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MARCH 2016
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Do we want the reserves? – YES WE DO gally fishing, which are really getting some people upset. The total public contempt and just straight hatred for the commercial scallop fleet has seen hundreds of calls and photos from both islands published on social media. Most people don’t know the difference between a trawler, long liner or dutch seine boat, so they just refer to them all as trawlers. This is one reason calls to MPI and in some cases the police have ended in the person, who went through the effort of complaining, being told “it’s okay, he is allowed to fish that close”. Is this a political reserve? Yes it is. When Nathen Guy dropped the snapper day limit from 9 to 7 in SNA1 and called it an increase, the recreational fishers rose up like never before. This has put this and any other government in a position where they may have created their worse nightmare and that is a recreational lobby group as powerful as the gun lobby in USA. To the effect that the NATS have had to do something really startling in an attempt to put the breaks on the snow balling recreational lobby movement. These reserve’s were announced by the National Party through John Key himself, to the surprise The Trawler line (red line) is where the Recreational Fishing Park should be; whereas the Seiner of both the recreational and commercial fishers, as a straight out Line (yellow line) is where the government propose the park to be. Recreational fishers should political move. Make no bones make submissions to this effect. about it they are very worried. The two recreational reserves being greatly by getting rid of the commer- The stupidity of their interference in talked about by our beloved politi- cial and make it more worthwhile for the daily bag limits and fish size has cians at the moment are a really good recreational fishers to continue their angered so many recreational fishidea, yet have some people confused. excursions around the Peninsula. ers, that it has put their next elecUp until trawling and seining in- A Fish Fight Aotearoa spokesperson tion campaign in severe jeapody. creased in the 1960’s and 1970’s our said that they would like to see com- The complete exercise backfired on coastline fishing was very good, then mercial local trade only, remain in them as it was an pathetic attempt the QMS system was introduced the Gulf but they can’t be trusted, as to increase the commercial take. to control the commercial take. they are likely to sell indirectly to the We believe that Nathan Guy just But the QMS system has run exporters, or sell directly to restau- didn’t get how much regard recreaits course and is being abused rants while other areas that supply tional fishers put on the catch it- cook by the commercial indusrtry. restaurants would shut down to local it - eat itculture. His announcement Establishing these two areas as Rec- trade and sell to export only. There are was patronizing like he was addressreational Only Reserves will have huge too many loopholes they would use ing peasants from a high balcony benefits to every fishing community, as the commercial credibility is zero. in France. Reminded me so much and quite frankly need to be replicat- Groups like Legasea, Forest and of a big girl called Marie Antoinette ed in other areas around the country. Bird and the Sport Fishing Coun- whose famous one liner “let them eat The commercial fishing industry have cil seem to be less than en- cake” caused a peasant revolution. had it too good, for too long and they thusiastic about them as well. The pressure has been so great that seriously need to pull their heads This is very confusing and not re- the Director of Fishery Management, in and consider the damage being ally the way to get the support of David Turner was recently hospidone by them to our inshore fishery. recreational fishers who hate see- talized with a stress related illness. At a recent MPI consultation meeting ing the commercial fishing boats The Hawkes Bay saga is a clasin Thames to commercial fishers were taking large amounts of shallow sic example of more incompecrying their hearts out about ‘going water wild fish stocks for export. tence by Fisheries Management. broke’ and all the other sad stories they To that end this newspaper and Who will benefit most from the could drum up. The consequences to the social media are sent photos MBS and HRG reserves. The fish. the local economies will be enhanced of commercial boats fishing le- When the commercial guys move
out and the recreational fishing effort is the same, it will leave hundreds of tonnes of extra fish, each season. It would take about 1500 recreational fishers and 500 boats to catch 5 tonne of snapper if they averaged three 2kg fish each. If you live in a small seaside town and have a business you catch on really quick that its a happy day for everybody when 500 boats turn up or you could have one trawler that may or may not load up in your town, with one skipper and maybe one or two deck hands. The fish are then sent whole in boxes overseas the same day. The big stake holders make the big profit here. If you give one person one million dollars they will maybe spend some of it but most likely invest it to their wealth portfolio. If you give 100 people ten thousand dollars they will spend most if not all of it and so a million dollor boost to the local economy. Remember the recreational fishers are far more seasonal than the constant pressure of the five day a week commercial fishers. Also the commercial guys are really good at what they do, much better than 90% of the recreational fishers. They will receive a one off payment from the government and no loss of quota so they are being compensated very fairly. This brings up the next point if the government is going to
use our tax dollars to buy back this water then we want it all. We don’t want to simply rent it off the commercial fishers, the compensation must be a full and final purchase price; and no commercial method of fishing that is not aquaculture should be allowed in these areas, including long line, craypot, gill net, seine, or trawl net. Only methods allowed by recreational fishers that are in law at present should be allowed, e.g.: long line of 25 hooks and so on. The area of the MBS reserve is good because the shore line area far exceeds the boundary line of the reserve. The HRG reserve should follow the same example and go straight across the top of the Gulf where the existing trawl line is. This would partially protect the spawning area around the 50/60 metre mark in the middle of the Gulf and would also create a much smaller boundary line on which the commercial fishers target. The next thing is that a legalization change by government can be scary. To create the Kermerdec Reserve from the existing 12nm out to the 200 nm EEZ, will give the government, the power to make no take reserves in NZ. I believe that the extension of the Kermerdec Reserve gives 15.5% of NZ water protection. Surely this is high enough for any country and we don’t need the
smaller pointless reserves with a boundary line equal to its coast line. When this occurs you get people like Dr Roger Grace who point out how decimated the area outside the reserve is compared the the abundance of life inside the reserves. What they forget to mention is that the boundary line of any reserve is a target for recreational and commercial fishers, so you see dead overfished zones which are created by the reserves. These small reserves have a zero ecological impact. The only benefit they have is a feel good look at the pretty fish type things and some people will pay to look at the pretty fish so there can be a economic benefit. Do we need 10% on top of the 15.5% , no way. The funny thing is that in time the commercial fishers could benefit the most from these recreational only reserves because if they are big enough to create a spill over effect, who will be waiting outside the boundary, the exporters. Then the next step is too force the local District Councils to stop the environmental damage created through town drainage, forestry and fertiliser run-off. Marlborough District Council and Hauraki District Councils are responsible for allowing massive fouling of our fisheries habitats through massive dumps.
Te Awamutu Fish & Game Trout Fishing Competition Bulmers Landing 19th & 20th March, 2016 Lake Arapuni Must have License beforehand to enter.
Big Game Gear also available