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Future of our Fisheries

when fiction becomes an alternative fact Seafood New Zealand’s CEO Tim Pankhurst’s biased opinion piece, in the NZ Herald 26 January, included the statement that NZ ‘was named as one of the five most sustainable fisheries in the world’ and six fisheries had Marine Stewardship Council accreditation, but this tells only part of the story.

Pankhurst 100% biased, publicizes the alternative facts “results” as being a true and correct analysis of the state of our fishery. It is utterly false. As the NZ ranking is based on the opinions of NZ fishing industry lackeys, they are heavily biased.

Professor Ray Hilborn one of the study’s researchers, was outed last year as having received millions of dollars from fishing, seafood and industry groups, including Seafood New Zealand. He has deep links to the New Zealand seafood industry. “The seafood industry has given millions of dollars to Ray Hilborn,” says Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar. “Hilborn’s failure to acknowledge the problem of overfishing is the equivalent of climate denial and every person who reads his work should at the very least know that corporate interests are underwriting his commentary.”

“Throughout his career, Hilborn has fought alongside corporations against ocean conservation efforts, and in fact, just last year he attacked Greenpeace’s campaign to stop labour abuse and unsustainable fishing by tuna industry giant Thai Union”, continued Hocevar. “It isn’t just that the seafood industry is funding Ray Hilborn. The problem is that he has repeatedly failed to acknowl-

SEE INSIDE edge these conflicts of interest in

Page 2 - Crayfish on

the menu

Page 6 - Letters to the

editor

Page 8 - Plan to levy

hunters

Page 9 - Motiti Island

appeal

Page 12 - White Maori

Patriot

violation of publication require- manager at Seafood New Zealand, ments, even as he has taken mil- business innovation and quota lions of dollars in industry funding.” manager at Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd (now Moana NZ), and foundation When a leading NZ Industry stoops CEO of FishServe, a wholly owned so low as to employ people of this subsidiary of Seafood New Zealand. calibre one has to wonder what Paul Starr after immigrating to other dirty tricks they are up too? New Zealand in the early 1990s became the chief scientist for the NZ Tim Mckinnel, Research and Inves- Seafood Industry Council. In 2001 tigations Manager at Greenpeace he joined Tropia Ltd to provide New Zealand, said “there are not research services to MPI and the just questions about Hilborn’s rela- fishing industry. Mr Starr should tionship to the New Zealand indus- also have self-identified with the try, but about the influence his work fishing industry category and not has had on New Zealand fishing Government Science category. policy. New Zealanders know what Dishonestly self-identifying to the a hammering our fish get from in- wrong category means that the dustrial fishing, we need our officials results, which are directly affected to be hearing the truth from scien- by them, are also dishonest. If it tists, and not industry funded spin.” looks fishy and smells fishy, it will This latest research involving Hil- in all probability be fishy. It would born, got the opinions of fishery have been financially suicidal for experts from diverse backgrounds these three people to bite the from 28 countries, who were “in- hand that feeds them. On top of vited to complete a survey charac- that how can the close ties that terizing the management systems they have to industry give them for 10 species in their country of the ability to give unbiased opinfamiliarity. Institutional review ions to a report that can be so sigboard approval was not required nificant to NZ’s fisheries policy? for these surveys and Respondents It is nothing short of a conspiracy. were given the option of being Another survey respondent Pamela acknowledged for their contribu- Mace is MPI’s Principal Adviser tion or remaining anonymous.” Fisheries Science who previously The five survey Respondent fish- worked for the Seafood Industry ery experts with “diverse back- Council. Ms Mace working for the grounds” from New Zealand are industry captured MPI spouts the Katherine Short (industry con- good story: “the science story is sultant), Tony Craig (industry con- one of success - substantial and sultant), Pamela Mace (MPI), Paul continued Progress”. But, NIWA’s Starr (industry consultant), and former chief fisheries scientist John Rosemary Hurst (NIWA). They were McKoy is on record as saying “our asked to “self-assign their level of system is NOT strongly scienceexpertise” and to “self-identify into based. We have been fooling a primary background category: ourselves. Decisions on commercial government science, government fishing limits are essentially manager, fishing industry, uni- guesswork and “highly susceptible versity, environmental NGOs, or to influence”. Clearly McKoy was organization external to the coun- not industry captured. Readers try, such as the FAO.” Judging by can draw their own conclusion the results they all seem to have on which of these people was rated their expertise very highly. being economical with the truth.

Katherine Short and Tony Rachel Stewart’s November NZ HerCraig have self-identified them- ald article, ‘Path of destruction and selves into the Environmental dim-wittedness’ is very apt here: NGO category; when in truth they “MPI stands for everything wrong should have self-identified into with this country, and then some”. the fishing industry category. In which case Ms Mace as the Princi pal Adviser Fisheries Science stands Ms Short and Mr Craig are partners for everything wrong with New and directors of Terra Moana Ltd, Zealand’s fisheries, and then some. which consults to the fishing indus- The fifth respondent Rosemary try. Clients include Moana NZ (previ- Hurst, is the Chief Scientist Fisherously known as Aotearoa Fisheries) ies at NIWA (National Institute of and the Paua 2 Industry Associa- Water and Atmosphere). NIWA used tion. Mr Craig the chairman of Paua to be an independent research 2 Industry Association has been organization, but these days is described as “one of those people basically a profit driven consultwho can transcend relationships ing company – $5.5 million profit from the fishermen on the wharf before tax on revenues of $130 to politicians in Parliament”. Previ- million in the 2015/16 year. Its surously he was the business policy vival depends on contracts with

extractive industries, mainly fishing and mining. fisheries stock surveys NIWA carries out are mostly funded through fishing industry levies.

Over the next few weeks NIWA staff will be defending the indefensible, saying that a 35 year marine mining operation off Taranaki will not damage the environment. Individual scientists working for NIWA are well qualified and well meaning, but the financial pressures on NIWA and other consulting companies are doing massive damage to science and the environment.

The simple fact is that NIWA is not a university, and therefore their scientists do not have the statutory role of ‘critics and conscience of society’, which gives them the specific ‘academic freedom’ to be independently critical. Professor James Renwick who worked at NIWA for 20 years, says NIWA scientists were “discouraged from saying anything that would go against public policy, or possibly reflect badly on the Minister”. Science commentator Peter Griffin has said scientists frequently tell him they’ve experienced “pressure from above” not to comment publicly on sensitive issues. “How as a CRI (Crown Research Institute) scientist can I ever speak out against an industry that my CRI serves? I just cannot,” wrote one scientist under the protection of anonymity.

Not only is the Hilborn study based on a biased set of surveys, it is also

based on a biased set of fisheries.

The study deliberately biased the fisheries chosen towards species with the highest catch tonnages and the highest dollar value. Needless to say, these are based on large, mostly offshore fish stocks that were even larger before fishing than they are now. As they say, the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune.

Most of our inshore fish stocks are woefully badly managed. We have population size estimates for only a small handful of fisheries. Most inshore fish quotas are basically a running average of past catches. We are literally flying blind on most NZ fisheries, especially in the inshore.

When people with vested interests are able to orchestrate a litany of lies using industry captured scientists and consultants, it shows that there is something drastically wrong with one of our core industries. This whole orchestration of untruths constructed shows how low these scumbags will go to make these untruths seem believable.

MPI’s reputation is completely shot; they will do what they need to do to convince the politicians that our fishery is in good health.

If that means lying through their teeth about dumping and misreporting so be it. If it means orchestrating some backyard scientists to tell lies so be it. The people involved in involved in Hilborn’s

study are a disgrace to this country.

Winston Peters has it right when he slacked off recently on Radio Live about the failure of the free market neo-liberal ideology that the government has been dogmatically pursuing. Immigration, housing, and fisheries are all complete disasters.

But the question must be asked, why is this piece of rubbish of being in the ‘top five’ being bought out now? With the fisheries review underway, industry captured lackeys need something to peddle to Nathan Guy and politicians saying nothing is broken, everything is fine the QMS just needs future proofing.

When you dig into the methodology of the Hilborn study, the respondents that completed the surveys blatantly lied, and that affects the results. It is fraudulent. It is also based on their level of expertise and some have never ever been involved in marine stock assessments.

They have taken the most valuable species: hoki, paua, crayfish and snapper and they have based their assessments on single species fisheries.

This study doesn’t pass the sniff test. It smells of a completely orchestrated jack-up and deserves nothing less than utter condemnation and Pamela Mace MPI’s Principal Adviser Fisheries Science should be ashamed of herself.

Opinion Piece by Graham Carter

Te Awamutu Fish and Game Trout Fishing Competition Bulmers Landing 18th and 19th March 2017 Lake Arapuni Must have Licence beforehand to enter

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Crayfish on the menu?

Editor Graham Carter mail@fishingoutdoors.co.nz 021 02600437 Graphics: Astro Creative Photography: Sandi Tuan Regular Writers: Graham Carter James Speedy Ben Hope Frank Henry Dick Featherstone Tony Orman Rhys Smith John McNab Fishing and Outdoors is published by Ashwood Grove Ltd. All editorial copy and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions or comments expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of the contributors, editor, staff and management or directors of Ashwood Grove Ltd. ISSN 1179-5034 Unsolicitored editorial, letters, photographs will only be returned if you include a stamped, self addressed envelope. www.fishingoutdoors.org Copyright © 2011 Fishing Outdoors Newspaper, All Rights Reserved.

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If ever there’s a time to treat yourself to a feed of our crayfish during our lazy days of summer – UFO cookers come to mind. The UFO Rocket is ideal in which to place several of these delicacies There are two common species of rock lobster here, both of the type Jasus that is indigenous to the southern ocean: the red or spiny rock lobster, Jasus edwardsii, and the green or pack house rock lobster, Jasus verreauxi.

The pack house is the largest rock lobster and can weigh up to 15 kilograms.

There are rigid restrictions on crayfish fishing, mostly around size but also quantity. It is illegal to catch crayfish that are too small. You measure the

second segment of the tail – it must be greater than 54 millimetres wide for a male and 60mm wide for a female.

Handling: Crayfish is best kept live before cooking, in a chilly bin. To kill put in freezer for a couple of hours or put in iced salt water, this sends them to sleep, then put a knife through the middle of the head.

Cooking: To grill: Cut the cray in half lengthwise, baste with a delicate marinade and grill fleshside up until flesh turns opaque.

To roast or barbecue: Cut in half lengthwise, brush flesh with butter and roast flesh-side down at 200 degrees C in the oven or on the barbecue for 8-10 minutes or until just cooked through.

To boil: Bring a pot (4 – 5 litres) of water to a boil. Stir in a kilo of non-iodized salt and return to boil. This may seem like an excessive amount of salt, but crayfish are not in the water very long and it’s not easy for the salt/seasoning to seep around the shell into the meat.

Boil crayfish for 3 or 4 minutes or until their shells turn a bright orange colour.

Put in cold water immediately afterwards to arrest the cooking process.

Crayfish pie 450g cooked crayfish 1Tbsp vinegar 300ml milk breadcrumbs 1tsp sugar 1/2 tsp mustard 60g butter 2 Tbsp flour Melt the butter in a pot. Stir in flour, salt, and milk and cook for three minutes. Flake the fish and put in a tinfoil pie dish. Add vinegar, sugar and mustard to the sauce. Pour this over the fish and cover with breadcrumbs. Cover with tinfoil lid and crimp the sides.

Add 2 litres of water to the UFO and place your pie in a basket and lower it, using the handles provided, into the cooker. Bake with both burners on full for approximately 25 minutes.

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Whangamata OSC competition results Results from the recent Nauti Girls and Classic Fishing competition held from the Whangamata Ocean Sports Club are as follows: Whangamata Ocean Sports Club’s Classic 2017 Over-all Winners.: Tuna: 1st Bruce Wooding 8.78; 2nd Bruce Casey 6.25; 3rd Carl Johnstone 5.65.

Snapper: 1st Carl Johnstone 4.43; 2nd Carl Henderson 3.12; 3rd Bill TeBrake 2.80.

Kingfish: 1st Tony Campbell 13.69; 2nd Quintin Beatty 13.43; 3rd Sam Morton 12.59.

T & R Shark: 1st Keith Booth, Stars & Stripes.

Marlin: 1st Andrew Gaul 93.5; 2nd Kim Schlapfer 92.5.

T & R Marlin: 1st Steve Trebilco, Black Betty; 2nd Keith Oldbury, Shantara; 3rd Howard Budd, Blue Biyou.

Each of the T & R anglers walked away with $3333.33. A 3 way split of the $10,000 Tag & Release prize pool.

Nauti-Girls 2017 results: A total of 234 fish were weighed in!

The results are as follows: John Dory: 1st Lisa Rose 2.52; 2nd Sonya Barr 2.25; 3rd Rebecca Freeman 2.12.

Kahawai: 1st Lisa Vergottini 3.09; 2nd Karma Preece 3.04; 3rd Casey Van Der Merwe 2.94.

Trevally: 1st Lynn Fowl-

er 3.32; 2nd Wendy Fouracre 3.13; 3rd Lesley Geddes 2.93.

Gurnard: 1st Jackie Hickman 1.23; 2nd Kylie Hoevergen 0.98; 3rd Jackie Hickman 0.96.

Tarakihi: 1st Erin Raill 1.75; 2nd Robyn Littlewood 1.46; 3rd Jackie Sommerville 1.32.

Snapper: 1st Helen Hughes 4.35; 2nd Sheryl Gault 3.85; 3rd Kez McFarlane 3.75.

Tuna: 1st Lisa Grayling 9.21.

Kingfish: 1st Jenny Bird 20.18; 2nd Ashly Howarth 13.04.

No Marlin were weighed in.

Photos from the competition are on our Brag Page.

Kermadec Reserve recommended

By Rhys Smith

Maori have embarrassed themselves with their stance over the Kermadec marine area.

The world wide support for a reserve to be established in the area is said to be 97.7% of people and they want the area protected from all forms of commercialisation.

That includes fishing, harvesting of seaweed or mineral exploitation.

The NZ government has just sent a NIWA research vessel up there to prove a point and they succeeded beautifully.

They found new fish species and a wonder of natural marine life in the area.

The scientists have all agreed that the area should be kept in its natural state and studied so as to learn how better to protect the world’s oceans.

Even James Cameron agreed that this area needs protection and has said so very publicly.

The list of world credited marine specialists that say this reserve is vital to the ecosystem of

the entire planet is too big to list.

Why did Maori throw their toys out of the cot and stop the reserve in its tracks.

Firstly because they could. John Key announced the new reserve to accolades from the world but did so with only a small amount of conversation over the phone with a Maori representative of the area.

This was deemed to be not adequate consultation and so the reserve was stopped.

You could say the other reason was that the Maori elite were culturally offended by John Keys actions, but I wouldn’t. You could say that the Maori elite needed to consult their culturally important god of the sea before making a decision, but I wouldn’t.

You could suggest that the Maori elite may want to hire boats to fish the reserve for profit and I would agree.

You could suggest that the Maori elite are now in an excellent bargaining position to get a bet-

ter compensation packet from government and I would agree.

What is actually going on here is that cultural sensitivity won’t buy you a new V8 Holden but money will. The entire world is now on a mission to lock up in reserves 30% of their fishable territorial waters in order to protect the fisheries of the world for the future.

This is our old friends the Maori elite who don’t give a toss about their own people or what may be good for the country. They will negotiate a large figure pay-out and take massive amounts of commission.

The chances of any of the taxpayer money getting to the hard working local Maori is zero. It has now got to the point that the next time a Maori in a suit says ‘kora’ just say hello and walk away.

They are responsible for bringing separatism into the limelight in this country.

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Pending NZ record, 420kg !! Gladiator and Donna Pascoe snag the big one...

Mike Bell’s new pb 15kg kingfish caught off Gannet on a light jigging set up.

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Waiau Pa Boat Club Family Fishing Competition 2017

Steve Lawn with the heaviest kingfish in the senior section

The Waiau Pa Boat Club held its annual Family Fishing Competition on Sunday February 19th and what a day it turned out to be.

Although numbers were down on last year due largely to unpredictable weather conditions leading up to the competition, weather conditions on the day of the competition were excellent, and all in attendance enjoyed themselves.

Keen boaties began to arrive at 5.30am with the competition kicking off at 6.00am A free bacon and egg breakfast was provided at the boat club shed for anyone who wanted breakfast before heading out on to the water.

Entertainment was provided by Jim Joll who performed a very good selection of easy listening songs to entertain the crowd through the early to mid afternoon while the weigh in was in progress.

Boats began to return around 2.00pm for the weigh in which

draws through the afternoon allowing many non competitors to go home with some great prizes.

The main prize category winners won Shimano rod and reel prize packages with the lucky prize winners going home with an arm full of fishing gear.

Prize winners in the senior section were: Heaviest Snapper: Tracey Thompson 4.75kg, Second heaviest Snapper: Dene Robertson 4.69kg, Kingfish: Steve Lawn 6.45kg, Kahawai: Barry Kidd 2.23kg, Gurnard: Kali Tapara .98kg, Trevally: Paul Collis 1.33kg.

Prize winners in the junior section: Heaviest Snapper: Rylee Cairns 1.60kg, Second heaviest Snapper: Kyan Potter 1.39kg, Gurnard: Lilly Yoakley .78kg, Trevally: Fraser Tilyard .61kg.

The prizes on offer this year were made possible through the generosity of the competition sponsors who each year make the event possible and who are the back bone of the competition.

closed off at 4pm, with prize giving commencing shortly after 4pm.

Food and drinks were available throughout the day, with the guys on the barbecues going nonstop serving up sausages and cold soft drinks.

Also available was coffee supplied by Lisa from The Shot mobile coffee, and ice cream supplied by Joe from Snow boy.

This year the club once again had a senior and junior section in the competition with 6 main prize categories in both sections for Heaviest Snapper, Second Heaviest Snapper, Heaviest Kingfish, Trevally, Kahawai, and Gurnard.

All of the fish categories were won except the Kingfish and Kahawai in the junior section.

There were also numerous spot prize Lilly Yoakley with her heaviest gurnard in the junior section

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Letters to editor Iwi Water Demands

Hugh Barr from the Council of Recreational Associations of NZ (CORANZ) asks......

Do you know what iwi are telling the National Government what they want? Astounding!

This will be through amendments to the Resource Management Act, being brought forward by Nick Smith.

In summary, the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group want: • Transfer of title to all Crown owned river and lake beds and title to the water column above to regional tribal groups.

• Title in fresh water consistent with Waitangi Tribunal rulings.

• Guarantee of allocation of fresh water for all marae and marae housing.

• Free water infrastructure for maraes and marae housing.

• Tribal participation at all levels of fresh water decision-making that may include tribal representation on councils, joint management agreements, and co-management of waterways.

• A $1-billion fund of public money to build the capacity of tribes to implement fresh water management and control.

• Tribal involvement in resource consents or an allocation of tradable water rights.

Regional ratification for the strategy should finish by Janu-

ary 2017, with confirmation of the position of all tribes on water by the middle of next month.

Are you ready to give up water?

I don’t think so.

Hugh Barr

Credibility Gap

Dear Sir I have just seen on-line a study called Public Perceptions of new Zealand’s environment, 2016. It sounds good but when you note the sponsors you wonder at the credibility. Well I did anyhow.

The sponsors were Predator Free New Zealand, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Selwyn District Council, Environment Canterbury, Dairy New Zealand, Taranaki Regional Council and the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society.

A look at sponsors made me wonder. Predator Free NZ? Obsessed with a dogma that involves chasing mythical pests and predators.

PFNZ does not understand predators are part of the natural food chain. Never mind, PFNZ backs aerial 1080 poison a former insecticide which kills almost everything.

Greater Wellington Regional Council? Sorry environmental record.

Wants to dam the Wairarapa, Hutt River cross bladed, toxic algae, dairy

www.baitboards.co.nz

farms sprouting around Lake Ferry, 1080 poison with dead, toxic possums in river, dogs poisoned etc.

Selwyn District Council? Selwyn River once a fine trout river is a mess of dry riverbed and toxic algae. Environment Canterbury known as ECan - government intent on turning low rainfall areas into lush nitrate producing dairy pasture, sacked democratically elected council and installed its own puppet commissioners. ECan’s record dismal with Selwyn River and toxic Lake Forsyth mute testimony to the misnomer “environment”. Taranaki Regional Council, well I cannot pass judgement as I am not familiar with the region. But phone calls to the region shows it’s no different to most regional councils with degraded rivers and streams, poor water quality records, dairying with nitrate runoffs, perhaps urban sewage effluent?

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. Probably the most credible. It can do good advocacy like clean rivers. But there’s a few credibility gaps there with some of the daft dogma that emanates from it. Forest and Bird is a stakeholder in PFNZ. It promotes ‘anti-exotic’ wild animal phobia and it loves 1080 poison to death!

You might think the authors of “Public Perceptions/Environment” would be alert to smearing their credibility with such suspect sponsors.

I suppose you go where the money is and don’t worry about it?

Jeremiah Watson Canterbury

NZDA National Executive off the rails

Dear Sir Moves afoot to levy NZ recreational hunters to fund the Game Animal Council have been emphatically denied by the Game Animal Council which states they would oppose such a move.

The NZDA had a meeting in midJanuary regarding the government proposed levy on Game Animals going overseas, and some idiot decides that they should levy recreational hunters as well; and then to top it off ask for submissions by Feb 13th, without any consultation.

This has to be mind blowing incompetence as the very least.

First only about 10% (if you are lucky) of recreational hunters belong to NZDA, which means that only 10% of recreational hunters will be funding the GAC. Second, at $80-100 per person, as against the NZDA annual levy of about $80, NZDA is almost certain to lose a significant number of its members.

Third: Why no consultation? Because the National Executive knew it would be thrown out by the membership.

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What has the GAC done for deerstalkers and other big game hunters anyway? Open slather hunting in the Ruahine, Tararua. Rimutaka and Aorangi ranges, show DOC is keen to wipe out big game animals, as a step towards the highly controversial Pest Free NZ NZDA represent such a tiny proportion of hunters but seem to hold such a high political spot light, and for what purpose?

Hunters and trampers already pay to stay in DoC huts and to get permits to hunt in pine forests.

A lot of people belong to hunting clubs and pay subs now some prat in Parliament who appears to be very worried with an election pending should be courting hunter’s votes instead of proposing to install another cost on what I see as a right in New Zealand to hunt our own game.

The NZDA side with DoC in their 1080 dumping programme and allow these drops to be carried out in significant areas like the Caples Valley, Clements Road, the Hunua Ranges and other areas where there have been little if any possums and expect sympathy.

Somebody in NZDA needs to wake up.

Peter Dunne the associate Minister for Conservation needs to retire before he gets the boot for this level of stupidity.

See from NZDA’s newsletter: IMPORTANT Notice to Branches and Members Consultation open on Game Trophy Export Levy The Associate Minister of Conservation has commenced public consultation on a proposed new levy to initially fund the Game Animal Council’s activities. The proposed levy would be on export of game animal trophies from New Zealand.

You can find details and access the consultation document here: www. doc.govt.nz/gac-game- trophy-levy.

The introduction of the proposed levy would result in the commercial hunting sector funding the Game Animal Council. However there is no move to set up a system that would enable the recreational sector to contribute to ensuring the GAC is adequately funded to carry out its functions as laid out in the Game Animal Council Act. This would have a number of implications 1. The commercial sector would be aggrieved that recreational hunters are not contributing to the Game Animal Council but are expecting to benefit from the GAC’s activities.

2.

The recreational hunters could not reasonably expect the GAC to listen to their concerns when no contributions come from the recreational sector.

3. The GAC would be underfunded and essentially unable to do little more than is an advisory committee.

At the Natex meeting (28 January 2017) it was agreed that The funding model was inequitable in that it impacted on the commercial sector alone and this would create tensions between commercial and recreational sectors.

The funding model by itself was inadequate and would not generate sufficient funds to enable the GAC to operate in the interests of all hunters.

Natex would urge all branches and individuals to support the development of a funding mechanism by which recreational hunters can support the GAC. Name withheld Masterton

Theft by farmers

Dear Sir Kiwis are being denied access to pollution free rivers and streams because of deliberate Council and government lack of involvement.

First the farmers are allowed to steal public land. Then they use it to degrade public waterways, while Councils and the associated environmental government departments turn a blind eye and farmer friendly bureaucrats ignore the legislation.

And we won’t even begin with how they are affecting the climate.

I know that there will be those who disagree, but if you call yourself a farmer, then you own part of this problem. You may not participate, but you are part of an industry that allows it to happen. And industry like Fonterra and fertilizer companies should be held liable alongside farmers.

And by the same token, they are part of an organization and a society that allows it to happen.

Surely it is time to say - enough!

This is just another part of a welldocumented pattern of overextraction and over-nitrification that is occurring across the country as the government’s policies of ‘doubling the export value’ of industry reaches new heights.

Main stream media allow these atrocities to happen as they are managed by sympathetic government stool pigeons. Anyone that bucks the system or steps out of line finds themselves looking for a new job.

Since the state of freshwater is deteriorating so fast and those charged with managing it for the public good are so clearly failing in that duty on so many fronts. Seems to me it has got to the stage were a public inquiry is required to sort out what is a complicated mess…

Any politician that is not part of the governing body has limited ability to stop this happening and they manner in which our MMP government is run adds to this debacle.

If we do nothing and allow apathy to continue, or rely on Politicians or Councils or DOC or whoever is paid to supposedly look after our most basic ingredient, and who have failed us thus far... this undrinkable unhygienic unhealthy toxic result may be all we can expect... Its now time to step up and be responsible for the future of our waterways - to take a positive stand now!

Bruce Smith Auckland

Time for a change

Dear Sir I have a problem with any Council having the power to govern anything to do with the ocean or rivers because they are elected and have incompetent bureaucrats giving advice.

They don’t tend to elect or employ anybody with the skills to know what they are doing. Maori and MPI have a conflict of interest. DoC has failed badly in an attempt to protect Dolphin and other sea mammals.

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Having a creative and professional approach to both vendor and purchaser Tracy strives to achieve the best possible outcome for both vendor and purchaser. Making every selling experience for her clients as stress free as possible. Tracy will leave no stone unturned, and go that extra mile.

Whether you are relocating, downsizing, selling, as a vendor you deserve the best possible price for your most precious asset.

As a buyer Tracy will leave no stone unturned, and go that extra mile.

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The commercial fishers killed every fish they could find prior to the QMS when they had the management of their fishery. An independent fishery board is needed whose job it is to tell the minister what fish it is able to allocate to TAC each year.

The order of available catch should be local trade/recreational/export with the proviso that no fish should be exported from the inshore fishery.

The constant bad press around MPI fishery has been a political PR disaster for the National Party.

The fishery cake may just be too hot for any political party to want.

This topic deserves a LOT more media attention leading up to the elections, however whatever National says it will do will probably not deliver on anyway... just like with the last election.

Labour and the greens will just turn everything into a reserve though so they’re now much cop. The Greens are effectively Greenpeace. Labour has very strong commercial fishing commitments so no reserves from them. The best hope for the recreational fisher is to have NZ First in coalition with Labour.

That’s my best guess at this stage.

The NZ fishery has been raped and pillaged and by and large destroyed by overseas interests for years. This has always been done under the control of, who else “The government.

Who are they? well.... no more than a bunch of accountants, bankers and miscreants. They value the world in terms of figures and numbers, while I, value our land by the happiness of the people ......and I ain’t happy.

NZ is becoming the laughing stock of Asia and the US with our current attempts to “control” our fishery.

I have fished the Auckland gulf for going on 55 years, my father before me and his father before him.

My great grandfather had the Bay of Islands season record for Mako and Pin fish. I have always had “the knack”. I catch fish when nobody else does but it is becoming more and more difficult every year.

There is a pattern here. National has been quick to cater to the wishes of big business and foreign interests, and to put their interests ahead of consumers and the public. This has been evident in its failure to properly regulate businesses in sectors like fisheries, prisons, banking, mining, and insurance. Look at the rich list and there is plenty of fishing families on it.

James Wilson Auckland

TV Blooper?

have fawns at foot. The first deer shot was a hind late evening. After getting to the dead deer it was declared the female was “dry” that is no fawn.

Was it? We only have the hunter’s word. It would be rare to find a hind “dry.” Besides it was decided to shoot the hind not knowing beforehand if she was ‘dry” or had a fawn nearby.

Then down in the Rangitikei River the principal of the party and film making had an unsteady shot at a hind browsing by the riverside. Good job he missed. Because the hind very probably had a fawn nearby.

Shooting a hind at that time of the year is unsporting. Any fawn would die a slow death without its mother.

The programme was not sending a good message to young hunters.

I was surprised those two hinds incidents were put in the show.

It was a real blooper. Embarrassing and unethical.

Jason Rasmussen Wairarapa

Water contaminants

Dear Sir As an avid reader of your newspaper I’m sick and tired of hearing about the farmers always getting blamed for everything from A to Z. It seems to me that the tree huggers have a non-stop appetite to play God with the world.

We live on the upper reaches of the Kaipara and are surrounded by dairy farming yet the upper reaches are producing snapper, kahawai, flounder, mullet, sprats etc in abundance!

It seems to me that it’s OK for Councils to get away with pollution yet want to fine, name, blame any farmer at will.

Example 1: Last week the big smoke had sewerage flowing into the sea, no fines, funny that.

Example 2: whenever Whangarei gets a flood, sewerage goes into the harbour and Mr Johnathon Jarmin from the Health Board goes on radio, no swimming, no shellfish gathering, fishing etc. it’s been the same results for years, no fines. If that was a farmer you’d never hear the end of it and fined a million bucks etc.

Now hope your readers get the picture.

Also when fencing off even small streams that flow only when it rains becomes a highway for weeds, some noxious so we need to spray them out. But you’re not allowed to put spray to waterways. So you’re stuffed it you do and stuffed if you don’t. We are getting fed up, leave us alone.

Go moan about something else.

Rob Cullen Mangaturoto

Dear Editor, The programme on TV on Choice channel titled “Hunting Adventures” is excellent but alas it goofed big time in the one on the Kaimanawas.

The filming took place the week before Christmas when hinds would

1080 in Trout

Dear Sir It is worth remembering that the ONLY recent study of the effects of 1080 in trout were initiated through the efforts of the New Zealand

Federation of Freshwater Anglers, nobody else. I personally believe that the study was compromised and that the results have certainly been taken out of context - by DoC. The study was terminated much too quickly, but did find that trout exposed to 1080 had high concentrations of the stuff in their flesh.

Supporters of 1080 will claim that the trout in the study were forcefed 1080, but if you read the experimental protocol, you will see that they did that because mice can detect 1080 in bait, and will avoid eating it. People might like to think about that the next time some half-witted politician stands up and talks about blitzing mouse plagues of biblical proportions with 1080.

We simply don’t know what the long term effects on other species or whole ecosystems, let alone human health, are - because there is simply no credible research that has been done. Obviously DoC and other members of PFNZ don’t see it in their best interests to do any either.

DoC will never mention trout when notifying poison drops, and F&G will only very rarely either. It speaks volumes about the mentality that exists within DoC in particular.

It is the height of the summer trout fishing season, and not only are world-famous fisheries such as in the Makarora/Wilkin Valley Catchments being blitzed, but headwaters on both sides of Lake Taupo are also copping it at present.

Not only are F&G ‘missing in action’ over these atrocities; DoC is exhibiting a complete, contemptible, callous disregard of protecting any aspect of freshwater fisheries management, native or otherwise.

Ken Sims Wellington

Water policy a nonsense

Dear Sir Well, here you go. Nick Smith’s major announcement on Freshwater is a complete joke and carefully worded ‘fake news.’ A masterpiece of post-truth Alt-News and Alt-Facts.

I’m sure that better minds than mine will pour over it and analyze it, but if you want to see where the ‘smoke and mirrors’ are that signify where he is shifting the goalposts yet again, check out page 39. Oh, and a couple of things to note: Attribute state must be determined using a minimum of 100 samples, collected on a regular basis regardless of weather conditions, over a maximum of 10 years.

When you look at the number of sites that would comply with this on the LAWA site - he has just bought himself at least 10 years for a start.

And this: The estimated risk of Campylobacter infection is likely higher than 50 cases in every 1,000 exposures. What the hell sort of scientific standard is that? How on earth would you even begin to measure it? This is nonsense stuff.

It reflects poorly on even someone as disingenuous as our current Minister for the Environment.

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rivers worse. A policy that would increase health risks to the public.

We call on New Zealanders to join us in the fight against these plans.

We will not let the government continue to pollute fresh water,” Nathan Guy Minister of MPI says the new rules on stock exclusion are part of the Government’s plans setting a target for 90% of rivers and lakes to be swimmable by 2040.

What Guy fails to address is the huge amount of water extraction from rivers which is currently leaving many dry, and the damage intensified

dairying is doing through leaching nitrogen into waterways. The land can only absorb so much and overstocking is also a major contributor.

Environment Minister Nick Smith says “The new regulations on excluding stock from waterways are an important part of this plan to improve water quality.” Again what National fails to address is that it’s not just unfenced stock that is damaging waterways, It’s also Councils lack of responsibility for dumping raw sewerage during floods in many rivers. But mostly, it is the combination

7

of over-extraction and therefore warmed sluggish waterways filled with highly soluble and mobile nutrients from intensive agriculture on inappropriate land. Where there is any water left in our waterways, this is principally why they are toxic soups. It is a direct result of both Regional and Central Government policies, for which Dr. Smith and Nathan Guy must take full responsibility.

Ken Sims Wellington

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Water – Nationals election stunt

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Dear Sir Does National really think that they can pull the same wool over the public’s eyes twice in a row, and get away with it? Just as Amy Adams made wadeable, not swimmable a national water quality standard, so Nick Smith has ‘adjusted’ what swimmable means, and guess what?

Suddenly a lot more waterways are ‘swimmable’! Your chances of them making you or your children sick, or poisoning your dogs haven’t suddenly changed, but they do make the Governments little maps look great.

Ken Sims, spokesman for the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers, could only echo what other organisations fighting to clean up our polluted public waterways, especially the ‘Choose Clean Water’ campaigners, were saying.

“It’s unbelievable that in an election year, the only thing that National can offer New Zealanders is a policy that will make pollution of

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Plan To Levy NZ Hunters Gets Shot Down

by Dick Featherstone

Deer culler Roly Martin crossing the Whakatane river carrying bridge building gear.

Forest service hunters put in all-weather tracks and built walkways and flying foxes across rivers to help trampers and private hunters access hard to get at areas in the early fifties and sixties.

Tribunal to consider protection for the Ngaruroro and Clive rivers A special tribunal has been appointed to consider an application for a Water Conservation Order on Hawke’s Bay’s Ngaruroro and Clive rivers, Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith announced today.

“The tribunal will consider an application by the New Zealand Fish and Game Council, Hawke’s Bay Fish and Game Council, Ngāti Hori ki Kohupatiki, Whitewater New Zealand, Jet Boating New Zealand, and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand to protect the outstanding values of the Ngaruroro and Clive rivers,” Dr Smith says.

“I have appointed Richard Fowler (chair), Alec Neill, Dr Roger Maaka,

Dr Ngaire Phillips and John McCliskie on the basis of their professional skills and experience, and their combined skills as a collective.

I wish them well with their work.”

Water Conservation Orders are set up to recognise and sustain waters considered to be outstanding as a habitat or fishery, or for scenic, scientific or recreational values. Once made, an order is able to restrict resource use to protect these outstanding values.

The public will be invited to make submissions on the application, and the tribunal will then hold a hearing before reporting back to Dr Smith with recommendations.

A plan to levy New Zealand big game hunters has been heavily criticised.

The original proposal was to fund the Game Animal Council by imposing levies on tourist hunters taking trophies out of New Zealand and but somehow it has ended up with an additional purpose to place a levy on New Zealand hunters.

Among the critics were NZ Deerstalkers Association members such as former NZDA national president Steve Veail.

“There is no logical way that a government controlled-organisation like the Game Animal Council can be allowed to manage the recreational rights of New Zealand citizens. This is a free country where a person’s freedom to enjoy outdoor recreation any way they choose is a fundamental right,” he said.

“Fishing and Outdoors” went fishing and found the plan to levy NZ recreational hunters was proposed by NZDA’s national executive in a newsletter to member branches. In the newsletter it was argued the commercial sector on the Game Animal Council (GAC) would be upset if recreational hunters did not contribute, that GAC would not listen to recreational concerns and that GAC would therefore be under-funded and unable to

9-12 March 2017

This reunion is only open to NZ Deercullers Assn Members.

The group who are spearheading this reunion are: Andy Leigh, Brian Neilson, Fred Dickson, Jock Spinks and Shaun Neustroski.

If anyone is able to assist or help out with anything at all during this time, or being prepared to put their hand up for other jobs as they come along.

Please email - ring Jock Spinks on 07 862 4883 or Brian Neilson 027 8910958 or brianneilson@xtra.co.nz

democratic elections and political independence, it doesn’t deserve any money from the hunting public.”

Steve Veail said the Game Animal Council was wrongly structured as its members were picked by the Minister of Conservation and DoC and by law it was duty-bound and weakly advisory to the Minister.

“There needs to be political independence. Recreational Hunting cannot be run by the Minister and DoC as the current GAC is set up. Their agenda conflicts with recreation and even goes to promote commercialisation i.e hunting from helicopters etc, of public game resources while also DoC still consider deer etc., as pests.”

In addition, representation for recreational hunting was “minimal” on the GAC, i.e. outvoted by commercial and political interests he said.

Tokoroa’s Graham Sperry of Tokoroa of the NZ Wildlands Biodiversity Management Society Incorporated. (NZWBMS) said the existing structure and ability of the Game Animal Council (GAC) was suspect.

He said the original concept for a GAC was good but the reality of a GAC dominated by DoC and commercial interests was a

far different model altogether.

“I feel many hunters would need convincing that the GAC could and would always act in their best interests as a priority.”

NZDA national life member and former National president John Bamford of Canterbury said the NZDA newsletter misrepresented NZDA. “That newsletter is promoting something that is not NZDA policy - it’s Trumpism.”

Oamaru’s Lewis Hore a NZDA member for many years but recently resigned questioned why recreational hunters should fund the Game Animal Council since it was attached to DoC and given that government drenched public lands with 1080 and allowed Wild Animal recovery helicopters to hunt at will.

Former NZDA advocacy officer Hugh Barr questioned the value and credibility of the Game Animal Council.

“What has GAC done for recreational hunting? It’s only a puppet for the Minister and DoC,” he said.

Further enquiries by “Fishing and Outdoors” suggested the Game Animal Council itself may be divided over the issue with more than one member expressing “rigorous” opposition to recreational hunters paying a levy.

ANOTHER RABBIT VIRUS A BACKWARD STEP

Deercullers Reunion at the Thames Valley Deerstalkers premises, Paeroa.

operate. NZDA’s national executive urged “all branches and individuals “to support the development of a funding mechanism by which recreational hunters can support the GAC”.

However despite the plea many recreational hunters were critical of the idea of a levy on NZ recreational hunters.

Outdoor Party co-leader Alan Simmons said the idea of a levy on NZ hunters seemed to be heading down the track of a hunting licence for all wild animals such as deer, pigs, thar and other big game.

“To me this is one of our principal freedoms as a New Zealander to go hunting and feed our families.

To actually have to buy a licence and start being controlled by a host of rules is just not our Kiwi way.”

The Outdoors Party was not opposed to a licence to fund a politically independent, democratically elected credible big game commission similar to Fish and Game he said.

But it seems the Game Animal Council itself has firm critics too.

Scientist Bill Chisholm a certified environmental practitioner and recreational hunter, said the Game Animal Council had little respect among hunters.

“Until it’s a credible council with

<c> Richard Prosser - K5 “ecological stupidity.”

Otago Regional Council’s plans to introduce a new virus to kill rabbits are a massive backward step, says New Zealand First’s primary industries spokesman Richard Prosser.

“Wild rabbits can be a huge economic cost to farmers, but to release the K5 virus, knowing it will only knock down 40 per cent, and numbers will bounce back even more in a few years is madness,” he said.

He likened it to the use of 1080 poison which resulted in multi-litter fast breeders like rats bouncing back and surging up into numbers three to four times pre-poison numbers.

“The science is there on rats proving the futility. The reality is within three or four years a population explosion has been generated,” said Richard Prosser.

Set your game-plan for DOC’s hunting comp DOC’s annual hunting competition is gearing up for another season.

The red deer hunting comp, which takes place in the Pureora Forest Park, has been run by DOC since 1987.

Hunting is an important use of public land, and the competition celebrates users and their sport in a fun prizegiving afternoon. This family-friendly event includes a free BBQ and games for the kids. The junior section of the roaring competition is particularly popular with

lots of young ones giving it a go.

This year the competition starts Monday March 20 and entries are open until 2.00pm Sunday 30 April.

As usual prizegiving will be hosted in Pureora Village and the sponsors have again generously agreed to offer some fantastic prizes over a range of categories. The ugliest head category can always do with more entries, and each head entered goes into the draw for a mystery bag of prizes worth approximately $1000.

Often overlooked is the jaw draw prize sponsored by Helisika. Jaws are used to gauge the health of the population and are accepted for any deer shot in the park, with each jaw being an entry for the helicopter time prize.

Terms and conditions for the competition may be found on the DOC website, www.doc. govt.nz/pureora-hunting-comp/ Last year’s winner was Alan Juno, with a head measuring 313.

Alan Juno with his winning head 313 .

Credit DOC.

“It’s ecological stupidity.”

The K5 virus is a variant of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHDV1) strain already in New Zealand.

There was no guarantee the virus would not mutate and jump species. Also it caused inhumane deaths and would be a threat to the country’s 100,000 pet rabbits as there was no vaccine.

“The initial illegal release in 1997 of the RHD virus, or calicivirus as it was thought to be at the time, occurred as a result of an inadequate response by the Government to a problem that could have been solved using proven methods – and we’re about to do it again.”

New Zealand First believed an alternative approach to pest control must be used in order to preserve our coun-

try’s ecological integrity and 100% pure reputation, while also addressing essential animal welfare concerns.

Richard Prossers said instead of the destructive, pointless K5 approach, New Zealand could be harvesting rabbits for profit.

“Rabbit meat is in high demand in restaurants overseas. Pet food manufacturers can’t get enough of it,” he added.

“Rabbit control should involve properly resourced, bounty-based, target-specific methods that would create jobs and income, while allowing for overall numbers to be reduced to below any problematic threshold, instead of indiscriminate poisons and viral methods with no antidote,” said Mr Prosser.

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Farmers Trespass onto Riverside Public Land

by John McNab

“The Press”: newspaper recently..

Council of Outdoor Recreation co-chairman Bill Benfield of the Wairarapa commented it represented an abusive, contemptuous attitude by some farmers to the public’s rivers and their margins.

NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers spokesman Ken Sims of Manawatu, also hit out at the agricultural encroachment.

Ken Sims - Dairying hype against public “Not only are dairying operations enopinion croaching onto public land but are also First they steal public land. Then they depleting the public’s water resource use it to degrade public waterways. by using water from the aquifer and Just part of a well-document- river (one and same thing), namely ed pattern of over-extraction the water resource of the catchment.” and over-nitrification that is oc- Authorities found that nearly 12,000 curring across the country. hectares of Canterbury’s river beds And we won’t even begin with have been taken over by intensive how they are affecting the climate. farming in the last 20 years. Some I know that there will be those was developed by private sales. who disagree, but if you call your- About 25% was public reserve land. self a farmer, then you own part Authorities although unable to quanof this problem. You may not par- tify exact amounts of land, nevertheticipate, but you are part of an in- less conceded land had been taken dustry that allows it to happen. and developed without permission.

But by the same token, YOU are Ken Sims of the NZ Federation Freshpart of an organisation and a so- water Anglers said former prime ciety that allows it to happen. minister John Key had hyped up Surely it is time to say - enough! dairying and the goal of growth Parts of some Canterbury river and more growth. However that beds have been lost to expand- flew in the face of public opinion ing farms, particularly dairying. since an independent Horizon surUnofficial estimates say thousands vey in 2014 showed many New of hectares of public land has Zealanders believed the economy gone to private development said was either too heavily dependent

on dairy farming or the growth of intensive dairying had gone too far.

In the survey only 19 percent believed the country should continue to grow dairy farming, with more cows per hectare if necessary.

“National wants to alter the RMA to put economic weight on a par with the environment. The threat to braided rivers as outlined shows the weighting of economic will in practice, become paramount. Goodbye public lands and rivers,” he said.

CORANZ co-chairman Bill Benfield who knew the Ashley River just north of Christchurch in the 1950s said today the river’s flow was a mere trickle of yesteryear “The Ashley’s river environment is dead, now just a flood channel. It’s not unique to Canterbury but is happening over most of New Zealand,” he said.

Not only were the public, paying for the benefit of few usually corporate dairying exploiters, but the privatising of riverine margins had been damaging to rivers adding to the major damage of the last twenty odd years of “mad-cap agricultural intensification” and ongoing problems of urban and industrial discharges.

“Frankly the public’s inland waterways have been treated with contempt by authorities and central government, they are pillaged of most of their water, and what is left is but open drains,” he added.

National Parks First and Foremost Belong to Kiwis National parks are by law the ‘people’s parks” and New Zealanders should have free entry with tourists charged a national park levy on entering the country says a national outdoor recreation advocacy.

“National parks by law belong to New Zealand citizens,” said Andi Cockroft, co-chairman Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations

of New Zealand (CORANZ). “On the other hand all international tourists entering could be charged a levy, a simple and neat way to do it.”

Andi Cockroft was responding to a report that International tourists may have to start paying to visit national parks as the Department of Conservation struggles to cope with the tourism boom.

Last year, tourism replaced the dairy industry as the top foreign exchange earner for the first time in five years, bringing in $13.5 billion, compared with $13b for dairy.

“Underlying this is the short-sightedness of immediate past prime minister John Key who as Minister of Tourism often advocated reaching tourism targets measured in terms

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of visitors. It’s not about quantity, it should be about quality in targeting high spending affluent tourists instead of playing a maximum numbers game,” said Andi Cockroft.

He said the resource whether national parks or other aspect of the infrastructure, was finite and liable to be stretched to bursting point.

“Growth for growth’s sake by

numbers is crazy,” he said.

At the same time, flooding the country with low spending tourists was putting pressure on Kiwis’ holiday spots and national parks thereby diminishing the New Zealand public’s enjoyment and quality of life. The folly of allowing ‘shoestring’ visitors such as freedom campers was of low dollar value and with rubbish often left,

9

was despoiling the public’s outdoors.

“The NZ public end up paying for the clean-up,” he said.

Andi Cockroft said the debate on visitors paying to visit national parks was a great opportunity to right the wrong that Kiwis had to pay to visit their own parks and stay in huts.

“The reasoning is simple. Kiwis pay taxes and have already paid,” he said.

MPI – Motiti Island appeal The NZ inshore fishery has a very high value. That value could be cultural, commercial or recreational. If there is an abundance of seafood, then all parties are happy to play together if they can have fun, have full bellies or plenty of money in their pocket.

But those days are gone and primarily because we have been exporting our seafood rather than enjoying mother nature’s gift to us as a country.

Let us have a look at the island off the Tauranga coast called Motiti. This beautiful island is easy to access by boat and before man arrived had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of seafood.

The Maori were first to set foot on this piece of paradise so does this give them ownership of the coast or seafood around the island. If you were a true nature lover, you could argue it is part of the greater ecosystem and should be void of ownership.

This would be a Green view, and they have a point. New Chums Beach on the Coromandel Peninsular is a good example of this where the land owners around the beach blocked public access to the beach, but people could

still use the beach from the sea or walk to the beach at low tide.

This brings in the recreational fishers who claim to have a birth right over their right to catch a fish from the shores of NZ to feed their family or for recreation.

They have a point. Should it be that there will be vast areas of coast shut up for personal use of the wealthy or a particular tribe or even cultural-religious group?

Then there are the commercial fishermen who started something with their greed that they may not win.

The commercial fishers have by law been given ownership of an amount of seafood quota through the QMS. But the commercial fishers don’t own all the fish in the sea or either the sea floor or the seawater itself.

The District Councils have management rights over the sea floor and the seawater out to 12 nm.

Maritime NZ have the say over your behaviour at sea, and your safety and maritime documents, survey, skipper’s tickets and such.

So if you tip some oil over the side at sea, maritime will take you to court for pollution and council will send you a bill for the clean-up.

If you want to put something on the

sea floor then you need resource consent and that is issued by the local regional council. They do this under the Resource Management Act. The fishery has been given to three user groups, Customary, Recreational and Commercial fishers.

This was always going to be a nightmare; with the winner being the user with the most political might because the government govern the fishery and as such say who is allowed to catch and what tonnage.

The government is also swayed by the group with the biggest cheque book.

It is also very clear that under the RMA no-one user group may damage the sea floor or fauna to the point that it may alter the bethnic ecosystem of the natural ocean.

Did the trawl and seine boats have a resource consent to cause the destruction to the seabed that they have, no way. Did the cray guys have resource consent to catch so many cray to the extent that the kina have eaten all the fauna around the island, I guess not.

The residents of Motiti should win this appeal easily.

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Raumati South Fishing Club competition The day turned out to be an absolute stunner weather wise and finally it feels like summer has arrived.

The fishing was better than previous competitions with 31 fish in total weighed in.

A special mention goes out to Mike Lean with his PB land based snapper at 8.54kg and we applaud the amount of self-control it must have taken to not take the fish

and release it to live another day.

Junior Division: 1st heaviest Kahawai: 1.35kg Harlem Rameka; 2nd heaviest Kahawai: .4 kg Dean Murtaon; 3rd heaviest Kahawai- spot prized tackle bag.

Senior division: 1st heaviest Kahawai: 2.11 kg Mereana Henry; 2nd heaviest Kahawai: 2.11kg Tim Abernethy; 3rd heaviest kahawai: 1 kg Jason Wee; Heaviest Snapper: 8.5kg

Mike Lean; Heaviest Red Cod: 1.97kg Randall Tierney; Heaviest Gurnard: spot prized rod and reel combo; Heaviest Trevally: spot prized rod and reel combo; Specialists Heaviest other fish: 2.04 kg Conger Eel caught by Gill; Heaviest yellow eye mullet: spot prized rod and reel combo; Kapiti Lady angler of the day: spot prized rod and reel combo.

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Book reviews

A Flyfisher’s Guide to Giant Trevally

By Peter McLeod

Every year hundreds of anglers from NZ head overseas to places like Christmas Island and Aitutaki

in search of the infamous GT. Some get lucky and land a decent catch while most anglers take several days to adapt and get into the swing of things.

Fly fishing for GT’s and other species is not something that you can easily adapt to – like all things it takes time and commitment.

There are many different techniques to learn and brush up on.

This book covers many of these issues.

Catching a giant trevally (or ‘GT’) on a fly rod is the pinnacle of flats fishing: highly challenging, requiring skill and preparation. This is the first comprehensive guide to giant trevally fishing on the fly.

The giant trevally is an apex preda-

tor, and the way it operates is nothing less than brutal. These ‘gangsters of the flats’ are like packs of hoodlums marauding across the atolls and shallow estuaries. Hunting for trevally in the harsh environment they inhabit needs a certain resolve.

The flyfisher’s first encounter with a giant trevally will be an electrifying experience. A GT can destroy tackle and ego, leaving all in its wake.

But once you’ve caught one, GT flyfishing is an experience that any angler will want to repeat.

There is very little information previously available on the subject of trevally fishing and this is the first book devoted to the subject.

This book is a must if you are considering an excursion, as the practical advice on the techniques, GT behaviour and locating these beasts of the ocean, the right tackle and equipment and the world’s best locations for trevally, is an invaluable addition to the bookshelf.

Available from bookshops and www.nationwidebooks.co.nz PRICE: $75.00 inc GST.

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Report not concerned about water quality A new report confirms the dairy industry makes a major contribution to New Zealand’s economy, says Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy. But at what cost to our environment, rivers, streams and more especially water quality?

“According to the report dairy contributes $7.8 billion to New Zealand’s GDP and is our largest goods exporter. This is a timely reminder of just how important the dairy industry is,” says Mr Guy. “According to the report the dairy sector employs over 40,000 workers and employment in this sector has grown more than twice as fast as total employment, at an average of 3.7% per year since 2000.

But is this sufficient to justify the damage that is being caused through water extraction and the leaching of nitrates and heavy metals into our rivers.

“As a Government National are

investing $89 million, matched by the dairy industry, through the Primary Growth Partnership to help create new products, reduce environmental impacts, increase on-farm productivity, and improve agricultural education.”

“The report also highlights the potential of further trade liberalisation NZIERS modelling suggests that if all global dairy tariffs were eliminated, this would result in a $1 billion boost to GDP. This is why opening up market access and tackling non-tariff barriers as well remains a priority.”

What the report doesn’t say is that if you are concerned about the state of our rivers, streams and water quality you can bet your gumboots the National government isn’t. Just look at their latest plan. When your chance of getting E.coli is 1-20 then it clearly shows they don’t care.

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Coromandel Fishing – getting value for money skipper. This means ous aspects of the mussel harvesting his experience, local and enjoy the views of the various isknowledge and abil- lands and coastline as the charter boat ity to find the fish! travels to and from the fishing spots.

Tom Meyers the owner This trip is much more than just goof Coromandel Fishing ing out fishing – it’s more about goCharters has taken on ing out for the adventure and to a new skipper to join catch the various species available. the team, with Jordan Coromandel Fishing Charters spehis current skipper cialize in ‘four hour’ charters through and Chris the deckie. the summer months as they have Jason Chaplin, has found that after that the fishers Jason Chaplin skipper of Rueben Jack helping Tom Meyers joined the team af- want to go home and sort out the unhook a fish ter having worked fish already caught. This involves an on the mussel har- early morning excursion, one around Coromandel Fishing – get- vester barges for the last five years, lunchtime and an evening fish. ting value for money four of those years as skipper. It’s great to see fishers finally using My passengers were extremely excited Jason is a keen fisherman himself and salt ice to look after their catch as with the prospect of being able to par- has a lot of knowledge of fishing around the salt ice ensures the catch is fresh ticipate in a fishing charter that delivers the mussel farms and Hauraki Gulf. when filleted. Coromandel Fishing value for money. All too often we hear Coromandel Fishing Charters can Charters work in unison with Salty of fishos going on a charter and com- provide the complete package from Towers Bait and Tackle shop who offer rods and reels, to bait, a fish filleting service along with supberley and salt ice; or you plies of salt ice, bait, berley and tackle are welcome to provide supplies and they have fresh musyour own and go on an ad- sels available to take home as well. venture with a difference. Coromandel Fishing Charters ofWith two fishing boats fer more than a fishing experiavailable each trip can be ence as there is a lot more to the tailor made to suit busi- Hauraki Gulf than people imagine. ness timings and the num- To Book your Charter or Christber attending, as each trip mas function call Tom or Lorraine leaves from Te Kouma bay. on 0800 267624 or 027 8668001 You can tailor make you or the office at 07 8668928.

Nikita Fluety from Auckland with a nice snapper trip to or rely on the skip- Email: corofishing@gmail.com per to take you around the ing home with only one or two fish. local Coromandel fishing There are a large number of skippers spots or for the more adthat not only know what they are do- venturous they go further ing they also know where to catch the afield by arrangement. fish. Fortunately the bad ones are in a The variety and size minority but they create a bad reputa- of fish is really amaztion. The trick is to find a charter op- ing in the Hauraki Gulf eration that delivers and stick with it. and they can target You do of course have to realize that Snapper, Tarakihi, Poeven a great skipper can have a bad rae, Kahawai, Trevally, day, but if you even out your chances and Kingfish, however they would be few and far between. most trips specifically Some fishos aren’t aware but the dif- target snapper in and ference between a successful charter around the mussel farms.

Ken Merritt from Thames with a nice snapper and a bad one can come down to the Anglers may see the vari-

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11

COROMANDEL FISH AND DIVE REPORT At last the weather seems to be settling down with less wind around there are lots of little fish being caught but with perseverance the big ones are out there, there’s good fishing around the mussel farms but keep out of the way if the barges are working and don’t anchor too close to the farms. Slow jigs on light tackle is a lot of fun with

some good catches being reported.

Still scallops out there but a little harder to find and the odd cray so keep looking, no info on where they are being found just that they are there.

We were informed just before Anniversary weekend that there is a problem with some dive tanks and we will not be testing or fill-

ing the following bottles: CIG AS1777 manufactured before 1991; Luxfer Dot 3 AL manufactured before 1989; All tanks with SP 6498 There are a few others so if in doubt please bring them in and we will show you how to check the markings.

Tight Lines Gail & Des.

New Zealand’s endemic dolphins are hanging by a thread Like Mexico’s embattled vaquita porpoise, another marine mammal on the other side of the Pacific Ocean may be making its last stand. The Maui’s dolphin, the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin, which lives off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, is down to about 60 individuals, from 2000 in the 1970’s.

Scientists and nongovernmental organizations blame its death spiral on gillnets and bottom trawlers: legal fishing methods that snare it by accident.

In 2003, the government banned nets in 1600 square kilometers of coastal waters, or 5% of the Maui’s habitat.

The International Whaling Commission and environmental groups have urged the authorities to extend that ban to the dolphin’s entire range — without success. The government “is more interested in protecting the fishing industry than in protecting our dolphins from extinction,” charges Russel Norman, a former Green Party MP now president of Greenpeace New Zealand here.

The government, on one hand claim that the numbers show the beginnings of recovery and on the other hand agree that the dolphin get

entangled in fishermen’s nets and drown. The government is putting the fishermen first and then blatantly lying about the continuing toll.

Sanford’s and Moana NZ two of NZ’s fishing companies involved in the demise of dolphin have agreed to stop buying fish from fishermen using set nets by October this year.

Again an admission that the set nets are the major problem yet they set a date in the future which could see the further demise of dolphin. Then to put ‘icing on the cake’ they say they will stop using trawlers by 2020 another serious dolphin killing method.

Sequencing mitochondrial DNA in biopsy samples to identify individual dolphins, a team at the University of Auckland last year estimated the Maui’s population at 63; the two previous surveys tallied 69 and 55.

“There’s no doubt the population is very low but these results … show we’re on the right track,” Nathan Guy, the New Zealand minister, who oversees fishing, wrote in a statement. Guy says “there have been no verified deaths” of Maui’s dolphins in gillnets or trawl nets since 2002.

Is this minister completely stupid.

On one hand we have fishing companies admitting their methods kill dolphin and on the other a minister with his head buried in the sand.

“Sixty-three is nothing to celebrate,” says Liz Slooten, who has been studying the diminutive cetaceans for 32 years.

In 2004, Slooten, a marine zoologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, carried out a visual survey across the Maui’s range and concluded that there were 111 of the dolphins left.

Since then, she says, “If they weren’t being killed in nets, their numbers would have risen, not declined.”

Also in a population tailspin is the Hector’s dolphin, a close cousin of the Maui’s that lives off New Zealand’s South Island; the populations have not interbred for 16,000 years, according to a DNA analysis.

Since the 1970’s, Slooten says, Hector’s numbers have fallen from 50,000 to about 10,000. Fishing nets are driving much of that decline, too, she says.

“The vaquita is the perfect example of what happens when you wait too long,” Slooten says. “If the killing doesn’t stop, the same thing is going to happen here.”

12

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Early Bird Bait & Tackle Report

Early Bird Bait & Tackle Hello to all my readers. It’s too hot now. I am one person who will readily admit that the hot weather doesn’t like me. Give me the cold of Norway and I’ll be happy as a lark.

Enough of the moaning; I may be a ‘Pom’ but I’m not a whinging ‘Pom’.

If you haven’t been out on the Firth in the last few weeks all I can say is that you’re missing all of the fun.

Fishing has improved at least 100% since January and is getting better by the day. The plague of small Snapper that have been taking your bait over the last two months have virtually all gone now and have been replaced by some excellent snapper, some of which I have weighed in up to 8kg. There are plenty of stories going around about the one that got away and a lot of these Snapper are going to be in the 12kg range. These fish are breeders and shouldn’t really be kept but obviously if it is your first big fish, you have to have to have the boasting rights and the photos to go with it. Since we had that bit of rain a few weeks ago, more and more fishermen are heading out on the Firth and most of these are hit-

ting the Mussel Farms. There are plenty of 35cm – 45cm Snapper about and to pick a better part of the Farm would be impossible. Reports of 45cm Snapper as far down as Thames means that the Firth is in very good condition and hopefully will stay like that indefinitely. The best baits seem to be Pilchards, Squid and Bonito but judging by reports, people tell me that the fish are hungry and will take anything. Softbaits and jigs are all working and are paying of better when drifting further out or between the farms. There are plenty of Kingies about with many big ones caught from the shore. Wilsons Bay has produced some sizeable specimens with the biggest being 32lb and one that was the size of a kayak that busted off after a good fight. Talking about big fish and Kayaks!!!!!! ………. One of my customers who was fishing beyond the islands at Papa Aroha and who wishes to be kept anonymous saw a huge Mako leap out of the water about 80 metres in front of him. He didn’t think much of it as he is experienced and wasn’t really worried until there was a swirl around his kayak. Looking behind there was a huge head just coming out of the water and grabbing his Berley Pot. The pot was tied on but not so secure as to tip the Kayak. With the Berley Pot gone and in the jaws of death he paddled away frantically and ended his days fishing nearer the shore. These sort of stories makes me think that I am definitely too old to get myself a Kayak. Have you had any similar stories? Pop in to my shop and tell me and I’ll tell the world. Obviously when out there fishing, you should use quality gear and the Fladen range of ‘XtraFlexx’ rods are certainly proving their worth. Some of the guys using them have either filmed or had photos taken of them in use with amazing results. I am in the process of putting a video of my friend Greg on my Facebook page.

He has hooked into a huge Kingie and the rod is bent so much it is right under the boat and in some places the rod tip is just about touching his reel. These are the new rods made from volcanic rock (Basalt) and really are fantastic.

They are selling

Zealand’s GDP and is our largest goods exporter. This is a timely reminder of just how important the dairy industry is,” says Mr Guy. “According to the report the dairy sector employs over 40,000 workers and employment in this sector has grown more than twice as fast as total employment, at an aver-

World class fishery has let NZ fishers down again

Proposals by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) relating to the future management of three rock lobster fisheries around the coast from East Cape to Wellington and up to Foxton, and Otago in the south need urgent attention.

Unfortunately, MPI wants to allow increased commercial fishing in Otago using the same flawed science that has driven CRA2 (Auckland region) into a disgraceful collapse.

Recreational fishers want Nathan Guy to rein in his Ministry. MPI has failed to acknowledge that it currently allows commercial fishers to take crayfish smaller than the minimum legal size in an effort to prop up the industry at the expense of both recreational and customary fishers but also at huge cost to the future of our fisheries for all types of very fast along with other prod- fishing and likely to be a grave misucts of similar quality. There is also a range called ‘Maxximus’ which are of similar quality except that these are produced using ‘Kevlar’ which for those who don’t know is a body armour used by defence forces By Steven Waerea around the world on vehicles and personnel. I have attached a few The New Zealand environment has photos this month of some good been failing one step at a time at a snapper caught out on the farms. rapid rate for the last few years under Jenny, with a nice snapper caught the National party, talking to the oldon Mussel Meat. Samantha is stand- er wiser folk they proclaim it has been ing outside my shop with a nice failing since the sixties, then take into 7.92kg Snapper and Jackie who was account the destruction of all the nafishing onboard with Snapper Safa- tive trees and wetlands from our early ris. She had the biggest fish of the settlers to build cities and farms that day weighing in at 9lb 2oz caught are greatly impacting on our rivers with Bonito bait. Also; last but not and streams felt today with the bioleast is Liam. Holding a huge snap- diversity that this all supports from per he caught on holiday up at the fish in the rivers to the shell fish Papa Aroha. This beauty was not found in our harbours estuaries and weighed and was returned to the around the coastline of New Zealand. water straight after the photo ses- Today here in Hawkes Bay of recent we sion. Well guys; March is normally have had a continuous problematic the month for the big fish so come fresh water issue after issue after issue, on over to the Firth. The winds are it all started with these water bottling predominantly Easterlies which is plants and algae blooms in our rivers perfect for the Thames side of the with lake Tutira dying with eels found coast. Call in and say hello. I nor- dead floating along the lake edges, mally have up to date local knowledge so can put you on the right spots. Don’t forget I give free ice if you spend $50.00 or more and 10% discount if you spend $100.00. “Take it easy out there; wear your Life Jackets and DO NOT keep undersize fish”. Tight Lines ………. Vernon

take which could have massive repercussions further down the track.

The omission of this information from the discussion document is a serious concern since these concessions have caused huge conflict since they were introduced decades ago. It is commercial overfishing that denies reasonable public access to crayfish – to simply carry on without addressing this depletion is unacceptable to recreational fishers and, I believe, to the people of New Zealand.

New commercial catch limits must be implemented that will help to rebuild crayfish numbers, if indeed that is possible.

Our so-called world class fisheries management system has once again let the people of New Zealand down, but we hope the Minister will see through

MPI’s promises on this score.

Moyle’s Promise – the 1989 policy that promised that recreational fishers would have access to a reasonable share of fishery resources. This is clearly not the case and is not happening.

Colin Moyle made a commitment on behalf of the Government that if any fishery was depleted it would be commercial fishers who would give way to recreational and customary.

The rush to export as much of our fish as possible has led to a Ministry captured by industry and, worse still, turning a blind eye to the demise of one inshore fishery after another – gurnard, trevally, snapper, hapuka, porae, John Dory. The public have had enough of this insulting indifference.

White Maori Patriot

Report not concerned about water quality A new report confirms the dairy industry makes a major contribution to New Zealand’s economy, says Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy. But at what cost to our environment, rivers, streams and more especially water quality?

“According to the report dairy contributes $7.8 billion to New

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age of 3.7% per year since 2000.

But is this sufficient to justify the damage that is being caused through water extraction and the leaching of nitrates and heavy metals into our rivers.

“As a Government National are investing $89 million, matched by the dairy industry, through the Primary Growth Partnership to help create new products, reduce environmental impacts, increase on-farm productivity, and improve agricultural education.”

“The report also highlights the potential of further trade liberalisation NZIER’s modelling suggests that if all global dairy tariffs were eliminated, this would result in a $1 billion boost to GDP. This is why opening up market access and tackling non-tariff barriers as well remains a priority.”

What the report doesn’t say is that if you are concerned about the state of our rivers, streams and water quality you can bet your gumboots the National government isn’t.

now toxic completely uninhabitable for the eels and trout, then there was the Havelock water contamination causing thousands of people to fall ill with the drinking water been infected with germs and bacteria, then the Hastings supply started reading positive tests for E.coli bacteria which the council got to with chlorine in what was once some of the purest water to be had straight from the tap for free.

Napier followed shortly after which was cleared up pretty quickly and now the people of Waimarama have been told to boil their water from the tap, what a complete shambles with water restrictions bottling plants germs drought sickness with heavy irrigation going on in the meantime Mahi mahi from previous seasons by Joe so these foreign owned companies Bicknell, who would of thought. can keep exporting the produce from the land and seas under the eyes of Story continued next page...

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View the newspaper online at www.fishingoutdoors.org – and advertise online with us natural inhabitants for a prosperous future to be enjoyed for as long as we can, given of all the earth’s species that have existed are now extinct. Many of them perished in five cataclysmic events, and currently out of a recent poll, seven out of ten biologists think we are currently in the throes of a sixth mass world extinction, but that doesn’t mean we should stand by and watch what we have be taken advantage of by these bureauSteven Van Shoor from Swollo It Bait and Berley, getting crats and corporations amongst some New Zealand Kingfish with foreign interests taking what we have that is the government system which has worth enjoying and fighting for as our failed to guide and protect our little fathers fathers and for fathers fought slice of exploited paradise, in the hell for against the government system hole in the south pacific known as through war protests and riots to New Zealand or Aotearoa, whichever protect the people’s best interests in you prefer cause we don’t have one human rights in giving us the power nationality in this bloody country. as the community at large to have our Which is taking me way of subject say and our input in how anything in so back to the matter at hand of this country is to be managed, and the ever increasing pressure to our we my friends have been alluded environment and the natural won- of this as our birth right that our faders gifted to us all by whoever put thers fought for and their fathers with us all here at the top of the food women and children together on one chain on planet earth as we all no. common ground of love for the earth So what can we do to turn this around and all its natural curves bumps and for the well-being of us all and earth’s scratches all compounded into the

density of history which continues to grow daily in what looks like dirty politics clouded with shared interests in New Zealand for its natural wonders, and now we’re taking the brunt of this dirty cloud today with strongholds having infiltrated kiwi business to give us the environment today stripping us of traditional activities such as swimming down the local river or going out and catching some gurnard of the beach, or having pure artesian water to drink from the kitchen sink.

We need change and power of change lays in the people coming together as is what is currently happening in Hawke’s Bay with its vast list of issues through a multitude of work mostly started by average people been concerned and actually getting out there voicing their concerns looking for answers and solutions, we are very lucky today with new council members voted in by the people in the Bay, we are also lucky to have advocacy groups political parties with volunteers after volunteers working together getting behind each other in creating a push for change through the people with nothing but hard work in fighting for what’s right in letting the traditional values in been one with the land to blossom once again for a better future for us all together, there are still many hurdles to get over but change is ahead through the power of people.

Blue Ocean Charters

Skipper Tane reports:

This last week has been busy for Blue Ocean charters, with the last weekend being up and down with the fishing. Saturday we took a Stag Party out fishing who were having a great time waxing hair off the Stag’s legs while he was fishing.

Within only a short time we headed out off the Mount into 30 metres where we had some spots marked from previous successful

trips. With little attention paid to the actual fishing the boys managed to pull in six reasonable sized snapper in about 30 minutes.

On Sunday we had a Birthday charter and I wanted to make sure they got a good feed so we steamed out to Pudney Rocks to a terakihi spot.

Between the wind and tide we struggled to stay on the mark and fishing was surprisingly slow for a produc-

Tane with what was left of his kingfish

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Stephan with a bluenose

tive location. The highlight was the number of dolphin we saw which was a lovely bonus. During the trip I got a phone call from the boss asking me to take the boat out for a sneaky evening session. We departed for the afternoon at 4.30 pm and I chose a spot a few miles past Karewa but on the way saw the sounder light up with potential food so stopped and gave it a bash. Snapper were hitting the bait as it touched the bottom and we were bringing in some great 40 cm plus fish. The whole boat was busy for the evening changing baits and pulling in fish. There were lots of throw backs but everyone got a feed and a few hooked up on some large kingies that were hanging around.

Unfortunately everyone except me lost the fish and I lost most the fish after a long fight when it came along side and Mr Bronze Whaler decided to tax me. At least he left me enough to scavenge some fresh sushi and I smoked the head and wings.

Skipper Jesse Gread: Some unpredictable weather this last week made for some exciting fishing adventures and a little less sleep on overnighters. It isn’t the worse situation because when you can’t sleep you can definitely catch more fish. The reef fishing in the last week has been dictated by the tides giving up the tarakihi one hour either side of high and low tide. Smaller fish have been picked up around 3 and 5 Mile Reefs but when venturing out to the 10 Mile or 50 metres plus, the fish have been of very respectable size even putting up a bit of a fight for the guys using lighter

gear. The slower tarakihi bite allows us to chase a few other species including gurnard. These have been picked up by anchoring on an angle off the mark and as the boat slowly swings around in the area, the baits are quickly snapped up. Red cod, not a sought after table fish by most Kiwis, are a delicacy for our overseas guests. We were catching a couple at a time over the small reef structure we are fishing next to for other target species. With good size snapper being caught in the harbour and out deep the middle ground is full of juveniles so most days we skip past the small ones in search of the keepers. Barracuda have slowed up on trying to steal peoples’ hooks and sinkers but even just catching one makes for good fresh bait for the days fishing.

Deepsea fishing has still been producing good size fish even though the windy conditions have been causing a fast drift over the deep drop-offs. The first evening we headed out to Mayor Island stopping on Penguin Shoals for a quick try on the way. Straight away we were into tarakihi, a few snapps and some 10lb Porae. One of the guys even got a John Dory which came off the hook metres away from the boat and taunted the guest as it floated away on the surface till the gut deflated and it swam away. The windy night was spent at Mayor island and as soon as the wind eased in the morning we were out on the ground with the first drop producing fish within 30 seconds, a couple of big gemfish. More drops in the same area also produced fish. The bite died off after day break not before a good Hapuka come up. With the bite off we decided to mix it up chasing some fish in 150-170m catching king tarakihi and spotted gurnard which are both pumped up ver-

13

Snapper, the flavour of the day

sions of their shallow water cousins.

Another good week with everyone heading home with at least a feed for the family.

James Tao with a bluenose

Stephan with an albacore

Jesse with a couple of crays

14

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Silly Pool

It has indeed been a very weird summer, recent rains in this area only saw the river level rise to some

50 cumecs, with it came some very nice Rainbows and Browns, dry fly namely cicada which are still chirping on, Nymphs, Wet lining, Evening Rise etc, all methods doing the job, Lake reports suggest we will see good rainbows this winter, actually we are seeing them now.

Czech nymphing new regulations will be coming out this winter, many people think they are doing it when in fact they are not, we are North Island stockists

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Didymo Dave

of HANAK Czech nymphing Tackle (if you want the right gear buy the Brand who produced it first) We give free lessons with each rod sold.

Went fishing today landed 4 nice fish, spotted several large Browns and that was all I did?

Incidentally the fish were in quite shallow fast water.

Lake O continues to fish well it is probably the year of the 10lber up there.

Not much else to report this month except to say watch this space over the coming months.

It all started ........on a winter’s morning when I went fishing on the Hinemaiaia Stream, a tributary which flows into Lake Taupo. Still pitch black I put my fishing bag on the bank and began wet lining one of my favourite pools.

Just after daylight I changed over to a nymph rig then got my thermos out for a cuppa and my sandwiches. Holy Moly there was a great hunk missing out of my sandwiches?

Now at that stage I was about 50 years of age and I’m not too proud to admit I was naive about vermin.

Simply, I had never seen any vermin on that stream which I had fished for

36 years at that stage so it never occurred to me vermin had eaten my sandwiches. I thought the culprits were my 2 sons. That one of them had got up in the night and chewed on my sandwiches that were in the fridge and that I hadn’t noticed when I put them in my bag. So that night I asked which one of them ate my lunch and as expected there were denials all around with silly grins on their faces.

A week later I repeated the process, this time checking that my sandwiches were all ok when they went in the bag, but when it came time for a cuppa on the banks of a nice pool Holy Moly, half my sandwiches were missing and that’s how I discovered there were vermin on the rivers.

As I said I was naive! Right you little sucker I thought, you’re dead, so next time I went fishing I was armed with a trap and I caught a rat, reset the trap and got another then another.

A week later I got a nasty little critter that wanted to eat me which I found out was a Weasel.

By this time my son Hadlee and I were getting uncomfortable, we were asking ourselves “what’s going on?” and the more we trapped the more we realized that the lovely little birds we enjoyed seeing while we were fishing were in danger.

While we were snoring our heads off at night in a warm bed these defenceless beautiful little birds and their chicks were being slaughtered. Stuff that we thought so we got hold of some old trap mechanisms, scrounged some

recycled timber, built trap boxes on the lounge floor at nights and laid the traps out along the Hinemaiaia Stream.

Gradually we realized the numbers of vermin which were there and so we increased the project till we had 130 box traps out. Then with funding from the Rise Film Festival we were able to add 15 good nature traps into the project as well.

As the numbers of trapped vermin increased and I’m referring to Rats, Stoats and Weasels; Hadlee and I came to understand a major problem with vermin. In all the time we have spent trapping, fishing, picking blackberries, operating the fish trap etc I have seen one Stoat in the valley but Hadlee has seen nothing.

So most people who spend time in the Hinemaiaia Stream valley don’t see many vermin because the blasted things are nocturnal.

Therefore people don’t understand how many of these critters are there and they are surprised when we tell them what we have caught.

So it has taken a lot of work! Yes, we had given up some fishing time but on February 17th 2017 we had cleared the 1000 vermin out of a trap with the breakdown being 809 Rats, 100 Stoats and 91 Weasels.

That was a milestone, but just a step along the road of a war that will continue to rage to protect the beautiful birds that we enjoy seeing when we are fishing.

Waikato Regional Council says that it is confident the Oraka Stream at Putaruru is now supporting a healthy ecosystem.

However many locals and those that found the dead koura are far from happy and say that the delays in getting Council to respond were pathetic.

Council took only three dead Koura from the stream and according to sources they haven’t carried out as many tests as they as say they don’t have the ability to do the required tests here in NZ and the costs of sending to Australia prevents further testing.

MPI staff took the initiative and forced the Council to carry out tests on a disease that killed

freshwater crayfish overseas.

The dead koura were seen on 20 December last year.

Council say that incident response staff from the council carried out extensive searches but arrived, and took water samples, in an effort to determine the cause of the deaths.

The Waikato Regional Council is asking the public to be on the lookout for any further signs of aquatic life being impacted on in the region’s waterways and follows an extensive investigation which has been unable to determine exactly why hundreds of koura were seen floating down the Oraka Stream in Putaruru shortly before Christmas. No other fish spe-

cies appeared to have been affected.

“While follow up testing has determined that the aquatic environment in the stream at Putaruru is now a healthy one, we haven’t been able to find the cause of the deaths despite our best efforts and those of other parties,” said investigation and incident response manager Patrick Lynch.

“This appears to have been a short term, isolated incident with no lasting effects on the Oraka Stream or the ecosystem it provides for.”

Mr Lynch said one potential cause of the deaths – crayfish plague a disease which affects crayfish - was able to be ruled out by testing of koura bodies by MPI.

Wetland hailed as ‘far-sighted’

Underwood Wetland - Ecologist Nan Pullman and former owner David Underwood look down on the river flats.

Northland Fish & Game is joining with DoC and Nature Heritage Fund to officially open an important wetland area near Dargaville, described as the result of a “far sighted” joint conservation effort recently.

The land comprises some 342 hectares, and includes remnant kauri, hardwood forest and wetland, and drained river flats containing scatterings of kahikatea.

It is sited along the northern and eastern frontages of the Manganui and Northern Wairoa Rivers, five kilometres east of Dargaville township.

Northland Fish & Game Manager Rudi Hoetjes says the land was purchased from local farmers David and Gloria Underwood, by the Nature Heritage Fund with financial assistance from the

Northland Fish & Game Council.

“The Underwood family deserves lots of praise for their foresight where this land is concerned,” Mr Hoetjes says.

David Underwood’s background helps explain his forward thinking, he adds. He had worked in Papua New Guinea managing native forests and cropping on a sustainable harvest basis for local people.

Mr Underwood recognised that his property was unique in the Kaipara District because no significant development had occurred, and the land had begun to revert back to an original state.

“The family ran a low intensity cattle grazing operation and consciously set out to protect much of the property’s vegetation and habitats.

“The end result is an area with outstanding scenic and ecological values, a scenic and wildlife reserve.”

It has a relatively large area of mature kanuka and young kauri forest, while the river flats near the junction of the Wairoa and Manganui rivers also have areas of rare and ecologically significant lowland kahikatea and nikau forest, Mr Hoetjes says.

“All this translates into permanent protection for this land, which is to be restored over time to a natural wetland, so that everyone involved, from the Underwood family to DOC and Nature Heritage Fund, should take a bow for what is a singular conservation achievement,” Mr Hoetjes says.

Fish & Game plans in the long term to re-establish the 40-hectare river flats as a wetland habitat. It is proposed that game bird hunting for waterfowl will be allowed once restoration is complete.

But Mr Hoetjes notes that native birds will naturally benefit as well, as the area will provide “top quality habitat” for native species such as mudfish, bittern, crakes, herons and pied stilts.

Studies have shown that the area was originally a natural floodplain wetland so the intention is to eventually see it returned to something near its former pristine state.

Native freshwater fish will also benefit.

“With ponding of adjacent river margins we expect to create important habitat for spawning whitebait and threatened eel populations.”

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No cause found for koura deaths

Why the Salmon Farms want to move!

The Marlborough Districts Council’s intention to allow New Zealand King Salmon to move its salmon farms to more free-flowing areas is a coverup as I believe they have destroyed the areas they are in at present.

And if you doubt it, then read this.

Tasmania’s biggest Salmon producer has been told by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to destock one of its salmon leases in McQuarie Harbour by the end of the month.

The EPA has just made public a report cited by ‘Four Corners on Monday’, which revealed that all marine fauna around the Tassie salmon lease close

to the world heritage site was dead.

The harbour area also had increased levels of bacteria known as beggiatoa, and low oxygen levels were worrying, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies reported.

Lloyd Hanson Blenheim “from The Press” Ed: We think it’s an even bigger cover up than that ... because they didn’t get the increase number of farms that they applied for they are now saying that they need to move because of pollution BUT in reality they want more flowing water/tidal as that will allow them to double capacity.

That is what this is about! Some of the current farms are rotated out because of temperature and pollution but if they get into faster flowing water then goodbye problem and oh they can carry a lot more salmon... yeah! The problem is shifted to outer sounds, outer sight and outer mind!

Fish farms will only work in New Zealand waters if they are made to be moveable and not fixed to the seabed. This has proved very successful in Australian waters and is a relatively simple task.

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Who owns the water?

Water is one of those precious resources and a central component in the identity of Maori. Water is a taonga provided by their ancestors – the elements of life.

Maori relationships with water, however have been eroded over the last five generations in spite of the Treaty of Waitangi and other judicial mechanisms which according to Maori gave them full rights and ownership of their lands

and associated natural resources.

Indigenous people’s connections with water have been largely severed, ironically through the long-standing sustainable nature of indigenous cultures which offer key lessons that can be drawn to better management of the resources in s modern context.

Maori say that water is the tears of Raki (Sky Father) which fall upon their sacred mountains and lands

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to feed lakes, rivers and streams, providing sustenance for the valleys and plains of Papatuanuku – (Earth Mother) and ultimately flow out to the seas of Takaroa.

These traditions ultimately capture the key principles of Whakapapa, the connectedness and interdependence between all living things within the natural world.

But if Maori want to own the water they must be crazy. The as-

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sociated risks and liability that come with ownership are at the very least hazardous.

What Maori will put up their hand and claim ownership after a flood, when a river had blown its banks and flooded a town causing mass destruction and damage?

The risks and liabilities that come with outright ownership of water – are too numerous, monumental and onerous for any lawyer to contemplate drawing up that contract.

Clearly there are ways that a person or body can own ‘rights’ to a resource like water, and with that there is always the potential to

make them a tradeable commodity.

But the question is “who owns the water?” And the answer is “Nobody does!” Or maybe more to the point the Crown doesn’t.

Any and every debate around resource ownership should be about individual responsibility – to own our actions in the management and use of the resource we have.

From our homes to the halls of industry we share collective ownership of water and the responsibility that comes with that.

Maori environmental philosophy does not extend to owning natural resources in the sense

of ownership or title as interpreted in the popular press.

The key issue with a property right framework is that it is not owned it is a right to use the property in various ways that are owned.

The ownership question is a red herring – the question facing us all is one we have to ask ourselves – will you take of responsibility for our water?

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