually limitless despite four of the six native species facing extinction.
The focus has fallen (fairly) on the more rapacious commercial sector. But if we want to maintain the public right to fish for the generations that follow, then we must fiercely protect remaining fish stocks.
And that should include a national conversation about more limits, closures and even licence fees for boaties.
If we want to maintain the public right to fish for the generations that follow, then we must fiercely protect remaining fish stocks.