Axmag may 2016

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MAY 2016

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FISH TODAY FOR TOMORROW Distributed New Zealand wide - PO Box 10580, Te Rapa, Hamilton 3240 - Phone 07 855 1833 - Email mail@fishingoutdoors.co.nz

Commercial fishing industry in denial

Professor Daniel Pauly

There was some good news for the recreational fishing people of NZ with the release of an independent study funded by the NZ Marine Research foundation.

The report said that recreational fishing in NZ is worth $1.7 B to the economy.

The commercial fishery is only worth $1.6 B. The report also said that the recreational fishers only catch 6% of the fish landed. This did not come as any surprise to most of us. Yet the commercial fishing industry somehow seem to still hold themselves to a higher value of importance than the recreational fishers.

This will always be the case as to them fish is just a commodity and nothing more.

Here’s an interesting fact for you to consider: the reason the commercial industry is fighting so hard for the NZ fishery, is because in the past the big fishing company’s have moved into an area, fished it out and moved on. Now it is getting to the point where the international fishery already in decline, is so fished out, that there is no where to move to. How do they fish out these areas so effectively where quota systems and day tonne limits exists? Denigh, denigh, denigh.

Now what has happened when we see a person like Volker Kuntzch CEO for Sanfords Fishing on National TV telling us how wonderful the industry is, you can pretty much see his lips are moving, but nothing coming out, is worth taking off the mute button for.

So now we know that the commercial fishing industry has no regard for the recreational fishing value but what about the government.

The government has spent up big time on subsidizing the commercial fishery in the John Key era.

To name some; $300 million for Shane Jones to buy a fishery that does’nt belong to us; $24 million as

its share of the new wonder trawl Tiaki PSH net that is still in development; as well as new fish factories for the Chathoms; research for fish farming in the Marlborough Sounds to replace the commercial over fished fish stock; spat research and the list goes on and on.

Now lets have a look at the amount of assistance the government has given to the $1.7 billion recreational fishing industry.

Well in all fairness and in the interest of balanced journalism I must report all I have found. Nothing at all; no boat ramps or marinas or breakwaters or any thing to help us catch more fish, not even a light bulb over a dimly lit wharf.

So what have the government done for the recreational $1.7 bill fishing industry, well they have changed our day limits, constrained our fishing methods and equipment in net size, long line hooks, number of pots, cray fish size, scallop size, fish size, numbers of fish, numbers of shell fish, and our ability to sell and trade or sell our fish to each other giving the commercial fishery a total monopoly over the price of our fish and chips.

The government should give the recreational fishers a pat on the back really because in spite of them, the recreational fishing effort of $1.7billion makes it into the top five of the primary industries of NZ. John Key, was shocked that kiwis care more about their fish than their national security, so surely this must finally get it into his cash register type brain, on how essential the recreational fishers are to the economy.

The export fishery should be outside the 12nm limit and the inshore should be local trade and recreational customary only.

Here’s a thought for Mr Key, if you do this, you may be able to double the $1.7 bill recreational input by 2025 and because recreational fishers have better handling techniques and better mortality rates, as they only catch 8% of the total fishery. John Key simply backed the wrong horse, instead of trying to double the value of the commercial fishery exports by 2025 he should have backed the tourist side of recreational fishing.

After all a tourist comes to NZ with his credit card then spends up big and catches his fish, takes a photo, puts it on social media and shows thousands of people his NZ fish for free. He does not buy a house or land, or need employment, but simply spends off shore currency and leaves.

Clearly the Prime Minister should give the Minister of Tourism a good kick in the back side for

dropping the ball on this one.

MPI - Pulling the Wool on the State of our fishery New Zealand’s MPI and Commercial fishing Industry have been ‘pulling the wool’ over the general public’s eyes for many many years and in fact the NZ Fishery is in a worse state than has ever been reported. With commercial fishing boat observers failing to report dolphin and shark catches, due to fearing for their lives it is no wonder most commercial fishers are hated by recreational fishers, mainly for the discard and overfishing, that the industry denigh.

Professor Daniel Pauly, the principal investigator of the Sea Around Us project, at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, recently spoke at a New Zealand Asia Institute Seminar held at the University of Auckland on ‘On Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining,’ and details the findings of his global marine catch reconstruction with reference to New Zealand – research undertaken collaboratively with NZAI researchers.

Our decade-long multinational “catch reconstruction” project covered the exclusive economic zones of the world’s maritime countries and the high seas, from 1950 to 2010. He identified catch trajectories differed considerably from the national data submitted to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

He suggests that catch actually peaked higher than previously believed, and have been declining much more strongly from this peak.

The differing trajectories documented in the Nature article suggest a need for improved monitoring of all fisheries, including often neglected small-scale fisheries, and illegal and other problematic fisheries, as well as discarded bycatch.

His findings have caused the NZ Seafood Industry to scramble its PR machine attempting to disqualify Prof Pauly’s findings, however their PR machine well known for its cover-ups is largely being ignored or laughed at as fishers and politicians welcomed the report whch finally brought out into the public arena the extremely poor attitude of the commercial fishing industry.

Professor Pauly has devoted his life to studying the impact of fishing on the world’s marine ecosystems.

He advocates public protests to bring pressure on the government to change policies. If the recreational fishing sector doesn’t take action and responsibility, they stand a very high chance of loosing their fishery forever.

Among his more than 500 publications, Daniel has authored a number of seminal papers on the concept of shifting baselines, the importance of marine re-

Over recent week fishers have been posting some fabulous photos of catches around the North Auckland area on Facebook, and as a result this bulk harvester was photographed fishing about 300m off Manly, North Auckland recently. While they are allowed in there, this is a classic example of commercial fishing in close to the shore where recreational fishers fish? There are plenty of fish further out which is why with this attitude is disgraceful. The commercial fishers monitor social media and target areas like this when the snapper are in abundance. Trawlers MUST BE BANNED from fishing inside 12nm.

serves, serial depletion of fisheries, and the global decline in catch.

Watch his presentation here https:// youtu.be/NoCh45QVzE0 His work is recognised in various

profiles, notably in Science, Nature and the New York Times, and by numerous awards, notably the International Cosmos Prize (Japan, 2005), the Volvo Environmental Prize

(Sweden, 2006), the Ramon Margalef Prize from the Government of Catalonia (Spain, 2008) and the Peter Benchley Award (USA, 2015).

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Taranaki Kayak Fishing Classic

The liquid lunch team from Wellington with 4 and 3rd placed snappers.

weight, grand slam, best team and other spot prizes.

With competition boundRegan Phipps with the winning snapper, aries ranging from the Marokopa River in the The 10th annual Taranaki Kayak north, to Waverley in the south, Fishing Classic was held over anglers have plenty of of spots to the weekend 15th to 17th of April. choose from to drop their line in!

Held each year in Oakura, Taranaki, This year marks the 10yr anthe Kayak Fishing Classic prides itself niversary of this competition. on being the biggest and best in NZ! The 2016 earlybird prize was a Competitors have the chance to win HeliTranz trip for 2 to Great Barfrom a huge prize pool generously rier Island. Prizes includes a heli trip, provided by our many loyal sponsors, a $300 voucher towards your travel/ including prizes for the heaviest of accommodation, as well as the use each species, early bird entry, mystery of a 2016 Toyota Hilux to get you to and from your destination for the weekend, thanks to Tasman Toyota.

Results, Junior: 1st Tane Leatherby; 2nd Billie Blair; 3rd Carrisa Krutz.

Ladies: 1st Deidre Krutz, 2nd Tanya Chapple.

Average weight K/Y: Peter Florence 1.9kg.

Average weight snapper: Bam Blaike 3.82 kg.

Surfcasting: 1st Steve Mcewen; 2nd Richard Mahood; 3rd Gary Broadmore.

Trevally: 1st Mike LafGrant King from Melbourne with prize winning K/Y 4th ranchie; 2nd Kerry Flowers; place. He has been coming to the comp for 6 years and 3rd Charles Dinnis, 3.07. this is his first prize.

John Dory: 1st Andrew Varcoe; 2nd Matt Gibson; 3rd Luke Davies.

Blue Cod: 1st Sam Connelly; 2nd Tony Campbell; 3rd Luke Davies.

Fishing and Outdoors Kingfish: 1st PO Box 10580, Te Rapa, Kerry Flowers.

Tuna: 1st Paul Rountree; 2nd Hamilton 3240 Ph 07 8551833 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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Steve Tapp; 3rd Lynden Cox. Kahawai: 1st Hayden Walker; 2nd Rob Parkes; 3rd Bam Blaike.

Gurnard: 1st Tane Leatherby; 2nd Kevin Pilcher; 3rd Andy Rae. Snapper, 1st Regan Phipps; 2nd Ben Pollard; 3rd Dan Filli.

The first 5 snapper were all over the magic 20 lb.

For the first time an angler weighed in a Mahi Mahi, he caught 6 and landed 3 of these tropical speedsters, angler Carl Lottering from Wellington.

Kerry Flowers with winning kingfish, Kerry was the only angler to catch Kingfish

There were 200 entries, with great weather which allowed for a great competition and $1000 was raised for the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust.

The anglers came from all parts of NZ and as far as Aussie.

Auckland Artificial River opened I couldnt help but notice the irony of the Vector Wero Whitewater Park people to get John Key to open the new waterway.

Honestly, are we really all that stupid or is it just that we love our Prime Minister so much that we believe everything he says and does.

This is the same guy that allowed the Auckland Housing boom crisis, allowed NZ to become a Tax Haven, shafted NZ with the TPPA and has allowed NZ Rivers to thoroughly degrade to christen an Artificial River in South Auckland.

His continued beligerence is lost on most as he moves to denigrate our beautiful country.

The two most crucial moves we can make to improve New Zealand’s sadly degraded waterways are to stop dairy expansion, and to transition towards truly sustainable farming.

Organic farmers are well ahead of the game in sustainable production and provide a model for a positive, healthy future for New Zealand.

“New Zealand’s waterways are in a dire state, with many showing a continuing deterioration in water quality, and no clear path for improvement.” said Marion Thomson, co-chair of Soil & Health. “The main driver of this is the increasing intensification of non-organic farms, and we urgently need to turn this around.”

“Organic and biological farming systems have a much lower ecological footprint, greater biodiversity and reduced nitrate leaching, making waterways

healthier for all to enjoy,” she said.

Soil & Health welcomed the opportunity to submit on the consultation document “Next Steps for Fresh Water” which forms part of the Government’s freshwater reforms. The document outlines a range of bottom lines that healthy rivers must not fall below. One of these measures is human health, and the bottom line is that waterways must be safe for secondary contact, i.e. wading or boating.

“Weak bottom lines such as this will only allow water quality to decline,” said Thomson. “The bottom line must be swimmable rivers, and this needs to be a national target.”

However, given that a big factor in the pollution of waterways is nitrates from cow urine diffusing through soils, and from soluble nitrogen fertilisers, simply fencing off and planting around streams cannot solve this issue. Healthier fresh water is achievable by ensuring stock numbers are sustainable, and by shifting to organic and biological fertilising practices that involve nitrogen-fixing pasture species, and healthy living soils with good moisture-holding capacity.

Soil & Health supports a number of other proposals in the consultation document that it believes have the potential to improve the management of freshwater in New Zealand.

These include proposals for measuring water quality by catchment rather than region, and to exclude stock from waterways through regulation.

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BRAG PAGE Send your photos into mail@fishingoutdoors.co.nz

Michael Conder with his winning trevally The Kid’s fishing competition with MMSFC on Saturday, was a very well run competition with a great turn out of 71 kids entering.

All 3 of our kids got a spot prize both at registration and prize giving (actually I’m pretty sure all the kids did - way to go committee!).

The weather was absolutely crap but we hid in the harbour and did pretty well. Abbie (3) landed her first legal snapper all by herself.

Mike (8) took out the heaviest trevally with his 2.73 kg beast, and Matt (5) scored mystery weight for his trevally. Both kids picked their prizes and were over the moon.

Regan Trubshaw (at rear) caught this 9.6lb Snapper on the Mussel Farms but needed help from Jimi to hold the beast up. Well done guys.

Kane Wrigglesworth, Top surfcaster and all round surfcasting champion - 2016 National Surfcasting Champs Far North

32 Boats and 67 anglers competed in this years Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club’s Junior Tournament. Photos depict some of the competitors.

TAIRUA PAUANUI SPORTS FISHING CLUB PRESENTS

11 Tui Terrace, Tairua Ph: 07 864 8361 tairuafish@xtra.co.nz Open from 4pm each day

www.fullonfishing.co.nz (please click on the link to go to their website)

MAY MONTH LONG COMPETITION Saturday 30th April – Saturday 28th May Initial Registration and Briefing Friday 29th April Target Species: Snapper, Kahawai, Trevally

Entry fee: $25 Contact: Wayne Barnes 021 312 268 waynebarnes@xtra.co.nz

Prizes for Top Six Snapper Top Three Kahawai Top Three Trevally Average weight for each species Marines kitchen will be open on Friday/ Saturday nights during the course of the competition

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The Bounty Hunter Fishing Tournament Tickets are now available for the 2016 Bounty Hunter Tournament which is planned to be held on 1st and 2nd of July, at the Top Pub Coromandel Town.

When you register to the tournament online, you agree to the Tournament Rules and you can use either credit card or internet banking (direct debit).

Once your payment is received, you will receive a Ticket Confirmation email with your Confirmation Number and Barcode for you to print out the Ticket Confirmation email and bring it along for the Registration.

The Tournament venue is the Top Pub, 611 Kapanga Rd, Coromandel Town Mandatory Registration is on Thursday June 30th 2016, from 11am to 10pm at The Top Pub. Bring your Ticket Confirmation email in order to receive your Tournament ID card.

A Briefing will be held Thursday June 30th at 7.30pm at The Top Pub. The Fishing Days are Friday July 1st from 5am to Saturday July 2nd 5pm; and the Fishing Boundaries are shown on the website.

Contestants will be disqualified if caught fishing outside the area,

Wishing to Fish

Dave

- By Graham Carter

Not everybody can get out of bed easily in the morning, look out the window and decide to go for a fish.

For some, it takes a wee bit more planning than that. Simple things like organizing a charter that will take a wheelchair, getting a few helpers that don’t mind boating or fishing and getting their hands covered in bait, down to organizing a vehicle and the necessary fishing equipment.

There is a group of people living in our communities that have a heartfelt desire to go and have some fun fishing but their handicap leaves them dead in their tracks. Quite simply put its just too hard, so these folk miss out on participating in one of New Zealand’s most

so please make sure that you are clear on these boundaries.

The Weigh-in is on both Friday and Saturday from 11am until the gate closes at 5pm at the venue and don’t forget to bring your Tournament ID card.

There will be a Friday Prize Giving from 6.30pm at The Top Pub for $20,000 - worth of Spot Prize Give-aways.

Saturday Prize Giving will be from 6.30pm at The Top Pub for The Cash Prizes.

popular sporting activities.

Then along came Bryce Dinneen.

Bryce founded the Wish for Fish Charitable Trust several years ago whose purpose is giving people with disabilities the opportunity to experience salt water fishing.

Bryce is a very keen fisherman but due to a spinal accident has been unable to enjoy the activity until he formed the Trust.

With some very generous support from the community, Bryce has formed a team of folk as helpers, which has enabled him to fulfil the dreams others with disabilities, giving them the opportunity to live life and go fishing.

We joined Bryce on board the Joint Venture from Coromandel Fishing Adventures where Jordan the skipper and Laurence took eight handicapped fishers with their helpers, out for a day to remember, spending time fishing and enjoying the simple pleasures of hooking and landing fish.

The smiles, the laughter, the jokes, tom foolery and sharing the moment with these disabled fishers gave me a thrill I haven’t often experienced.

It’s a bit like taking your grand kids out for the day, sheer enjoyment.

You have to admire these guys as they not only battle with their dis-

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ability, they have to manage a fishing rod and reel, reeling in their catch.

The crew very ably assisted with baiting hooks, unhooking fish and generally providing the background support to give these folk a day they will remember for a long time.

Based in Tauranga, Wish for Fish is driven by a team whose main aim is to raise enough funds to purchase their own suitable vessel.

Funds are to be raised through a variety of methods including sponsorship/donations from individuals, businesses and community trusts.

If you feel you could contribute in any way with this trust, please go to the website and declare

your level of support.

Wish for Fish strives to sponsor participants (and their support person) from all walks of life to the simple pleasures of the ocean.

Due to the nature of the participants, Wish for Fish practices an extremely high level of safety and has strict policies in place, complying with all Maritime New Zealand safety standards including experienced, qualified skippers and crew completing their obligations on surveyed, chartered vessels.

In his current lifestyle Bruce has had constant obstacles and challenges to overcome. His frustration with the limited access there is to enjoy his passion for fishing, inspired him to set up the charitable trust.

They are always looking for volunteers. If you have a service or skill you are willing to donate, they would love to hear from you.

Go fishing with them - if you’re up for a great time in the outdoors and have empathetic heart. Sign on and help, Bryce

can promise you a great day fishing.

Contact them at email bryce@wish4fish.co.nz or phone 021 616 601 or connect with them on Facebook.

Coromandel Fishing Charters work in unison with Salty Towers Bait and Tackle shop who offer a fish filleting and vacuum packing service along with bait and tackle supplies and they have fresh mussels available to take home as well.

With the Hauraki Gulf fishing well its time to consider your winter fishing trips - to avoid missing out - book your charter or function now with Tom or Lorraine on 0800 267624 or 027 8668001 or the office at 07 8668928 email: corofishing@gmail.com

Linda

Cadmium Accumulation in Waikato waterways A WRC technical report by Nick Kim highlights some of the issues with cadmium in the Waikato.

In terms of diffuse discharges to the wider environment, the main potential issue identified is the gradual accumulation of cadmium in streams, rivers, lakes and coastal sediments of agricultural catchments.

However, he says further work is required to assess whether cadmium accumulation in rural streams, rivers, and coastal receiving areas is sufficient to pose a risk to ecological receptors in the medium term.

An estimated 8.3 tonnes of the heavy metal cadmium is currently applied to Waikato soils each year, with the largest single source being superphosphate fertiliser.

Cadmium is a naturally occurring, toxic, non-essential and biologically cumulative heavy metal. Concentrations of cadmium in Waikato soils have been gradually increasing since the advent of topdressing.

Based on recent sampling, it is estimated that perhaps 11% of Waikato’s pastoral soils and 17% of Waikato’s horticultural soils already exceed 1 mg/kg soil cadmium. Within the pastoral soils sample set, all soil samples that have so far exceeded the 1 mg/kg agricultural guideline have been from dairy farms.

On average, Waikato’s productive pastoral, horticultural and arable surface soils now contain five times more cadmium than they began with, and are two-thirds of the way to the 1 mg/kg threshold.

Loading calculations confirm that the dominant source of this cadmium is superphosphate fertiliser, which contains cadmium as an impurity.

At current cadmium loading rates, the next significant point at which

the 1 mg/kg cadmium guideline will be reached over wide land areas is expected for dairy farms, which cover about 25% of the Waikato region (about 623000 hectares). Conservatively, the average cadmium concentration in Waikato dairy soils is projected to reach the recommended guideline in under 16 years.

In total, productive pastoral soils (mainly sheep, beef and dairy farms) comprise 57% of Waikato’s land area (about 1,430,000 hectares). At current loading rates, the average cadmium concentration over all pastoral surface soils in the Waikato region is expected to reach the 1 mg/kg guideline in under 40 years.

It is important to note that these estimates are based on averages: on specific properties the guideline has been reached, or will be reached in a shorter time.

A current impact associated with the presence of cadmium in drystock farming is the rejection of offal meat. As a result of its high cadmium content, offal from animals older than 2.5 years is not permitted to be sold for human consumption. To the sheep and beef industries, this represents a significant lost income stream.

In recent years, the New Zealand food standard for cadmium in key crops has dropped by a factor of ten to 0.1 mg/kg, and recommended guidelines for cadmium in New Zealand agricultural and residential soils have dropped by a factor of three to 1 mg/kg.

In relation to the revised soil guidelines, two specific impacts associated with surface soils exceeding 1 mg/kg cadmium are the inability to subdivide land for residential (or rural residential) use without some form of assess-

ment or remediation, and possible hindrances to market access.

As a result of the tightening of food standards, cadmium accumulation in agricultural surface soils is likely to be causing progressive loss of soil resource capacity through the food non-compliance mechanism.

Overall, ongoing cadmium accumulation has the potential to reduce the range of foreseeable uses of approximately 58% of the Waikato region’s total land area in the shortto-medium term (between 10-60 years depending on land use), covering pastoral agriculture (primarily dairy, beef and sheep farming), arable cropping and horticulture.

The New Zealand fertiliser industry has also reported that preventing further accumulation in New Zealand soils would require an 80% reduction in the cadmium content of superphosphate fertiliser, to approximately 24 mg Cd/kg P2O5 This estimate is consistent with a recent opinion delivered by (SCTEE), that cadmium accumulation in soil should not be significant at fertiliser concentrations less than 20 mg Cd/ kg P2O5. A figure reported for US superphosphate fertiliser, where cadmium accumulation has not been significant, is 16 mg Cd/kg P2O5.

The current voluntary limit for cadmium in New Zealand phosphate fertilisers is 122 mg Cd/kg P2O5.

And I’m sure that most farmers are probably unaware that their annual fertilizer application is doing permanent harm to their land; and that there is a way to remove cadmium from the phosphate before it is applied, but its going to cost more, and in today’s times unlikely to happen.

This months special $49,995

This map shows risk across the globe for freshwater pollution from agricultural pesticide application. (Source: Ippolito et al., Environmental Pollution)

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Measuring the true value of our shared fisheries A study on the value of recreational fishing was the focus of a private three-day symposium in Auckland recently, which covered the “reconstruction of marine catches in New Zealand 1950-2010”, with updates available to 2015.

A draft report on the alleged actual catches headed by Auckland University academic Dr Glenn Simmons was made public a year ago and in this seminar Dr Simmons promised interested parties an embargoed preview of the final report.

The commercial fishing industry has said the findings are inflated, as they failed in their pathetic attempts to discredit the report.

They have spent more time bleating and whinging about the report when they should focus on tidying up their own act.

Now the boot is on the other foot and the report highlights the thuggery, overfishing, high grading, wanton killing of dolphins, discard, under reporting, mis-reporting by observers and a host of other deliberate side-stepping by the industry, which they have totally denighed for many years. The commercial industry say they are squeaky clean, while former commercial fishers are queing up to state the opposite.

Now the information is carefully and accurately documented the poor misguided commercial fishing industry is crying foul. Oh dear, oh dear.

If the Simmons report and the recreational fishing survey are to be used as cudgels against the commercial fishing industry by advocacy groups, then the government needs to take notice or be elected out.

The study undertaken by the NZ Marine Research Foundation in conjunction with Southwick Associates confirming recreational fishing is a billion dollar-plus industry which is no surprise, but has been ignored and discredited by Keys government and the commercial fishing sector.

When the full impact of everything related to fishing - from bait to boats, from fuel to four-wheel drives and holiday homes – is collated, the total soon mounts up.

The figure of $1.7 billion in annual economic activity related to recre-

ational fishing that has been arrived at could be even greater, depending how far the ripples are extended.

Kiwis love to fish and we are blessed with an extended coastline and many opportunities to dangle a line.

And the commercial fishing industry and the government has no right to deplete the fishery to the extent they have. Not only is it disgusting but the fact that they have continually denighed it is deplorable.

And our commercial fishermen are no exception, as many of them are among those taking to the water on days off, catching good feeds for family, yet in some cases selling to pubs and other public outlets.

Lining up the recreational-related figure, against seafood export figures shows how badly managed the commercial sector is when you consider the wastage reported to be in the thousands of tons. Yet they still argue that lining up recreational fishing is less important than commercial and quite irrational.

The commercial sector is desperate to hold onto their free wild fishery without putting a single cent back into it and say that the argument does not take account of domestic seafood sales, the 25,000 or so New Zealanders employed in the industry, the billions invested in vessels and plant and gear, and the billions more spent in procuring services from other sectors and their spending in the economy.

However they forget to state the huge amounts of profits they get from selling undersized crayfish in the Asian market for $280 a kilogram, or mentioning the government subsidies and the fact that most seafood exports are processed overseas with little to know economic benefits for rural towns as they move their companies to the larger centres.

The bleating is endless, and no-one is listening, as we are sick and tired of the wastage, mis-management and greed.

We operate in a shared fishery that should have benefits for all New Zealanders across recreational, commercial and customary. Yet their short sighted greed if allowed

to continue will destroy our inshore fishery if allowed to continue.

They have created the setting of one sector against another because of their greed and shortsightedness.

A more visionary approach would be to find common cause to deal with issues like water quality, silt smothering seabeds as a result of poor forest and land practices, fish thieving, better fisheries management, improved science, restocking and reseeding, political interventions, and establishing a 12nm ban on export fishing around our coastline.

We all want the same thing – a sustainable fishery and more abundant catches, and this will never happen while the MPI Fisheries Management is so badly managed

by David Turner and his mates.

Kuntz and Pankhurst still lobby to have recreational catches monitored and this will never happen, as it is a guaranteed way for the elected government to loose the next election and any politician worth his salt just wouldn’t go there, as it would be political suicide.

Kiwis fishers will fight it all the way, and the government needs to fully understand completely that the fish belong to everyone NOT the commercial sector.

John Keys ‘export double policy’ will not work simply by taking all the fish.

Despite the ever increasing number of recreational boats on the water, hundreds and hundreds of undersized snapper, are caught and thrown back because of idiotic policy changes and commercial greed.

Hundreds of recreational fishers have struggled to get a catch of good sized snapper as the trawlers and seiners hover around the spawning grounds during the season descimating stocks when they must be banned from fishing in these areas.

As veteran fishing writer Geoff Thomas reported in the NZ Herald recently there should be millions of good sized fish in the Gulf but there is not, and all because of commercial greed.

I think we can all agree on that.

Graham Carter

MSC assessment of tuna ‘schizophrenic’ The decision to suspend the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate for the yellowfin component of the pole and line skipjack and yellowfin tuna fishery - while keeping the skipjack certification intact -- has been described as “schizophrenic” by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“In a move which has left the indus-

try baffled and despite a ruling from the MSC’s own independent adjudicator -- which clearly failed the same management system for both skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna.

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The MSC’s assessment body, DNV-GL, suspended the pole and line yellowfin tuna fishery, acknowledging that the Indian Ocean yellowfin stock is overfished and subject to overfishing.

Maori charade exposed The announcement that influential Maori leaders, have joined the fight against the creation of the Kermadec Islands Ocean Sanctuary, must have come as a blow to a Government that over the years has bent over backwards to give iwi leaders whatever they want. Perhaps National will now begin to recognise them as fair-weather friends.

Their legal action exposes their claims of being dedicated conservationists – and the only legitimate guardians of the country’s natural resources - for the charade that it really is.

Real conservationists, including the US-based Pew Charitable Trust, have been pressuring the government for years to extend the Kermadec Island marine reserve. The current reserve, originally put in place in 1990, covers only the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea. The proposed new sanctuary would extend that reserve to the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone limit, covering 620,000 km2 (239,383 sq mi) an area twice the size of New Zealand.

The Kermadec region lies midway between the Bay of Plenty and Tonga, and is one of the most geographically and geologically diverse areas

in the world. The sanctuary would create a no-take, fully-protected zone preventing all fishing and mining in the area, adding to the protections that are already in place.

Creating the sanctuary would also help New Zealand to meet its international marine protection obligations. Primarily found in the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Aichi Target 11 requires that by 2020, New Zealand must ensure that “10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity, are conserved.”

Key announced the planned Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last September.

New Zealanders value our coasts and oceans, which are an important part of our culture, economy and environment and we must commit to managing them sustainably.

The Maori elite, however, are uniting behind the Maori Fisheries Trust, in its legal action against the Crown. They claim the new sanctuary would cut across their fishing rights.

However the claim that this new sanctuary undermines the 1992

Treaty of Waitangi fishery settlement is incorrect. The Government always retained the right to create protected areas where fishing would be disallowed and has done so in over 20 new marine reserves.

No fish has been taken from the area

by Maori since the 1992 settlement, despite over three million tonnes being caught elsewhere. Five non-Maori fishing companies are also affected, but since they have only caught an average of 20 tonnes of migratory species (which can be caught elsewhere) out of a national annual catch of 650,000 tonnes, the government has proposed that no compensation should be paid.

While Maori leaders are claiming they have been wronged by the deal, and will try to gain compensation through the courts, their actions are exposing their rent-seeking agenda. By positioning themselves as guardians of the country’s natural resources, they have been effective in gaining sweeping new rights under the Resource Management Act - and, potentially, over the management and control of fresh water.

Publicly demonstrating that their driving ambition is really money and power.

(Abridged). Dr Muriel Newman, NZCPR.

Proposal for an in-season increase to the Total Allowable Catch for Flatfish 3 Dear Fishers, The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) seeks feedback on a proposal to increase the total allowable catch (TAC) for Flatfish in the South Island East Coast (FLA 3) for the remainder of the 2015/16 fishing year.

The closing date for written submissions is Thursday, 5 May 2016, to recfishingteam@mpi.govt.nz.

This is a clear example of how important the flatfish are to the export market and clearly they wish to gauge the recreational reaction tomore of our shallow water flounder being exported.

Considering that recreational fishers and the nespaper don’t agree that flounder should be exported anyway.

And we believe that flatfish as a species should be taken off the export

list and this request is another kick in the guts for recreational fishers.

This short date (two weeks notice) is typical of how the MPI give little notice and time for submissions and clearly shows their ignorance for not specifing clearly what species is being sought after, turbit, flounder, sole or dabs and where its going to be caught.

Krill is the power lunch of the Antarctic But now the decline in numbers of the tiny crustaceans is killing penguins.

Is fishing 300,000 tonnes of krill each year for Omega-3 supplements and farmed fish acceptable when critical krill populations are already under pressure from climate change?

Penguins, seals and whales in the Southern Ocean are being threatened by a declining krill population.

The inch-long crustaceans are considered the ‘basis’ of the Antarctic food chain and use sea ice to protect themselves and feed

from the algae that grows from it.

Animals on the western Antarctic peninsula are being monitored by several organisations including US conservation group Oceanities.

‘Krill is the power lunch of the Antarctic. It’s a keystone species for everybody,’ group leader Ron Naveen said.

Some penguin species including the Adelies are forced to share the krill with humans.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said the threat of declining krill populations was significant.

The decline in krill popula-

tion is having a domino effect and creating a food shortage for marine wildlife on the western Antarctic peninsula.

Some penguin species including the Adelies are forced to share the krill with humans.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature claims 300,000 tons of krill is caught annually and used for farmed fish and ‘Omega 3’ oil supplements.

Penguin colonies are under threat from substantial krill fishing and melting ice caps on the western Antarctic peninsula.

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Burgess boys bag some big ones

Stu with his daughters 5kg snapper

We were heading out from Hannafins wharf at Te Kouma the other day as I was being intro-

- By Graham Carter

Jarrod from Te Aroha

and had to get Stu (Dad) to help.

Theres nothing like a bit of competition and a good laugh and Stu

ing charters, scenic tours and accommodation for groups, families, couples and individuals who want to get the best experience for their dollar,” he said.

“We custom make our trips to suit the customer, so tell us what you’d like and we’ll do our best to make departure and arrival arrangements around your schedule,” he added.

The Nadgee is an Australian hardwood trawler which has been converted to a charter fishing vessel, and boasts ample space for a day trip for up to 15 passengers.

There are six passenger berths for overnight trips. The fishing is all based around the Coromandel waters targeting the mussel farms, sheltered islands and some of the Hauraki Gulf hot spots handy to Coro Town.

Samuel pulling in a good pannie The Boat hire (for 8 hours) is $900 per day for a private charduced to members of the Bur- certainly provided that for the day. ter. Overnight trips are by prior gess family, famous around the We were on the Nadgee an ex- arrangement, for the six passenNorth Island fishing circles for be- commercial seiner with owners ger berths. (more if it’s couples). ing masters at salt water fishing. Russell Chesnutt and Loni An- The boat has a very good toiThey don’t need facebook pages and derson, who know the area and let and shower facilities. They websites to show off their catch and took us to a spot in the mussel also have rods for hire at $10 skite about the many trips they do. farms that was performing well. each with bait supplied on pri“The proof is in the pud- ‘The snapper on the farms live in or request at $15 per person. ding”, says Stu from Kawerau. schools and move around quite Please call or email them for “I bring along my whanau, we a bit, so the first thing is to find a more information or to make a have heaps of fun, catch some school and then bring it to the boat.’ booking - Nadgee Fishing Charfish and share the fish back home.” ‘That’s why we leave the motor run- ters Ltd, Russ and Lori Chesnutt, “These kids of mine here, Sam- ning, and with a bit of berley over Nadgee Fishing Charters, 07 uel seven years and Amanda the side, anything can happen.’ 8668172 or 022 3002201 or email ten years old are skilled fishers Russel’s experience as an ex-com- chesnutt1957@slingshot.co.nz and know exactly what to do.” mercial together with his local Stu wasn’t wrong, these kids of knowledge and expertise, paid off. Check out the website http:// his were masters, and showed up After several hours of pretty hard www.coromandelcharterfishmany on board as they bagged fishing everyone had their chilly bins ing.co.nz/ and like them on Fatheir limits in next to no time. full and we headed back to Te Kouma. cebook https://www.facebook.

Amanda hooked a 5.6kg snapper “We offer full day, overnight fish- com/NadgeeFishingCharters

Why is discard still happening?

www.baitboards.co.nz

Society is changing, with an increase in demands for more ethically responsible fishing, and this is sure to turn things upside down in relation to the current situation.

Fishermen will have to think along completely new lines, and develop new methods. While some responsible fishermen have developed new net systems, the government has turned its back on them because the industry has bought them and they don’t like change.

The new Tiaki PSH net is nothing more than a new cod end in the standard diamond net, a system which is outdated and should no longer be used as this net itself creates the highest level of discard.

Because discarding is something that happens over the horizon, it is out of our consciousness. Now days as recreational fishing boats are venturing further and further out to sea, the chances of being caught dumping are a lot higher.

So why the hell is it happening?

And how on earth do you stop it?

Discards are what we call ‘bycatch’. Even more specifically it is usually used to describe fish that could be, or are, marketable and edible – but not what is being specifically targeted or demanded.

Obviously there are different sorts of fishing. Put simply discards are a problem in the methods that catch a ‘mixed bag’ of fish rather than selectively targeting a specific species.

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The adventures of Jock and Mick

Jock and Mick legendary fishermen, in there own minds, were sitting in the pub having a chat over here 10th handle of their favourite ale.

Mick said to Jock “Jock you know this new commercial net the flash fellas are all talking about, well I heard that it caught 3,000 ton of Hoki just the other day” Jock said “Mick are you sure mate 3000 ton is a lot of fish,” Mick replied.

“To be sure, even you could catch a fish if you put a line in a school of fish with 3000 ton.”

To which Jock replied: “Well, we’ll grab the ‘Crusty Crab’ and the flounder net, get a few of the boys together, a couple of rods and we’ll do it.”

So with the help of google the lads found out what Hoki were and where they were likely to be found.

So a week later the lads arrived at Hokitika, then the next day the

boys made there way to the Hokitika trench in 600 metres of water.

Mick said to Jock “get the flounder net mate, we will try that first.”

Jock replied: “Mick, have you seen the floats with our names on them?”

Mick said “No mate they are in the garage, Christ we don’t want to lose our net because those sneeky MPI buggers catch us without names on our nets, mate we will have to use rods.”

So our lads dropped their lines down to 600 metres and hooked up instantly. Jock let out a yell “Mick, you mongrel dog, why did you tell me to put on 15 hooks?”

Mick replied “A fella in the pub told me, that’s what a commercial dropper was.”

Two hours later the lads finally got their fish to the surface.

Mick was the first to bring a fish in.

So, in our waters for example, if a trawler wants to catch gurnard, then it’s also quite likely they will pull up a net with other species in it too – like snapper, terakihi, small sharks, dolphins, john dory, pink maumau, pink snapper and mackerel.

At present that haul would be brought onboard, and sorted. The fish that were either not wanted or not allowed to be kept are then normally cast back over the side, after having their bellies slit so they sink, out of sight out of mind.

Because the focus is on the fish that the fishermen do want to keep and get a good market price for, bycatch is left to be dealt with last, then chucked back in. So for the most part, we can assume the trauma of being caught in a net, dragged up from the depths, and left floundering out of water means that it is dead.

There are essentially three main reasons for a fish becoming a discard statistic: the fisherman has no quota for it. there is little or no market or value for the fish. the fish is too small, or otherwise illegal to land There are ways to stop discards, none of which can work in isolation. How we do that is a combination of legislation, and the practical implementation of better ways of fishing, coupled with building in some ‘insurance’ into the system, and being a bit more realistic and flexible as consumers.

There is an assumption that ‘quotas cause discards’. But in reality quotas are agreed at government level then it is up to individual companies as to how they distribute and enforce their share of quotas appropriately. The upshot of that is that fishermen are told they cannot land over-quota fish, when actually the point of the quotas is that they are not supposed to be caught and killed (over-quota) in the first place.

Changing the rules to be more specific and actually generate the desired outcome is something we need from our fishing regulations.

method is simply not able to catch its target species without decimating other species (including some with very low quotas because they need a chance to recover) then why is it still happening? We need to incentivise good fishing, and disincentivise bad fishing, both politically and as consumers.

Technology for monitoring fishing is coming on in leaps and bounds, but largely it is still difficult to know just what is happening at sea. Cameras and AIS have been introduced on many fishing boats but not all. Fishermen are very confident that they can still dodge being filmed by dumping at night or in bad weather. AIS are still being turned off after leaving port.

The current interpretation of the quota system means it is ‘illegal’ to land the discarded fish, which means in truth we only have estimates of what is being caught. We need to change that.

Perhaps that means everything should be landed, so that we know what is being caught, and can take the necessary steps to eliminate discards. Perhaps it means more at-sea, and on-land enforcement along with a ban on discarding marketable fish at sea.

This is also essential to stop the heinous practice of ‘high-grading.

Of course the one sure way to make certain that fish are not discarded is that every fish caught is marketable and sold. That means fishermen getting a fair price for fish, and consumers being more ready to accept different species. Our dependence on just a few species is a huge part of the problem – but a difficult one to fix.

It’s worth acknowledging here that stopping discards is not the

Fishing in a mixed fishery catches a mix of fish. More selective gear is needed to be able to avoid catching non-targeted catch so that discards are not an issue.

But we need more ways of making our fishing selective, and minimising its overall impact. If a fishing

“That’s the ugliest fish I have every seen,” Jock said.

“Be-Jesus you say, I pity the mother of this fish, it is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.”

Mick had his own problems, ‘’Jock you have to help me, this motherless bastard has eaten the bottom off my bucket and has started on the vinyl seat covers.” Jock replied in a panic “Mick, my 15 devil fish have eaten through the traces but they are still circling the boat.”

So away the lads went as fast as the ‘Crusty Crab’ would go.

When they were onshore again at the pub Jock said to Mick. ‘’Mick you know mate I have decided not to catch such ugly fish any more.’’

Mick replied ‘’To be sure, the commercial boys can have all the deep water ugly fish if they want, we will keep the pretty ones in the shallow inshore.’’

A couple of weeks later at there favourite watering hole, Mick reminded his mate Jock of the ordeal. ‘’Jock, you know mate, there are two things that didn’t really work with that fishing trip, one is that we don’t know the difference between a barracuda and a hoki.’’

Jock replied ‘’true what’s the other.”

Mick thought for a while then said: ‘’My wife doesn’t understand me.”

“She asked me to put back the laundry bucket that I took fishing, so I did.’’

Jock frowned and said: ‘’how did that go.’’

“Bad, really bad,’’ said Mick.

solution to all the problems associated with commercial fishing.

Discards are just one symptom of a broken system, and addressing them doesn’t instantly stop overfishing, or destructive fishing.

Most importantly, we also need to make sure we are building in some insurance now for our oceans to allow them to recover, for fish and other species to thrive now and in the future. A sustainable fishing industry can only exist as part of a healthy ocean, and too often the commercial fishing industry take the endless bounty of our seas for granted.

The devastating waste of good, healthy food should be condemned in any society – and in a world where food prices and food security area a burning issue, it is reprehensible.

Kiwis get second grade fish to purchase in supermarkets, we don’t get and can’t purchase export grade fish. The price of fish in this country is ridiculous when you take into account the waste fish that is dumped. And in many cases this is done to keep the price up.

Commercial fishers threaten to boycott local trade if they are kicked outside the Hauraki Gulf and Marlborough Sounds. I say bring it on as they are plenty of other ways to source local trade.

Fishing companies are encouraging people to try different types of fish instead of always choosing species under pressure, such as gurnard, terakihi and hapuka.

A high percentage of fish thrown back dead is due to poor MPI quota management system, bad fisheries management, and is simply because there is no market for them.

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Government “Total State Control” of 1080 Gets Poisonous Reaction

Laurie Collins - helicopoters overhead will be public notification.

Conservationists, hunters and farmers have hit out at government plans to take pest control out of the hands of regional councils and make the rules for using 1080 poison and other methods “nationally consistent”.

The proposals would mean the use of 1080, brodifacoum and rotenone

would be covered by standard controls set by the Environmental Protection Authority, to replace current process of each regional council setting their own pest control rules.

It is a move championed by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright who advocated government control of 1080 drops in a major report five years ago. She said doing it through local councils was “labyrinthine and costly”.

But hunting author Tony Orman labelled it as “totalitarian state control’ and said the move would virtually eliminate the right and ability of the public to voice concern about 1080 drops.

“1080 is a bad, destructive and cruel toxin - brodifacoum is horrifyingly worse,” he said.

The inclusion of rotenone - a fish poison - was potentially alarming he said. With total state control, were there plans to eliminate trout from National Parks? The National Parks Act decrees “ introduced species” such as trout and deer, to be undesirable.

“Aren’t humans an introduced species?” he said. “The National Parks

Act is warped in this respect - selective and unrealistic in trying to turn the clock back to 500 AD. This is like one big Mad Dream of Nick Smith’s.”

Similar concerns were voiced by others.

Wairarapa conservationist Bill Benfield said the move by Nick Smith should be a major concern to the whole country.

“On the information we have at the moment, the minister (Smith) intends to pursue a new Regulation under section 360 (h) of the RMA, that will exempt the three poisons, brodifacoum, 1080 and waterway fish poison (rotenone) from the discharge controls in section 15. I. Further, he appears to not want these poisons to be subject to a National Environmental Standard (NES).”

In other words, the poisons would be used with little or no public notification.

“As the government is committed to eliminating non-native creatures from National parks, there is a very real worry that rotenone could be discretely used against non-native trout as they have already done at Zealandia.”

Co-chairman of the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations Andi

Hunua caution period lifted Six months after the final application of 1080 in the Hunua Ranges regional parklands, the caution over the treatment area has been lifted.

The caution period is one of the operational requirements of using a toxin like 1080 and is a reminder to visitors that they may encounter bait that hasn’t yet broken down or pest animal carcasses.

Hunua Project operational lead and Auckland Council’s Biodiversity Manager Rachel Kelleher says in addition to the required time passing since bait application, monitoring of bait and carcass breakdown carried out under a number of environmental conditions has also assisted in informing the caution period.

“Carcass and bait breakdown monitoring is carried out to assess how 1080 baits, and animals that have consumed bait, break down,” she says.

Pest animal carcasses and 1080 pellets collected after bait application

tion period are being removed from the council’s website. Information boards about the pest control operawere placed in secure cages in loca- tion will remain up at major car parks tions that ranged from deep forest and arrival areas in the ranges and cover to more exposed areas. Both information about the programme visual assessments and laboratory is on Auckland Council’s website. testing was carried out on both car- Following last year’s operation casses and bait to determine the likeli- pest animals in the ranges are at hood of the toxin still being present. an all-time low with rat and pos“The weather plays an important part sum densities significantly reduced in this process and the ranges has re- across the operational area. When ceived a good amount of rain and warm planning for this operation betemperatures over the last six months. gan, rats were tracking at 91.6 per “A very important message through- cent saturation across the ranges out this programme has been the wel- and possum numbers were high. fare of dogs in and around the ranges. Post operational monitoring has been “Having the caution period in place extremely positive. Pest species have has been important in making sure dropped dramatically following the dogs are safe however it is still impor- operation with possums densities tant for dog owners to keep a close measured between 0.25 per cent and eye on their pets and prevent them one per cent across the two treatment from scavenging – regardless of where blocks, and rat densities between they are, there is always a risk of poi- zero and 1.03 per cent across both soning or illness when dogs scavenge blocks. Species monitoring is also a on a dead animal,” says Ms Kelleher. strong indicator of success with an Warning signs have been taken estimated 100 kōkako fledgings from down and messages about the cau- the 55 pairs in the managed area.

Taxpayers Subsidising Forest Corporates Chasing Mythical Possums - by John McNab

Taxpayers are subsidising possum control for foreign-owned forestry companies says a farmers organisation opposed to 1080 and other poisons.

West Coast Hari Hari dairy farmer, spokes women for “Farmers Against Ten Eighty” (FATE) Mary Molloy said TbfreeNZ-Ospri (formerly Animal Health Board) were carrying out publicly funded “pest” control in West Otago plantation forests owned by multi-national corporates Rayonier, Ernslaw One and Wenita, “In reality these pest control measures are being funded by the New Zealand taxpayer, ratepayer and from compulsory farmer levies.

Despite the criticism, Tbfree/Ospri manager Brent Rohloff insisted that the operation will go ahead.

However Mary Molloy said the operations had little or no justification as there was no indication possum numbers had increased.

West Otago residents’ criticism was growing and 60 concerned Lawrence township and surrounding area residents filled a hall in the

town, to get answers from TbFreeNZOspri. In addition, a strong push has grown to get the aerial drop stopped and water supplies protected. A petition has gathered 200 names from the sparsely populated area.

Mary Molloy was critical of TbFreeNZOspri’s stubborness to proceed with the drop despite growing opposition.

“Nothing is likely to change according to Mr Rohloff who went on to say that he didn’t know if any possums had Tb and it was over two decades since there was Tb on farmland.,” she said.

Mary Molloy said Mr Rohloff claimed that 1080 landing in waterways was biodegradeable and safe.

“But that flies in the face of good science, namely that 1080 is very stable in water and is colourless, odourless, tasteless and very difficult to test for and with no known antidote.”

Residents and many farmers were con cerned for the safety of children and also pets including dogs which were very susceptible to 1080 poisoning.

Doubts had arisen over food safety.

She cited one farmer who was not op-

posed to the 1080 aerial drop and wants 1080 around and on his farmland .

“I sincerely hope that Food Safety is able to ensure his exports are safe,” said Mary Molloy. “The local butcher was gutted to hear that she had to be certain where deer and pigs were coming from before processing could take place.”

Mary Molloy said there were alternatives to indiscriminately dropping toxic 1080-laced pellets such as ground hunting. Two possum trappers had offered to recover possums from the Glendu-Mt Allan and Berwick forest areas charging $0 to $10 per hectare. In addition, another person representing a helicopter fur recovery operation also offered her firm could do the operation for free.

“Incredibly, these generous safe offers were told ground control wasn’t in the budget and in any case, ground control was too dangerous,” said Mary Molloy. “Too dangerous compared to a poison banned in many countries? It defies credibility.”

Mr Rohloff stated that Vector Control Services a stand-alone company of the West Coast Regional Council, were managing the West Otago aerial operation and Mt Hutt helicopters would fly the drops.

“Rohloff believed the drop would go ahead despite the wide range of concerns, few of which Mr. Rohloff and his colleagues had answers for,” added Mary Molloy.

“It concerns Farmers Against Ten Eighty that so little is known by those who are charged with poisoning, that no possum surveys to establish need have occurred, we believe no Tb then no Tbfree.,” she said. “And after all, why should these forest companies be subsidised by the public?”

Cockroft said Smith’s move to state control posed the question whether Government was now beginning to run scared in the face of mounting public disquiet about 1080.

“Over indiscriminate mass-poisoning of ‘clean green’ New Zealand and the deliberate killling of of endangered species by the very agencies tasked with protecting them, is irresponsible and ecological insanity.”

Convenor of the Sporting Hunters’ Outdoor Trust (SHOT) Laurie Collins of the West Coast said surveys showed 90 percent of West Coast people were opposed to 1080.

‘This move by Smith is manipulation to escalate 1080 drops without notifying the public before-hand.

“The first people will know of 1080 drops will be helicopters passing overhead. He’s shifting the goalposts to suit his crazy dream. And he’s unintentionally but foolishly propping up a very shady business around 1080.”

Laurie Collins said New Zealanders must shake off their apathy and kick back at the ballot box, at next year’s election.

Conservationist Lewis Hore of Oamaru said the increasing number of New Zealanders becoming aware of the waste and ecological damage of 1080 drops had “spooked” Environment Minister Nick Smith.

“The increasing pressure to stop the widespread use of the super toxin 1080 poison from more and more people as they become aware of the serious damage it is causing to the environment has forced the Government to take complete control of the toxins use produced in the Government owned factory. Are they scared that their very profitable company may succumb to the mounting pressure and the seriously large profits made from their factory will disappear?” he asked.

Farmers Against 1080 (FATE) convenor and Harihari dairy farmer Mary Molloy agreed.

“The Government is obviously concerned that people living in our rural areas are becoming more and more irate at the continued short rotation 1080 aerial drops, the pellets in their public and private water ways and in all recreation areas. “

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- by Dick Featherstone

The move by Environment Minister Nick Smith was designed to muffle the noisy growing public unease. It would deny the people the right and ability to point out dangers to their communities of 1080. People would no longer have any opportunity to question the wisdom of continuing to use a “world recognised deadly poison”,which was colourless, tasteless, odourless and with no meaningful antidote.

“Farmers Against Ten Eighty want this poison banned from our water, our land and our air, out of New Zealand before our environment is altered beyond recovery,” she said.

Tony Orman--”A Mad Dream” by Nick Smith?

INFORMING THE OVERSEAS TOURISTS!

Dave and Maureen Denny live at Wingatui and do NOT like 1080 poison!

They are especially incensed that Mt Allan Forest, Dunedin, at their

‘back door’ is to be aerially poisoned

by TBFree within a very short time. So they have decided to make a statement - on their own land - which they are perfectly entitled to do.

The popular Taieri Gorge Excursion Train runs past one of their paddocks ( see the line in the foreground of one of these photographs ) at least twice every day, full of tourists

and cruise ship passengers. Prince Charles and Camilla even arrived in Dunedin on it in November, 2015 !

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THE HUTCHWILCO NZ BOAT SHOW 12 – 15 May 2016 - ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland - 10am to 6pm, Friday 10am - 9pm

Hutchwilco Boat Show 2016 New Zealanders love the water and our passion for boating recreation is the driving force behind the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show.

Buy tickets now, save and win! – $6000 ‘ultimate fishing kayak’ to be won Avoid the queues and save! Tickets cost just $20 each (instead of $22 at the gate) and make great Xmas presents, stocking fillers, and birthday or “thank you” gifts. All paid tickets (bought here on line or at the gate) for the 2016 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show will go in the draw to win this spectacular, “goodie-

packed” Surtees/Yamaha Grand Prize Package worth more than $100,000!

The Surtees/Yamaha Grand Prize Package consists of a Surtees 610 Game Fisher, Yamaha F150B four-stroke outboard and loads of practical extras!

Hutchwilco Limited has extended its long-standing relationship with the New Zealand Boat Show, by announcing it will be the naming rights sponsor for the event for a further nine years.

In its 61st year, the New Zealand Boat Show has been sponsored by Hutchwilco for the past 15-years and continues to be a key

event on the industry calendar.

Hutchwilco Managing Director, Gary Sutton says he is excited to extend the already long-standing relationship.

“It is our major sponsorship commitment within the industry and is the key event on the New Zealand marine calendar. Hutchwilco is one of the leading marine wholesalers as well as a manufacturer and it is an obvious fit for both organisations,” says Sutton.

“The sponsorship gives us exceptional brand awareness and we are excited and pleased to be able to continue this great partnership.”

The 2016 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show runs from May 12-15 at ASB Showgrounds Greenlane, Auckland.

INTERESTING THOUGHTS ON SNAPPER

By Paul Gray

Doing the rounds of local country fairs and shows this summer, with our Aqua Sinka stall, has brought to light some revealing facts about rod caught snapper. I usually ask my customers how their season has been and how they’ve caught their fish.

It seems very odd, far more anglers than usual, have found it difficult to catch snapper on the rod.

One particular guy started out by saying he’d had 167 snapper so far this season, my immediate thought was WELL DONE, but he went on to say, “Not one on the rod. Every time I go out with a mate, we set the longline, then go off for 3 hours fishing with the rods and we just can’t catch them anymore! We come back to the longline and usually find a few good snapper. I must say, I was taken aback, but I’ve had far too many similar stories this summer.

Maybe there’s a good reason behind this? I’d love some feedback from people that know how to

catch these elusive fish. Below I’ve written some thoughts on this I think back to my years of running my own freshwater fishery in the UK. Over there, catch and release is the order of the day. It may sound strange to Kiwi blokes that mostly fish for the pot, but for starters there are more and some much larger fish to catch in a well-managed lake fishery, than a wild unmanaged lake.

You can have heaps of fun just sitting in a comfortable chair, with sandwiches, flask and umpteen different baits and rigs, a well manged tackle box by your side. In general, there’s greater opportunity to experiment from a static seat, than on a rocking boat.

When the fish are hard to tempt, most coarse-fishing anglers have a vast armoury of flavours and baits to choose from. Usually the car isn’t far away, stocked with a heap more fishing stuff if the fish are really proving difficult !

Where catch and release is manda-

tory, things start to get challenging, because fish are put back in the water to grow bigger, they also learn to be wiser. For starters, fish are not as dumb as you imagine. Any fish worth it’s salt, soon starts to realize being pricked in the mouth on a regular basis isn’t a heap of fun. The new fishing season starts on june 16th after a 3 month break, fish seem to have forgotten what happened last season.

If the weather is settled and warm in the first week or two of the season, fish are more easily caught. But as the season progresses, anyone fishing a heavily fished water, will find it gets harder and harder to catch fish, unless you experiment with different baits and tactics. FISH DO LEARN! My thoughts are:- By the laws of natural selection, stupid snapper will get caught more easily and therefore will not be breeding much. Whereas smarter snapper will be more successful and possibly produce smarter offspring?

Not only that, but with more boats on the water than ever, a lot of snapper have been caught undersized and returned, possibly more than once.

So on the basis of carp, which seemed to have the best memories, maybe snapper learn to be wary of a bait they’ve been caught on before, or in the vicinity of boats ? Unless you’re by a mussel farm, where boat noise means feed time, here you could try keeping your motor running !

Carp are one of the smartest fish I know. Not far from my fishery in the UK, a pig farmer I knew well, had a small pond near his piggery with koi carp in it. Every day he would drive around in his pick-up truck and chuck some pig food in for them. But amazingly, he told me, they knew the sound or vibration of his particular vehicle and would be excitedly waiting at the waters edge for him to feed them ! Any other vehicle was ignored but his !!! One day I called around, and he took me to see his Koi. Sure enough, as we approached in his truck, hundreds of them surfaced, right at the waters edge pursing their lips and make a hell of a sucking sound.

It was quite an impressive sight !

Another fisherman told me a story about the very popular carp bait, luncheon meat. It was always cut in cubes, the carp at his usual spot got fed up with cubes. By chance one day when the fishing was really hard, he cut circular baits from his luncheon meat tin with a pen top. Too his amazement he had a bonanza, caught far more fish than anyone else and was convinced the carp could sense the bait wasn’t square and might be ok to eat!

On our fishery during winter, when little natural food was available, I would put some wheat around the lake edge, just deep enough to be visible, but hopefully out of easy reach of ducks.

The extra food kept the carp in

good condition, until spring arrived with more plentiful tucker.

The first week we started fishing in the spring, it was quite prolific but would soon tail off. It would be then I would suggest to anglers to soak some wheat overnight and use it as a hook bait. The results were amazing for the first week, like 20 carp per rod per day.

Then suddenly the carp would wiseup and become almost impossible to catch, - that was until a yet another bait was tried, usually something new would tempt them. Sweetcorn, luncheon meat, boiled hemp seed, cheese, pepperoni sausage was favourite, tench loved strawberry flavoured sweetcorn and garlic flavours. After around a month or a little longer it was safe to return to a previous bait and have a few good days fishing before the fish changed their minds again.

So I’m thinking you should try some new baits, something out of the ordinary on these tricky snapper. Please email any useful tips to : info@aquasinka.com The best snapper fishermen I’ve met have a few things in common, in general they do several of the following:1. Getting up early and fishing the dawn. 2. Starting late and fishing at dusk. 3. Using berley and being patient enough for it to take effect, this is often minced up mussels or kina. 4.

Using Aqua Soaka’s™ can make a real difference. 5. Using a fixed spool reel and casting a distance from the boat.

6. Using a running ledger rig, usually pilchard as bait. 7. Letting the fish run before striking. 8. Being quiet. 9. Using a largish bait, as fresh as possible.

10. Using a pre-soaked, natural but flavoured bait. You can try dunking fresh bait in our Soak-It™overnight, it acts as a preservative as well. Refrigerated not frozen, bait will usually last for several weeks if left covered in Soak-It™ Anise is the preferred flavour

for snapper and garlic works well on gurnard, trevally, terakihi & blue cod.

I might be a little biased but many fishermen find our flavoured, re-usable sinkers really work wonders, particularly when the going gets tough.

I must say “ it’s great to have a lovely fish to take home for the pot. But it’s also nice to see one swim away to find a mate or even be there for another day.

Catch and release certainly has a wellearned place, particularly now there is more pressure than ever on fish stocks.

Conservation and looking after the environment, should be at the forefront of every fisherman’s mind.

I guess this is what spurred me on to find an alternative for lead sinkers.

You only need to Google “Lead Toxicity” to find how poisonous it is. I have heard several stories from customers here in NZ that have suffered severe health problems, from handling and melting lead while making their own sinkers. As a guestimate, I recon 3040% of fishing sinkers are homemade here in NZ and many people are not very aware of the danger of lead fumes during smelting or long-term handling. Some reply “I’m quite happy with an fan extractor”, but where does that go, in the air outside or over to the neighbours? A few weeks back a guy who came to our stall, recounted how he’d recently spent 2 weeks in Nelson hospital, on deaths door. This was after he’d balanced a pair of oars for his rowing boat by drilling the handles and pouring molten lead in.

He covered the lead with tape but after a couple of weeks rowing around The Sounds, it wore off, and the lead rubbed off on his hands. Shortly afterwards he ended up in hospital.

Another acquaintance had a barbeque, it was still blazing away merrily after they finished eating.He said “let’s not waste the heat, let’s make some lead sinkers” unfortunately it

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11

THE HUTCHWILCO NZ BOAT SHOW 12 – 15 May 2016 - ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland - 10am to 6pm, Friday 10am - 9pm

was inside a shed. It wasn’t long before everyone in the shed felt really sick and had to go home. He said it wasn’t till later they realized it was lead fumes that made them so ill.

On a less sombre note, I never ceased to be amazed how many fishermen there were in the UK. It was quoted “more people fished on a Saturday afternoon than watched football”.

They were a pretty decent bunch, the sort who loved nature, quietly, mostly un-noticed, because they were tucked away by some hidden lake or stream. Enjoying not just fishing, but all the wildlife that is attracted by the vital life giving energy of water.

Not necessarily a hunter gatherer, that wants to take home something for the table type, but more the ‘get

away from the city/office/workplace, see and breathe some fresh country air, then have a good yarn about the one that did or didn’t get away, to their mates in the bar afterwards. The mates if they fished, would be keen to go and try their luck in the same spot, knowing specimen fish were returned and next time they might be bigger .

They are currently working on a launch date New Zealand and are also interested in talking to anyone that may have an interest in retailing this type of product as part of his or her product range. It will compliment any retail shop in many ways, especially kayak dealers as drive away packages become very ap-

pealing. They are confident in our product being the best quality and user-friendly trailer available in the fishing kayak industry at the moment.

They are kayak fishing enthusiasts and have many years of experience in the industry. We want to make lives easier Australia wide and abroad to give the sport a stylish and practical element to

the way these kayaks are transported.

They love creating something that will motivate you to get out there and spend a day on the water, after all, that’s exactly what its all about, enjoying life.

Affordabilty combined with strength and style.

Welcome to the future of kayak trailers.

Customized kayak trailers coming to NZ So where does our fish bait come from?

The continuing kayak fishing craze is constantly growing on worldwide scale. This exciting element to fishing is evolving fast and changing how conventional fishing is done for good.

Yak fishers have huge advantages, easy to launch, stealth on the water, easily accessing areas boats can’t just to name a few, but…what about

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transporting them easily and safely?

Redtide Trailers has the answer!

The owner and operator of Redtide Trailers, Jason Mifsud, initially created a customized trailer for his own personal use, “it just made kayak fishing so much easier, No heavy lifting, My wash-down system helped me maintain my kayak, gear, some-

where to put my catch and 12v accessories with lighting for night fishing conditions” he said “the beauty of all, was getting home, detaching the trailer, and I was done” This got the attention of many and thought he couldn’t be the only person wanting such a practical trailer.

They have now carefully designed Purpose built trailers that cater for kayaks of all shapes and sizes. Kayak trailers is all they do, and they are proud to be the only manufacturers of purpose built trailers catering for fishing kayaks only in existence. Its what they love and they are guaranteed to have an option that will suit your needs.

Our brand new range soon to be released on pre sale boasts some fantastic new feature along with a brand new structural design, some of the features and accessories include: an unbeatable warranty and guarantee on our trailer structures, buy with confidence; Lifetime compatibility, upgrade to any trailer in the Redtide range at any time; Change your trailer as your needs change; Washdown systems; 12v accessories from charging points to lighting; lockable storage options; rod lockers; standard inclusions that would be considered extras elsewhere; camping options and much more…..

Every day, all over the world, millions of fish are thrown back into the briny because they are either too small or belong to the wrong quota species.

This naturally has huge consequences for the commercial fishermen’s financial situation, fish populations, and the environment, and means that fisheries policy has been something of a political hot potato for many years.

We cannot force the commercial fishermen to do anything, as it is a mind set, they know exactly what they are doing, and go to great lengths to denigh that it happens.

Fish discard is as bad as overfishing.

So where does our fish bait come from?

Our fish bait comes from excess catch, by catch and damaged catch. Most excess and by catch gets made into canned fish, fish fertilizer, fish meal and pet foods. And a small amount of excess catch gets sold as fish bait. The reason that it’s a small amount is that primarily most fish bait is imported.

The bait that is used from local catch is usually fish that it too damaged to be exported or sold on local trade markets.

Interestingly enough bait is almost given away to bait manufacturers as there is such a surplus they can’t get rid of enough, and with the high use of plastic soft baits, many fishermen are steering away from the messy baits.

The number one bait swings between

pilchards and squid, usually dependent on whats working on the day.

The New Zealand blue pilchard is the most sought after but hard to find in bait shops.

The blue pilchard is a small, fast growing fish, found midwater and on the surface in coastal waters. When caught it is usually individually quick frozen (IQF) and as a Premium grade bait is usually more expensive mainly because it is oilier and stays on the hook better than imported pilchards.

Imported baits have usually thawed from bulk supply and then refrozen which causes them to become mushy when baited.

Pilchards come in various sizes.

Squid also comes in different sizes: whole Loligo baby squid, or the larger Arrow ones which we generally cut into slices for our hooks.

Whole piper, can be hard to find and are very popular when targeting big snapper. Most fishers use them whole on a stray line.

Mullet another popular bait because it is very oily, tough and stays on the hook well.

Jack mackerel and blue mackerel are also very popular snapper baits.

Fresh or frozen ones will stay on the hook well and are usually used as large whole baits for the larger fish.

Bonito/skipjack tuna are also good

bait and are used part frozen as the thawed bait usually needs tying on the hook. Pre-salted bonito is also popular for some fishers.

Good Oily Berley is a must for successful fishing. Berley is manufactured by grinding up fish by-products which generally constitute a berley bomb.

Berley bombs come in various sizes and are made up from a wide range of unwanted or usable fish, and can contain anything scraped up from the manufacturers floor including all blood and guts; damaged and unwanted mussel (including the shell), kina, pilchard, bonito and salmon, which can be minced together or separately into a mush and then placed into a plastic bag and frozen.

Using your berley effectively and correctly helps carry the berley down current usually towards some foul ground to attract fish and also triggers them to feed. If you over berley you can effectively be feeding the fish becoming your own competition.

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View the newspaper online at www.fishingoutdoors.org – and advertise online with us

Wild Game Hunt and Fishing Competition It is that time of the year that Tauhei Combined School gets geared up for its annual fundraiser. Now in its 6th year, the Wild Game Hunt and Fishing Competition helps to raise funds for necessary items at the school. As the years have developed so too has the event, initially a hunting and eeling competition, we have added different fishing categories, this year also including Kahawai. This ensures that those that do not hunt can still participate with fishing which is now included in both the open and junior sections. A mighty drawcard would have to be the three different $200 cash prizes for the first average weight snapper, first average weight boar and first average weight mallard. So for those who hunt and fish, get the gear ready for another fantastic event.

Hunters delight, would be how you describe this competition. Deer, Boar, Mallards, Pheasants, Rabbits to name a few, are in the limelight or headlight for this event. With an amazing array of animals on display, this is a showcase of the best of the best. Hunters show their animals off and have good old chin wags as stories are told about where, when and how at the weigh in and prize giving from 3pm Sunday 22 May at the Tauhei Community Hall. Come along and view the game or give some a try with a selection on sale including: wild pork roast rolls, goat curry, butter turkey, venison and fish chowder.

To include the youngsters, Eeling is a must; we promote catch and release, so sincerely hope that all eels are weighed in alive so they can be re-

Book review

At War with Nature - Corpo-

rate Conservation and the Industry of Extinction Kindle Edition

by William Benfield

At War with Nature: Corporate Conservation and the Extinction Industry.

This is a book about how the destruction of one of the world’s most

unique, ancient and unspoiled wilderness areas has led to the growth of an international industry eradicating animals and plants which have been deemed to be “invasive”. That is because they are where pseudoscientists say they should not be.

What New Zealand began as an industrialised extermination has now become island eradications in many parts of the world. To expand and grow, it must either seek more islands, or widen its scope to cover whole nations; that is what it is now doing.

The parasitic riders who drive this conservation gravy train are:• Government conservation agencies who seek to increase their bureaucratic power and influence, • The agri-chemical industry who supply the chemicals and poisons.

• The powerful and wealthy conservation charities who whip up the concept of “threats to nature” as a way generating donations, bequests and corporate sponsorships.

• The academic and science institu-

leased later. Children under the age of 12 can catch the eels anywhere, and with a can do attitude could take out the Heaviest Eel, with prizes and a trophy. We have also added a mystery weight prize, so even if you don’t take out the big one, there is still a chance so bring your eel along.

The event is open to anyone and anywhere in New Zealand. You need to be in to win. You must be registered

by Thursday 19 May 2016 with the competition starting at 1am Friday 20 May and continuing until weigh in shut off at 4pm Sunday 22 May 2016.

How do I enter?

Entry forms can be downloaded off the school’s website tauhei.co.nz.

So shine up the reels, get ready to defrost the bait, clean the gun, and find the camo gear, this event is for you......... tions who see in it a rich seam of grant money for supplying junk science in support of the eradication industry.

Eradications are carried out on a scale reminiscent of the US military aerial deforestation of Vietnam with “agent orange”. Here, for all wildlife, the animals, birds and insects, the poisons used are super-toxins such as brodifacoum and 1080. For vegetation, they have devised new wonder chemical cocktails such as “Armageddon”. It is total ecosystem genocide.

To whip up a public fervour to help justify such mass environmental poisoning, the people are fed the concepts of invasive pests and threats. Thus, harmless creatures are demonised and need be shown no mercy. By deliberate and devious propaganda, the public are kept unaware, that in the blinkered rush of zeal to kill “pests” and “predators”, the eradication industry is killing everything else, even the rare and endangered species such as an entire monitored population of rock wrens from an aerial 1080 poisoning at New Zealand’s Kuhurangi National Park.

It is a war against nature.

Available on Kindle

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The rescue that wasn’t Everything done right … except turning comms equipment on A helicopter was airborne and a yacht heading to the rescue of a family fishing group in a runabout in trouble on the Firth of Thames this morning – but the group was actually arriving safely back at the boat ramp.

The problem was none of their communications equipment

– radio or cellphones – had been turned on during the trip.

The Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) received a personal locator beacon activation alert at around 9am today and responded by alerting the Auckland rescue helicopter and asking a nearby yacht for assistance.

A father had taken his 16-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter fish-

ing and their emergency contact – the mother of the family – advised they would all be wearing their lifejackets.So far, so good, but it appears the beacon had actually activated as the result of either a fault or being inadvertently switched on. With no means of contacting the group, RCCNZ began a search and rescue operation.

A call home from the boat ramp brought the operation to an end, shortly before 10am.

Flounder our local favourite Flounder are a very popular fish that live in our harbour’s around NZ and are very important to recreational fishers.

What a lot of recreational fishers are unaware of, is that flounder are now also very important to the export industry.

The commercial fishers are very quick to show the TV media how they sell to local trade, their fresh fish caught that morning, but strategically no mention is made of the truck heading to the processing plant stacked with polybins of the fish, for exporting to the Asian markets.

These offshore markets could potentially take every flounder we have in our waters and leave the recreational fisher with none.

What has and will happen first is that the local trade, be it roadside stall, fish and chip shop or restaurant will miss out.

Then as the exporters celebrate new markets through their PR and the media, the MPI get a little closer to there export double goal, then the flounder stock will start to decline.

The MPI have planned assessments of fish stocks and generally don’t budge on there schedules.

This is the reason why extreme measures have been required to

be taken in the past, with large day catch drops, like what recently occurred in the Marlborough Sounds.

The next thing was the introduction of the proposed recreational only reserves.

It’s been said by the commercial fishers, that this will cause a price increase of locally supplied fish and possibly a supply problem to the wet fish market.

This is a credible threat.

The commercial exporters will, just like the crayfish exporters, disregard the needs of Kiwis in favour of their export markets.

As the seafood quota holders of NZ have not only ownership of the fishery but a monopoly with no mandate to supply the kiwi market, where will those who don’t have the youth or ability to catch there own flounder get a feed?

The black market here will flourish, just like what has occurred with Crayfish and Paua, or we will be smothered with imported fish from Canada and Asia.

I hate people who moan with no solution, so here’s mine.

Flounder should immediately be taken off the export market. That way the commercial fishers could still supply local trade and recre-

ational fishers would have flounder for generations to come, as our local consumption is relatively small.

If the 42 commercial fishers who fish in the areas destined to be recreational only don’t agree, then we would have got past the well crafted PR crap to the truth of the matter.

And that is that the export market has an appetite much larger than our inshore fishery can supply.

How long ago was the political party NZ First named, was this name a fluke or have kiwi families been put second to export market for that long.

There is some shocking meat products coming in from Australia and other countries selling products like Canadian frozen lobster, Asian scallops and the waterfilled Pork.

In the not to distant future we will only have available to us, the pre-frozen flounder from the rejects of the export fishery.

The examples above are very easy to see at a supermarket near you the next time you shop. Do you ask where the scallops served in some of our fish and chip shops come from? Many sell frozen asian scallops which aren’t even close to the flavour of NZ Scallops.

Flounder should come off the export market now.

We need aquaculture around our coastal communities Most of us fishers see Mussel farming as a positive influence on our fishery, we are encouraged to tie up to the floats as long as we don’t damage the mussel lines.

When the mussel barges are harvesting they attract huge schools of large snapper, which also attract many recreational fishers intent on scoring some of the bounty.

Mussel farming is an important and expanding industry in New Zealand, and there are over 3000 ha of mussel farms, with proposals for a further 39 000 ha.

So while our economy could do with the cash injection is this a good idea for our ocean environment?

There is growing evidence of adverse effects on marine animals which are in direct competition for space in the most of our productive coastal waters. Mussel farms deplete phytoplankton and zooplankton; modify the benthic environment, species assemblages, and local hydrodynamics; increase marine litter; and facilitate the spread of unwanted organisms.

In other words they bugger up whats underneath the farms and in some cases pollute the sea floor up to 200 metres around each farm.

Therefore it is likely that the establishment of mussel farms may lead to loss and degradation of wildlife habitat, either by exclusion or as a consequence of changes to the ecosystem.

There are no excuses for this and they require better management and better practices!

First and foremost we need these aquaculture facilities, as the added value they bring to the community, far outweighs the revenue that the mussel farmers get.

However lets also look at the huge benefits that a mussel farm brings to the area. That is in the value to the local economies through rec-

reational fishers flocking to the coastal towns bordering the farms, where direct benefits like fuel, accommodation, food and bait purchases can be directly attributed.

Sure there are issues and the mussel farmers know that – so let’s look at possible solutions.

Rather than having the harvesters continue the practice of dumping waste overboard, this waste needs to be managed better to suit our marine environment, by stopping this practice, or; How about we support the mussel farmers to encouraging local and central government to start dredging up the waste and dumping this, out in the allocated sea dumping areas.

The farmers I’m sure would be happy to pay an annual levy so the farms are cleaned up every ten years or so.

The benefits to the mussel farmers and the sea area would justify this.

But collectively the farmers can’t afford it so the government needs to get involved.

Mussels are grown on ropes or droppers suspended from the backbone cable down into the water column in a series of loops, which hang under the weight of the mussel crop. The droppers are spaced about 1 metre apart and, depending on the water depth, may extend down to 30 m, but are normally kept clear of the bottom. The backbones cables are positioned in parallel rows 15 to 20 metres apart in sheltered inshore areas and 50 to 60m apart in exposed situations.

Harvesting is done from specially designed harvest vessels.

The mussel-laden growing ropes are hauled onboard the vessel where the mussels are stripped from the rope.

The mussels are then washed and any natural debris or rubbish is

discarded overboard within the mussel farm boundaries. This rubbish includes broken shells, oysters, seaweed, and other marine rubbish like pieces of cut rope.

The WRC currently undertake a three yearly audit on every farm which includes a dive (or equivalent) when benthic surveys are undertaken every four years. The subsurface survey is undertaken by professionals who are qualified in interpreting the benthic information. These involve the use of either a diver or underwater camera shots and an automated system for collecting seafloor samples.

The three-yearly audits of farms mentioned below involve a visual inspection of surface structures by a WRC officer.

The Council rely on an advisory notice to verify beach clean ups have been done correctly and adequately and they are genuinely interested to hear if things aren’t being done properly.

The entire cycle from initial seeding to the harvest of marketable-size (90–120 mm) mussels usually takes 12 to 24 months, depending on the growing conditions.

Has anyone considered the huge amount of waste from Mussel Barge operators that is being dumped directly around the mussel farms, when the barges are harvesting?

According to sources this wastage can be around one to five ton, per barge, per harvest depending on how much is harvested.

While recently fishing down the Gulf we watched a mussel harvestor dumping mussel shells and debris straight off the side of the barge into the briny?

Not a good look, but the thing is, our country needs them, and the benefits of better management far outweigh the negatives. However the Council and farmers could do better.

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13

Water, water everywhere – time to safeguard everything Unlike the rest of the world New Zealand has a plentiful supply of water so the pressing issues are allocation, quality, distribution, storage and future planning for water which is critical to the nation’s future, New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) chief executive Susan Houston says.

Whether it’s a water treatment facility or a system to irrigate the country’s dairy farms, water is a major issue being discussed at the NZPI annual conference in Dunedin this week. More than 500 planners, resource managers, urban designers and environmental practitioners from all

over the country are attending.

Global demand for water is expected to increase by 2050 as the world’s population is forecast to grow by one-third to more than 9 billion, according to the United Nations.

This in turn will lead to a 70 percent increase in demand for food, putting more pressure on water through farming, which is already the biggest consumer of water.

As climate change contributes to rising sea levels and extreme weather, at least one in four people will live in a country with chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water by 2050, the United Nations estimates, making it more important to

focus on expanding rainwater harvesting and recycling wastewater.

Houston says consent agencies around the country are facing disputes and challenges to water consent applications from dairy and environmentalists, agriculture and energy generation and horticulture and recreational users.

“The annual conference is debating how small dairying communities respond to increasing water supply and allocation pressures on their local groundwater resource.

We want to see collaboration as a solution to allocation issues.

We need to improve knowledge of groundwater resources

over time and resource management decision making.

“Many Maori are concerned at the modification of rivers and what they perceive to be inappropriate flow regimes. Maori want to see instream flows that are not limited solely to a consideration of ecological and economic values,” Houston says.

“Water resource management is a key issue for resource planning in New Zealand. Managing water effectively to meet competing expectations and values can be complex, confrontational and costly. We are discussing the Resource Management Act frame-

work over-arching our management of water resources and are looking at potential solutions.

“Urban expansion onto new greenfield sites inevitably changes our water environment. Threats to water quality from urban growth were identified around two decades ago. Maintaining existing water quality in areas where urban growth is occurring, requires new urban development to employ active stormwater management techniques that reduce the volume of stormwater and improve its quality, as close to the source as possible.

“Major cities such as London, Philadelphia and New York are facing

estimated costs of over $US1 billion to address water pollution stemming from an overreliance on costly to maintain or upgrade traditional hard-engineering drainage solutions. In the push to increase urban areas and housing supply, there is an opportunity to build in future safeguards on water quality.

As New Zealanders, we do not want to repeat the mistakes of other overseas cities. Growing cities do not need to conflict with water quality goals, but if not well managed, it will,” Houston says.

Outdoors Council Rejects Tradable Water Rights

Court stops council’s water antics

The Council of Outdoor Recreational Associations (CORANZ) has firmly rejected the concept of tradable water rights as a mechanism for water conservation measures.

In a submission to the Ministry for the Environment over future water use, CORANZ co-chairman Bill Benfield said the organisation was totally opposed to any attempts to make commercial use of water transferable.

“Water rights should not be transferable if the allocated amount is not used. That unused amount should remain in the ecosystem.”

Profiting from water for commercial purposes was not a right, but a privilege. Money from any fees charged commercial interests, should be paid into a specific fund for restoration of impaired waterways.

CORANZ was a national forum for national and regional outdoor recreation groups such as trout and salmon fishing, 4 wheel drive, hunting, public access, sea fishing and tramping organisations.

Bill Benfield said CORANZ has over

The Environment Court has backed the contention of Ngati Kahungunu Inc that Hawke’s Bay Regional Council was trying to dilute water quality standards for the region’s aquifers.

It ordered the council to restore to an objective in the regional resource management plan that there should be no degradation of existing ground-

by Tony Orman

years advocated against the deteriorating state of New Zealand’s rivers.

“Water is a public resource and an outdoor recreation resource as well as ecologically important to both land and coastal values.

Statements from government such as the Prime Minister’s fatuous statement that water belongs to no one, ignored the public ownership and opened the way for special interest groups to lay claim.”

Similarly minimum standards advocated by government’s Environment Minister Nick Smith for a “wadeable or boatable” standard made a mockery of both common-sense and a responsible desirable standard.

“The desirable standard at the least, must be swimmable but CORANZ prefers that minimum standard be based on healthy aquatic invertebrate populations, i.e. a healthy ecosystem,” said Bill Benfield.

While it seemed dairying had been solely held responsible by some critics (e.g. Fish and Game) for deterioration of rivers both in flow and quality, CORANZ had long been

concerned at inadequate environmental standards around forestry and the almost universal practice of clear felling. Resulting sediment run-off into rivers and estuarine areas and buildup of silt was accelerating according to surveys of the inner Marlborough Sounds.

New tool for lake protection A new filtering device being installed on the lakefront by Taupō District Council will help prevent sediment, oil and debris from entering the lake.

The stormwater quality improvement device is being installed near the Lake Taupō Hole in One Challenge over the next few weeks. Water that flows down from between Ruapehu and Titiraupenga streets will go through the underground device, which uses a vortex to separate and remove contaminants Marlborough Sounds forestry clear felling

Fishing: Public taking all the hits in snapper fiasco

By Geoff Thomas

This snapper was caught off Motuihe Island and released after a tag had been inserted, as part of a population study. Photo / Geoff Thomas

There could and should be millions more snapper in the Hauraki Gulf.

When all the furore was going on about the reduction in the daily bag from nine to seven snapper in Snapper 1, the area from East Cape to North Cape which covers the gulf, the official version of the waste from commercial trawling activities was put at 500 tonnes. That is, snapper which are too small to take, and the industry can keep fish as small as 25cm.

Certain people in the industry scoffed at this figure, suggesting it was more like 1500 tonnes of snapper.

If the average size of baby snapper killed in trawl nets and thrown away was half a kilo, which is probably being generous, it makes the maths easy. The 500-tonne figure equates to a million snapper. Three times that is three million. And if the fish were smaller on average, the number is even greater.

Those are mind-numbing figures.

If all those snapper had lived and reproduced, the discussion we’d be having today would be: What are we going to do with all the snapper?

Instead, the recreational sector has seen limits slashed since the much-lauded Quota Management System was introduced in 1986. The daily bag in Snapper 1 went from

no limit (definitely unsustainable) to 50 fish (unsustainable), to 30 (generous), to 20 (still pretty generous), to 15 (getting better), to nine (where it should be) then to seven.

In 1997, the commercial quota for the same area was 4500 tonnes. Today, it is 4500 tonnes.

Why are the public constantly penalised? Shouldn’t the pain be shared? Limits will never go up again. Once down, they stay down.

Those who love catching a fish to feed the family want their children and grandchildren to be able to catch fish. The legacy we are facing is not pretty. And confidence in the political management system is thin.

The latest move to slow the decline in the snapper fishery will, in the opinion of many in the charter and recreational business, be counterproductive. By increasing the minimum legal size from 27cm to 30cm the officials have penalised those who fish from the shore, as larger fish are far more difficult to find; and condemned many more undersized fish to death as each angler now has to catch more fish to find the ones that can be dispatched for dinner.

Research is a cliched reference, but a survey about 10 years ago looked at the size of fish caught recreationally, the size of those re-

water quality in the Heretaunga Plains and Ruataniwha Plains aquifer system.

The council argued the objective was impossible to achieve.

The court said to not attempt to at least maintain the quality of water abdicates the functions of a regional council.

It rejected the council’s push for an “over’s and unders” approach,

leased and their chances of survival.

That research found that 58 per cent of recreationally caught snapper were released, largely due to being under the then legal size of 27cm.

Of these, 95 per cent swam away, three per cent floated and two per cent were judged to be dead.

Some of those that swam away had signs of trauma as a result of pressure change after being brought from the deep, or signs of bleeding which would obviously lessen their chances of survival. Now more fish will have to be caught and released, with more mortality.

Another survey which threw up a worrying statistic was one conducted at launching ramps which concluded that 70 per cent of people returned home with no fish.

Now we have a proposal for a recreational fishing park in part of the gulf, and any reduction in commercial pressure must be welcomed as a step in the right direction. But it still leaves half of the (outer) gulf open to indiscriminate trawling which will continue to damage the sea bed and kill unwanted and small fish, as snapper move throughout the gulf.

Whatever the daily limit, it should reflect a fair share of the overall fishery.

Some people go fishing all the time, and may only take home a few fish for dinner or to give to their elderly neighbour who cannot afford them.

But when somebody who goes fishing only once or twice a year hits the jackpot and experiences one of those memorable days, they should be able to take a good bag of fish.

And if somebody is driving along the southern motorway towing a boat, with the catch in the fish bin in the boat, where have they been fishing? If it was the Manukau Harbour they could have 10 snapper for each angler, down to 27cm long. For that is still the way it is on the west coast.

-NZ Herald

from the water. It will be emptied regularly to remove the waste it collects.

Stormwater and solid waste asset manager Brent Aitken said the location was chosen because it was a high traffic area, which increases the likelihood of debris ending up in the lake.

“This device is a fantastic tool for protecting our waterways and it will make a really positive difference,” Mr Aitken said. “We will be installing more of these devices at major outlets

where declines in quality in one place could be tolerated if there were improvements elsewhere.

Ngati Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says the case cost the iwi more than $100,000 to mount, but it had to ensure environmental standards were maintained.

to the lake over the next few years.”

The devices have been budgeted for in the Long-term Plan 2015-2025 as part of the council’s commitment to looking after the environment.

The device will work alongside the Enviropods already installed in drains around Taupō that collect larger objects before they reach the stormwater system. “The Enviropods are the first line of defence against rubbish, and the new filtering device is the second,” he said. “This means by the time water reaches the lake, much of the debris has been removed.”

14

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Letters to editor Dear Sir

Are we heading for a fight?

An air of unrest is starting to emerge from everyday New Zealanders, as the government continues its crusade to destroy our forests, waterways and oceans.

The governments continual disregard of peoples opinion and position on the health of these national assets, that belong to every kiwi, erodes our confidence in them, and is shown by the high number of corporate investments that are only interested in destroying our weekend pleasures.

Our forests harbour wild deer and pigs which were introduced for our hunting pleasure and putting food on the family table.

Our rivers allow trout and salmon to run freely to be caught and released as freshwater fisherman enjoy the river systems as they get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Many families picnic and swim in these waterways yet the governments plan to destroy these streams is purely motivated by greed and corruption.

And our seas breed many species of fish that are being harvested by age old systems that have almost completely destroyed our sea life, as the mismanagement of our fisheries goes on unabated.

The government is only interested in its quest to ‘double the export value’ of national assets, at the demise of peoples recreational pursuits.

And for what – our forefathers gave their lives to give us freedom from tyranny, yet our very own elected governments choose to give away this land and assets to foreign investment just to line the government coffers and the pockets of wealthy businessman.

Misguided bureaucrats don’t care about the damage they do to our forests, fauna and oceans.

So what will be left as our legacy to our children. Empty oceans, barren forests and waterless rivers.

I don’t think so. The time is coming folks when we have to put personal attitudes aside. We must stand up and be counted to eradicate this scourge that it selling us out, from under our very own lifestyles.

What will you choose, money as your God, or freedom from greed and corruption.

Fred Smith Tuakau

Bottled water concerns misplaced Dear Sir

The call for a moratorium or a new tax on consents for bottled water plants is typically uninformed and scientifically unsound in respect of dealing with the challenges New Zealand has in freshwater management, says Environment Minister Nick Smith.

“New Zealand has five-hundred trillion litres of fresh water each year flowing through our lakes, rivers, and aquifers, and we extract only two percent of that for human purposes. Ten trillion litres are extracted, made up of six trillion for irrigation, two trillion for town water supplies, and two trillion for industries. The total water extracted for bottled water is only 0.004 per cent of the resource, he says.

Smith completely misses the point.

This water belongs to New Zealanders and if extracted for overseas interests then there must be a benefit to kiwis. No Council or the gov-

ernment has a right to just give this resource away. It is not a tradeable commodity for the National Party.

Smith is shifting the focus and must be held accountable and needs to get his own house in order.

If overseas interests aren’t prepared to pay for our water then it must not be given to them – end of story.

His comment that “There is no case for the bottled water industry to be treated any differently from the thousands of other water users,” shows the level of disdain he treats the average kiwi.

He also has a responsibility to ensure that our rivers, streams are drinkable and his excuses for allowing the dairying industries intensification at a cost to having dirty rivers is a punch below the belt to all kiwis.

Bruce Smith Papakura

Dear Sir

COUNCIL DOING SQUAT

When you consider the large number of recreational fishers that flock to Coromandel Town every day, to spend several hours out on a charter boat fishing around the mussel farms, or participating in the towns tourist ventures, you would think that the local Council would take that into account when planning for vehicle parking.

Especially if you take into the account the economic value they bring, with their spending on fuel, food, accommodation, fishbait etc.

But alas it seems not, the bureaucrats just listen to a few moaners without due consideration to the real issues and chase away business that’s good for the town.

There have been many propos-

Visit us on www.facebook/Fishingandoutdoorsnewspaper als put to Council with suggestions on upgrading boating facilities and having a marina which would also bring huge benefits, but alas no – greed and self-centredness prevail.

It’s well past time some of the town fathers and the Council sorted this out and caught up with other coastal communities that openly welcomed visitors by providing good facilities, instead of just taking there dollars and giving nothing back for the benefits they bring to town.

The benefits would far outweigh any negatives. Come on Council sort it.

John Parker Coromandel

Cadmium is a very serious problem

Dear Sir

Congratulations on the lead article in your latest edition. Cadmium is a very serious problem in this country which I have made my clients aware of for many years now.

I understand that there are Phosphate fertilisers which have a higher cadmium content which are being applied to our soils on a regular basis and I also believe this is unacceptable.

I fully understand that we should be caring for our land while at the same time allowing for growth in the primary sector. I believe that both are achievable while keeping our land Clean and Green.

My Company is not involved or has any association with the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Fertiliser Manufacturer’s Research Association, or the Co-Operatives who sell the majority of the phosphate in New Zealand. Because of this I am unable to make comment on the many of the issues raised.

However I can tell you that our Natural Phosphate fertilisers are typically under 25ppm, while our Manufactured Phosphate products are as low as 6ppm, which are well under your quoted figure of 280 ppm.

As a country that trades internationally on the back of our ‘Clean Green’ image it is time that we took some of these issues to heart and did something about them.

There are fertilisers available that do not contain these excessive levels of Cadmium. I know this because I import fertiliser and have a working knowledge of the industry.

Good on you for bringing this to the attention of the public and in particular our fishermen and women.

Our country deserves only the best and we cannot continue to contaminate our land and water ways by saying there is no other way. As you know there is always another way.

John Barnes Fertilizer NZ

Dear sir

The value of the Hauraki Gulf

The recreational fishery is worth 1.7 billion and they only take 6% of the catch.

Here is a slightly different side of that good news.

In the purposed new recreational only park in the Hauraki Gulf, there is reportedly 42 commercial fishers.

I have seen it reported that there are over 200,000 recreational fishers in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park area.Yet the 42 commercial fishers catch 90% of the landed fish.

That just shows how destructive to the fishery a small number of commercial fishers can be because some are gill net fishing and others are using 1000 plus hook long lines, rather than the recreational sustainable method of rod and reel line fishing.

The recreational fishers tend to spread their money around in these holiday destination’s and are a vital part of all the smaller seaside community’s economy.

The commercial fishers that are quota holders, tend to gather together like a squrrel gathering nuts, putting vast amounts of personal wealth, in some cases hidden in trusts and investments for the sole purpose of tax avoidance, having little or no benefit to seaside towns.

If the government want to get a return on taxes, they get it from the recreational fishers, but not commercial. Because recreational fishers can’t claim back their GST, road tax on the fuel they use, vehicle use and other

expenses, but commercial fishers can.

But I guess the biggest point is the economic benefit and enjoyment factor of 200,000 recreational fishers versus the profit of 42 who put little back into the economies of local communities.

Rhys Smith Thames

Double Export Value of the fishery Dear Sir

What can you do when fishery management come up with an economic policy that is likely to destroy your recreational or customary fishing.

How can you stop something you know to be wrong.

As I write this John Key is in China with Nathan Guy, Minister of MPI. These two guys have in there pocket the entire future of NZ. They can use our land, our sea and our people in the same way you might use poker chips.

They could do great things for NZ or sign us up to a contract that destroys us. They could, under the title of foreign investment allow our land to be sold to foreign owners. They could allow more foreign workers to flood our work force with cheap labour. They could simply allow there fishing boats to catch our fish quota using slave labour. They could do all of this if it weren’t happening already. So what is next, I suspect the fish are in real trouble because the fish can’t answer back, protest or vote.

The commercial fishery have ownership of the fish and the support of MPI who want to double the export value by 2025. It may already be to late but we must take the inshore fishery off the trading table. There is only two ways to do this. You buy a political party in the same way the commercial fishery paid for the National party, to the point where they didn’t bother having a recreational fishing policy. The commercial fishers had to do this because they are so small in number approximately 25000 spread thoughout the country, that there vote is practically insignificant. The recreational fishers need to use the only asset they really have and that is voting numbers. Or we could buy through donations the support of, the party who has the export fishers outside the 12nm in their fishing policy.

NZ First has that and sent a message to the Nats up north. The point is the only way to take the inshore fishery off the export trade table is from the top.

It has to be done through Parlia​ ment whether you understand or like the process that’s how its done.

No politician should have the ability to pull out of his pocket a poker chip with NZ inshore fishery on it, just to sell a commodity.

I like to go fishing and turn off my phone, and forget about everything else in the world but I am very aware that all the r​ ules that I must comply with when recreational fishing were made by a politician. This includes how many fish we can catch and the area allowed to fish in. If we can’t change the politicians apathy toward recreational fishers then we should change the politicians.

Rhys Smith Thames

Landcare Research Dear Editor

I have just chanced to read Landcare Research’s publication called Kararehe Kino which I gather stands for pest research.

In it there is a list of “papers” about possums and Tb. What I noticed was they were funded by TbFree NZ or Department of Conservation was involved.

They were about things like how does chronic Tb affect possum movements. Then there was one on Tb persisting around Karamea.

The question is are Landcare Research scientists lap-dogs of TbFreeNZ and DoC? Is this paid science where the scientist is forced to find what his or her client wants?

I feel sorry for scientists being put in this position by the system of commercialisation of science.

NZ First’s Richard Prosser asked some good questions in Parliament. He asked about 9830 autopsied possums.

The Minister’s reply was not one had Tb. So my calculated guess is the Karamea persistence is nothing to do with possums but infected cattle remaining in farm herds because the testing uses an error-ridden skin test.

The blood test is much more accurate. So why not use that?

Oh no! If Tb was eliminated there would be no more well salaried jobs. Vote allocation money would dry up. Scientists would not have clients like TbFree and DOC to dish out public money.

In a couple of words, it is a gravy train.

As for the papers in Landcare’s publication, they look to me to be very poor representations of science.

The more one looks into the “1080 circus” the more a circus it becomes. It would be very funny if it was not funded by taxpayers money. Or if a poison (1080) banned by many countries or severely restricted, was not killing our insects, native birds and game animals.

What is government doing? In the circus Environment Minister Nick Smith seems to be the ring master. He should be ashamed to call himself Environment Minister.

Fergus O’Halloran Canterbury

Anti-1080 Science Dear Editor,

The publicity in newspapers around “Battle for the Birds” has promoted 1080 backed by DOC scientist Graeme Elliott. But in a recent Fairfax article, “Ban1080” party’s leader Bill Wallace was shown to be an ecologist.

What is not realised within organisations such as hunter groups there are well qualified people and in this case, in science.

For example the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust (SHOT)’s executive, several have degrees, three being well qualified science ones. But hasn’t a DOC scientist a biassed vested interest,i.e. salary. in 1080. It’s department policy and as an employee he or she has to push it, rightly or wrongly?

The 1080 issue is not a complex one in terms of justification.W hy even a 5th form biology pupil could comprehend DOC’s aerial bombardment with 1080 is ecological stupidity because 1080 is ash ecosystem poison. It kills everything that ingests it. Some like rats, don’t ingest it and survive the holocaust. Fast breeding species like rats surviving 1080, surge back - within three years, reaching three times the original number. Rats have up to 4 litters a year, up to a dozen in each litter.

Yet DOC says rats have bounced back.

No wonder!

Monitoring three years later, inevitably shows a population explosion. So DOC goes and drops 1080 again!

1080 first developed as an insecticide, kills everything including birds, animals and insects. It’s an ecosystem poison. DOC is poisoning the ecosystem with such broad spectrum toxins as 1080 and brodifacoum.

Laurie Collins Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust

Dear Sir

Cadmium issue

I recently read your well researched article on cadmium in Fishing and Outdoors.

In 2010 I sent a letter and information to the authorities concerned. My article was not published and I received no response from any of the authorities involved. The reason given was my anonymity.

Someone must have spoken to the Port of Tauranga authorities because the port cleaned up their act regarding the unloading of bulk chemicals etc., sometime after my report.

They now use much larger mechanical sweepers and have stopped washing pollutants into the harbour.

However, there is still tons of contaminant being carried by wind and storm water runoff into the harbour.

Your article on cadmium and it’s ori-

gins made me realize our harbour and coastline will most likely be polluted with this toxic chemical, including the fish we catch and eat.

The Port of Tauranga is currently undertaking a major dredging operation, disturbing parts of the port area that have not been dredged before. I feel that what is being dredged will be extremely polluted.

I’m sure that if samples were taken at spoil ground (dump site) they would show signs of not only Cadmium, but lots of other toxic chemicals.

Kind regards Name withheld Tauranga Ed: The article will be published next month

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Pacific Island Tuna fishery in jeopardy PNA unveils new CEO

By Graham Carter

Oceanic pelagic fish, such as the tuna pictured above, have agile bodies made for long distance migration. Many oceanic pelagic fish travel in schools while some are solitary that drift with ocean currents. Courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Continued from our April issue.

Are the people for Pacific Nations to our north, about to be exploited once again only this time, by economic colonialism?

At this very moments, leaders of Pacific Nations as are gathered to consider options to replace the tuna accord, recently unilaterally abrogated by American interests.

To our shame, New Zealand appear to playing a substantial role in pushing Pacific States to embrace the “Western Alliance” - at a time when our research tends to support rumor that commercial vultures gather to strip out property rights (similar to NZ ‘s ITQ) which will leave the Pacific States deprived of a community property right.

The South Pacific tuna fishery is an important global food resource, and the economies of many of these Pacific Island countries rely heavily on the tuna industry………

However today also exposes many shortcomings in what is a regime which does achieve many of its goals.

Recreational and Commercial fishers have emerged as virtual combatants in an internecine war over who is making the biggest sacrifice to achieve the sustainable fisheries outcome and who is abusing the process the most.

With regards to the PNA negotiations it really doesn’t matter what the Fisheries advisers think or say.

What matters most is what do the Pacific people, the Pacific nation think? Are they getting a fair deal?

Are they being shut out of the debate because no information is getting to them and because their MP’s are likely to have been bought off?

It also leaves the opportunity for a single person to stop the correct information going to their individual Prime Ministers, as everything is likely to be vetoed. It leaves the door open for widespread corruption.

No one person should be in charge or responsible for this level of negotiation, for such an important industry that the nations rely on, for this reason alone.

A Prime Minister is likely to be perplexed and ask “what is going on”, while his minister is going to tell him to not believe it. Is it appropriate for the island people to be shut out from the debate?

A Prime Minister must ask questions and see for himself “What is going down here?” before it

is too late, and the deal is done.

What’s happening in the pelagic tuna industry?

What was the agreement that the Americans walked away from several months ago?

Why have they come back so quickly?

What are they doing?

What is the true value of the fishery to these Island people?

Information received suggests that there is a private group who want to introduce private property rights similar to that which was introduced into the NZ fishing regime.

Is it appropriate that the Pacific Island people believe in, not unlike Maori do, in community ownership?

Do the people in the Pacific Islands people really understand what is going down here?

The Island’s cannot afford to catch the fish themselves, and they can’t afford to police it.

They need the fishery and the system that is going to be the most sustainable for the fishery and the fish, not the fishing companies.

As it is, it is their people who are ultimately going to suffer while the ‘fat cat’ bureaucrats at the top are likely to get healthy bank accounts.

Is giving the private property rights to the tuna, the best method?

The Islanders shouldn’t lose or give away the private property rights to their own fish!

They rely solely on private companies to catch their fish, and to process it, but they simply cannot afford to ‘give away’ the private property rights of these fish.

The difference between the factions is this ‘private property component’.

One group want to introduce a Private Property component (ITQ system) into the pelagic tuna negotiations and the opposite faction want a tender process.

The PNG objective is to rewrite and recover the sovereignty of the pelagic tuna for the PNA countries based at the behest of foreign companies hell-bent on destroying or taking as much as they can with little or no regard for sustainability let alone the fish themselves.

Illegal fishing is prominent there now, with Fishing companies landing say a 100 ton of tuna which is sent to the Europe Union by license; however while the fishing seiner boats are at

sea they also deliver 100 tons to other boats which transport tuna to Thailand for example, to be sold in the European Union. This means that the Fishing company has landed 200 tons of tuna. Meanwhile the PNA get penalized with yellow cards for overfishing.

What will happen up there with the Pelagic tuna resources if this ITQ goes through?

Based on the fact that the Americans are now back negotiating a new deal, one wonders whether this was a programmed move designed to bring participating Pacific countries in the PNA who depend on revenue from the Tuna - to their knees and enable a better deal.”

So what then is to replace the arbitrarily abrogated former contract?

Information which has come to our attention suggests that there is a drive to introduce a property right into the Tuna! This property right will then be sold to preferred bidders - presumably American interests who are now pushing the renegotiation of the contract they walked away from because they were not making enough money!

A private property right - for example based on the ITQ in NZ QMS, was the catalyst for fishing rights to be sold to private sector companies and once again another irreplaceable resource which cannot be replicated (such as telecommunications systems) was lost the people of NZ. A private property right introduced in pelagic tuna through the Pacific nation’s backyards will strip them of the property right to this resource.

Research by the Fishing and Outdoors newspaper indicates that New Zealand parties who were involved in the design and implementation of the NZ QMS are in a preferred position in the queue to rewrite the Tuna policy for PNA. This suggests to the Fishing and Outdoors newspaper that the emasculation of Pacific nations tuna rights is imminent.

Further research by Fishing and Outdoors newspaper establishes that at least one NZ based company (which includes 4 x marine qualified PhDs) but which offers a sustainable tuna fisheries policy but without a private property component - have been shut out the process.

Further research by Fishing and Outdoors newspaper suggests that by and large, the people of the Pacific Islands, like Maori in NZ, have a communal sense of property and are against selling their rights to the tuna to - foreign companies to own.

The Fishing and Outdoors newspaper is therefore bound to ask the question: Do the people at large understand the implications of what appears to be this fish dish being prepared for them by bureaucrats?

The Fishing and Outdoors newspaper sent a list of the above questions to the relevant authorities who have refused to respond!!

PNA rejects quota system, sticks with vessel day scheme The Parties to the Nauru Agreement, which control areas containing 50 percent of the global supply of skipjack tuna, have voted against moving to a catch quota system and instead will stick with a vessel day scheme, despite objections from the U.S. tuna fleet fishing in its waters.

PNA members Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia voted unanimously to maintain its vessel day management scheme.

The decision sets up a potential confrontation with the United States, which has pushed for a move to a quota system, which it argues is fairer to its companies fishing in PNA waters. Earlier this year, the United States withdrew from the South Pacific Tuna Treaty – an accord that essentially ratified the vessel day scheme – after complaints from U.S. tuna fishing companies including Tri Marine, Dongwan Industries and The South Pacific Tuna Corporation about high prices.

In a statement following the

U.S. withdrawal from the treaty, Tri Marine called the vessel day scheme “broken.”

“We have always maintained that, in its current form, (the treaty) fails to retain the most value for the resource owners because the vessel day scheme places value on fishing days alone, rather than the tuna itself,” the company said.

However, in March, the U.S. restored the treaty for the remainder of 2016 following a renegotiation.

Earlier this month Toroa Strategy Ltd., commissioned by the PNA, concluded there was no clear benefit to switching management plans.

“After detailing the pros and cons of both effort and quota limit systems, the independent review said there was no evidence the present sustainability performance of the VDS was inferior to the quota management system, given the nature and current state of the tuna fishery,” Radio NZ reported.

Outgoing PNA CEO Transform Aquorau said the organization would be correct to stick with the vessel day scheme, which he deemed more

suitable for the multi-species, multinational nature of the PNA fishery.

Given an opportunity by Fishing and Outdoors to comment on this development, Ross Meurant, former MP who as chair of the fisheries select committee presided over much of the legislative amendment fine tuning of the privatization of NZ fish quota, said that he believed the “One hundred and eighty degree turn by the American lobby which sought to scuttle the vessel day scheme and which possibly sought to privatize the pelagic resource, must to a significant extent be attributable to the exposure of their conspiracy by Fishing and Outdoors”.

Disclosure: Meurant International Group Ltd (MIG) delivers sustainable fisheries policy advice internationally and was seeking to tender to produce a sustainable fisheries policy to PNA devoid of any privatization component but including a self harvesting model - via a stable of NZ PhD’s contracted by MIG.

The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) has named Ludwig Kumoru as its new CEO. Kumoru, who is currently deputy managing director of Papua New Guinea’s National Fisheries Author-

ity, is expected to assume his new role on August 1st, succeeding present incumbent Transform Aqorau.

Kumoru was endorsed for the post by unanimous consent of the PNA’s eight member countries at its an-

15

nual meeting last week in Kiribati.

“I am pleased to be leaving the office in capable hands,” said Aqorau following the decision.

“He brings skills of working with fishing states from a national perspective and has a good understanding of the Pacific tuna fishery. He is highly regarded and respected by his peers in PNA.”

Fisheries patrol boats anchored by National New Zealand’s waters haven’t been patrolled by our new Navy boats in years.

With foreign fishing vessels heavily poaching inside our EEZ, Keys government sees fit to pull the plug on these essential patrols to protect our fishery.

Six out of the 11 navy boats hadn’t logged any days at sea in the last three months.

New Zealand has a larger area than most countries, so our four new inshore patrol ships were supposed to increase the countries capability to protect the waters, but according to the government, they are the wrong purchase.

These Patrol boats are supposed to

be used for maritime security, surveil- our fisheries stocks,” he said. lance, boarding operations and re- “It is is inescapable that this Govspond to search and rescue call outs. ernment, under their watch the In total, the in-shore patrol boats navy has been neutered. They spent just 33 days on fisheries patrol don’t have the staff to put to operating budget. last year, and nine days so far in 2016. sea or the The figures from the Defence Force Both of the Navy’s frigates haven’t were provided to the NZ First Party been to sea in the past three months, who believed there was a growing with HMNZS Te Mana docked since crisis with the ships being “tied up”. 2014 for significant upgrades.

NZ First MP Ron Mark said it was Mark said the Government’s move to unacceptable to see fewer fisher- create a huge ocean sanctuary in the ies patrols when our Exclusive Eco- Kermadecs called into question how nomic Zone was larger than Europe. the Navy were supposed to patrol it.

“People are concerned about the raping and pillaging of

Yellowfin stock collapsing The WWF and key international businesses including Princes, John West, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Asda are calling on the commission to reduce catches of yellowfin tuna by 20%, and introduce harvest control rules to ensure the sustainability of all tuna stocks, including skipjack.

According to the latest stock assessment conducted by the IOTC, overfishing of yellowfin tuna has been rife in the Indian Ocean since 2013.

The commission, which is responsible for conservation and management of tuna and other marine resources in the Indian Ocean, has also stated that if immediate steps are not taken to end overfishing and rebuild the seriously

depleted stock, there is a high risk of stock collapse within just five years.

Despite repeated warnings from the IOTC’s Scientific Committee, which provides advice to fisheries managers, catches of yellowfin tuna continue to increase well in excess of recommended limits.

After 20 years of talks, the commission has yet to adopt any effective measures to control the exploitation of tuna stocks.

“The industry and communities that rely on a healthy yellowfin stock are rightly concerned by the IOTC’s predictions of a stock collapse in the near future, which would place their livelihoods under threat”, said Wetjens Dimmlich, WWF In-

dian Ocean tuna program manager.

In 2012, the global tuna catch reached a record high of more than 7 million metric tons Skipjack was the biggest contributor to the global tuna market, contributing about 58% to the 2011 catch of principal tunas, followed by yellowfin which contributes around 27% .

Europe imports more seafood than any other region or country globally, absorbing 24% of the world’s production.

A lack of effective management of Indian Ocean tuna stocks is putting the long term environmental and socio-economic viability of these supply chains at risk.

Effective management is a key component of the Marine Stewardship Council standard which ensures that tuna fisheries such as the IO are environmentally sustainable.

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Chinese building new trawlers Pacific countries are being marked as targets for growth by Chinese fishery officials which have announced figures for long-distance catches to CNY 3.15 billion (USD 472 million) in value and 3.18 million tons in volume.

These figures suggest China’s long-distance fishing returns are greater than the national official figures for growth in Chi-

nese long-distance fishing.

Already 500 vessels operate from provincial ports, the bulk of them from ten companies in the city of Fuzhou and six companies in Quanzhou. Another 50 vessels are under construction. A statement from the Chinese fisheries bureau has exhorted companies to “explore opportunities and set up subsidiaries” abroad.

Conservationists and diplomats are both alarmed by the mass expansion of China’s fleet given current tensions.

In early April, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claimed to have tracked six Chinese vessels fishing illegally using drift nets in the Indian Ocean. Its ship, the Steve Irwin, tracked one of the trawlers back to the port of Zhuhai in Guangdong province.

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Launch lifted from ocean floor

A twelve metre launch has been returned to Tauranga marina, mostly in one piece, since it grounded at Tūhua (Mayor Island) almost a week ago. Two were on board the launch Mark Clasper of Auckland who had when it ran into rocks on the south put in some serious time and com- eastern side of Tūhua and both were mitment in his preparation leap rescued by Coastguard unharmed.

2016 National Fly fishing Champion

The Sports Fly Fishing NZ National Lakes Championship for 2016 were held recently on Lakes frogged Johnny Bell to take the Kuratau and Rotoaira. 2016 National Lake ChampionWith several of our top an- ship Title with Hamiltons Tim Anglers unavailable the top derson picking up an impressive 16 ranked lake anglers in third in his third season competing. the country went head to Congratulations to Mark Clasper our head over the three days National Lakes Champion for 2016!!! of four sessions for the title. The National Rivers champs were Lake Kuratau delivered held on the Wanganui which serves the numbers with some up unbelievable numbers of fish impressive catch rates, with several anglers catching over while Rotoaira dealt sev- 50 fish in a 3 hour session, the higheral cruel blows to a cou- est was a staggering 59. Not all the ple of anglers that were at fish were small also with a lot over the top of the leaderboard, 50cm and 60cm being the biggest. proving that it’s all about The predicted heavy rain held off and location when it comes even though they got a little rain it was to figuring out this lake. only enough to lift the river level a bit One impressive catch when with some colour coming in but not it came to Rotoaira was enough to unduly affect the fishing. the biggest fish caught in Sam Bourne came out the winner the contest by Levin’s Paul with 2 x 3rds, a 5th and a 1st to give Dewar with a 62cm Brown him 12 points, comfortably ahead of a very rare fish for a rain- John Bell in second with 17 points John Bell, the Sports Fly Fishing NZ 2016 National Fly bow dominated fishery. and John Gummer in 3rd on 18. fishing Champion.

After four tight sessions Congratulations to the new NationWith the final two National Cham- the leaderboard see-sawed and al Rivers Champion Sam Bourne. pionships competitions being completed and the results combined from the Lakes and Rivers, the overall National Champion for 2016 is Johnny Bell.

Johnny fished consistently throughout the lakes and rivers championships picking up second place in both to take out the title. Johnny is also part of the five man World Championships Team which is heading to Vail Colorado in September this year to contest the Worlds.

Rounding out the podium for 2016 is Sam Bourne and Mark Clasper.

John Bell took out the Silver Medal National Rivers Champs and together with his Silver Medal at the National Lakes Champs secured him the overall National Champion title. The 2016 SFFNZ National Championships top three.

Anglers’ Help Wanted For Mangatutu Stream Issues Much of the riparian area along the Mangatutu Stream above Whareupuhunga Road is public land including Crown-owned marginal strip, road reserve and scenic reserve now leased to dairy farms.

Due to declining water quality in the Mangatutu Stream Fish & Game doesn’t believe that public land should be leased for high intensity farming on river margins.

Leasing land that has a direct nega-

tive impact on a Waipa River tributary is not in line with the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River that requires improvements in water quality within the catchment.

The grazing lease in question is part of the Mangatutu Stream Scenic Reserve administered by DOC. Although staff have made several inquiries about the lease there has been no official response by DOC prompting an

Official Information Act request.

In addition, staff have submitted a formal complaint to DOC about the stock in the Mangatutu Stream (highlighted in last month’s Reel Life) and the impact of the lease on water quality.

If you are as concerned about the Mangatutu Stream as we are please contact Hon Maggie Barry and let her know that our Scenic Reserves are not intended to be dairy farms.

PEST FISH FOUND IN LAKE ROTOITI One catfish was caught and a second one seen during weed harvester work at Te Weta Bay, Lake Rotoiti last Wednesday. The caught catfish is 26cm long and thought to be a pest species known as brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus).

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Biosecurity Manager Greg Corbett said that the pest find is very disappointing.

“Catfish have become widespread in Waikato waterways, including Lake Taupō. We’ve done dive and net searches for catfish before in response to reported sightings in Lakes Tarawera, Ōkāreka and Rotoiti, but this is the first time a live catfish has been found in the Bay of Plenty.

A dead one was found on the shoreline at Lake Rotoiti in 2009,” he said.

Mr Corbett said together with De-

partment of Conservation and Fish and Game NZ, his staff will now search for more catfish so they can ascertain how widespread the problem is and explore feasible control options.

“We’ll be working with stakeholders such as Te Arawa Lakes Trust and technical experts from NIWA and the University of Waikato as we progress that work,” he said.

The catfish were found by Bay of Plenty Regional Council contractors who were clearing weed to help improve water quality in the lake.

“It’s a surprising find, given Regional Council has worked hard to keep new pests out of the Rotorua lakes through regular surveillance and public advocacy. Catfish can be difficult to detect at low densities. Lake Rotoiti was last checked

for catfish earlier this year and none were found,” Mr Corbett said.

While large trout may feed on them, catfish are an unwanted pest because they feed on small native fish, trout and their eggs. Catfish also compete for food with other native species, including koura (freshwater crayfish). In high numbers, catfish can degrade water quality when they stir up sediments to feed, making water murky and unpleasant for lake users and wildlife.

Mr Corbett said there’s an historic account of an accidental live catfish transfer into Lake Rotoiti approximately 20 years ago. The latest find may have been a deliberate release or the result of accidently transfer as fish eggs on weed fragments attached to an unclean boat, trailer or other water sports equipment.

Regional Council Maritime Pollution Prevention Officer Adrian Heays says that everyone involved worked hard under very difficult conditions to recover this vessel and prevent any major environmental effects.

“It was impressive to see what can be achieved in these circumstances and the salvage team must be congratulated.

It’s also a timely reminder, to always keep a lookout by all means possible and to not rely on GPS solely for navigation”, he says.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council Maritime Team was first notified of the grounding on the evening of Friday 8 April. They went to assess the vessel,

and to monitor for pollution, first thing Saturday morning and found the vessel submerged on rocks hard against the cliff. Along with Department of Conservation staff and contractors, they then attempted to refloat the vessel, but this was delayed until Tuesday due to weather conditions.

1ST MAY 2016 LAKE PUPUKE CHALLENGE Over $300 worth of prizes to be awarded. North Shore Fly Fishers Inc. announces a fishing competition to be held on Sunday 1st May 2016 from 7:00am to 3:30pm. The objective is to promote Lake Pupuke as a fishing spot and to obtain some data about fish numbers, size and condition that will assist the Auckland/Waikato Fish and Game Council in the management of the Lake Pupuke fishery.

No entry fee or registration. All participants (including juniors) must present a current Fish &

Game Licence to collect prizes.

Any legal fishing method. Sports Fishing Regulations (the most important points are given on the overleaf ) must be observed.

Weigh-in at the Sylvan park reserve, on the elevated area near the car park and toilet block from 3:30 pm.

Estimated length of undersized trout or trout that were released would be also appreciated. Prize giving shortly thereafter. Anglers keep fish. No litter to be left in the water or on the land.

No motorboats permitted on the

Lake. Anyone using watercraft is requested to observe water safety regulations and use a life jacket.

Anglers participate at their own risk. An adult must supervise children under 12 years of age.

1st Heaviest Trout; 2nd Second Heaviest Trout; 3rd Heaviest Trout; 4th Heaviest Trout; 5th Heaviest Trout.

Three drawn spot prizes for junior anglers attending weigh in. Participants to pick ticket up at weigh in station between 3:00-3:30pm.

Tasmania to host 2019 World Fly Champs Launceston, The state is reacting to news it will host the 2019 fly fishing world titles.

Tasmania is to host the 2019 World Fly Championships, after the International Fly Fishing Federation announced the unanimous decision recently.

The Australian Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff said that it was a major win and a great testament to the state, their waterways and the world class trout fishery management.

Tasmania previously hosted the Championships in 1988.

Malcolm Crosse, of Fly Fish Australia, announced the event is a significant win for Australian fly fishing and Tasmanian tourism with the expected

flow-on benefits to reach $2.5 million.

Up to 30 trout fishing teams will participate in the Championships including teams from England, USA, France, Czech Republic, NZ, Italy and Poland.

Veteran fisher Mark Youngman said at least five fishing hot spots would be chosen for the world championships.

The event is to be held across November and December in 2019 and include locations such as the South Esk, Mersey and Meander rivers as well as Authurs, Four Springs, Huntsman and Woods lakes and Little Pine, and Penstock lagoons. The IFFF will visit the venues in November 2018 to shortlist the final waterways to be used.

Bede Clifton, the sales and market-

ing manager of Country Club Tasmania said: ``Apart from the fishing tournament, the organisers were also looking at what were the great food and wine opportunities.’’

Mark Youngman of Fly Fish Australia said the Commonwealth teams “were being busted off on some very large browns in the South Esk, with a consistent run of Black Spinners” accounting for some very active fish.

For recreational fly fishers, this is a great opportunity to see some of the world’s best in action, learning from the developing techniques in Europe and America and applying it to their own success.

Taupo fishing regulations process Amendments to how regulations are made for the Lake Taupo trout fishery will make its management more responsive, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

“The change will allow fishing conditions developed by the Taupo Fishery Advisory Committee, including the key management tools of daily bag and fish size limits, to be approved solely by the Minister of Conservation rather than through the Cabinet process, as was the case,” Ms Barry says.

“The new process will make it easier to respond to the natural year-by-year

changes in fish size and abundance.

Currently, this takes too long and is a cause of some frustration for anglers,” “What it means is that in a year where there are more trout spawning we can raise the bag limit to allow anglers to catch more – and likewise, in a year where fish are smaller on average we can reduce the size limit to protect breeding stock and safeguard the fishery.”

Fishing regulation changes for Taupo can also now be published as Gazette angler notices, as happens in all other New Zealand trout fisheries.

“The Taupo Fishery Advisory Committee, Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board and the Taupo angling community have all been supportive of this change,” Ms Barry says.

Gazetted today, the new regulations will take effect from May 19.

“The trout fishery is worth $11 million a year to the Taupo economy and supports around 300 jobs – these minor changes will make its management more flexible and in line with other trout fisheries across the country.”

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Hey Boat Owners!

lower Tongariro

The Tongariro is looking fantastic, autumn colours are at there best just now, the mornings are getting cooler, a frost is not far away.

The River is still low we have had little serious rain fall of late probably the reason fishing has not been that productive for most an-

Autumn on the Tongariro

glers, regular monitoring of the Major Jones has seen small pods of fish coming through, those managing to catch a few report they are mostly in good condition both Browns and Rainbows.

Photographed a nice 7 lb Brown hen recently, caught two nice

Rainbows my self last time out (Czech nymphing of course). All in all one just has to be in the right place (pool) right time, and keep moving if not catching.

For those interested the Auckland IF4 International Flyfishing Festival is on Friday May 13th and April Vokey Flytying event Saturday May 14th this is sponsored by our friends Before at Rod and Reel, Newmarket.

There will be an in-store meet and greet at Rod and Reel Newmarket 5pm - 6pm then off to Hoyts Cinema at Sylvia Park where the doors will be open at 6.30 for the screening $28. Contact Rod and Reel tickets are limited.

River mouths around the Lake are fishing well very early and at night with the usual patterns and heave and leaves (golf balls).

HANAK Czech nymph Rods and After Reels are selling well and proving very popular, these are a very versatile rod extendable from 9ft 6in to 10ft 6 - 11ft depending on the model, I have leaned into some good fish in very fast water with the rod almost doubled to test it (5 wt), the hook will straighten if anything ? A winter fishing ban has been put We are Central North Island Stock- on some North Canterbury rivers. ists of HANAK Rods Reels, fluro, nets, The ban comes as deterioratbeads, barbless hooks, and flies. If ing water quality is leaving some you are serious about Czech nymph- fisheries on the verge of collapse. ing give us a call love to help you out. Following a meeting in March Aerial Photographs of the Ton- to discuss the proposed ban, gariro - if you have a favourite pool North Canterbury Fish & Game take a look at www.turangiflyfish. asked the Department of Concom Tongariro River Photographs, servation to approve the closure. available 600 * 1m and larger. The new rules will be efAs I said last month we think the fective until September 30. fishing on the Tongariro will be very It applies to all trout and salmgood this winter for a number of rea- on fishing in waterways east of sons, pop in for a coffee and a chat. State Highway 1 within the North Canterbury Fish & Game region.

North Canterbury Fish & Game chairman Trevor Isitt

Salmon fishing now available in Lake Taupo working their way up the river.

Fortunately in the swirly current the Taupo ‘steelheads’ looked about the same size as salmon so Ross thought they might have got away with it...

Ross kitted them up with heavier rods boosted with 10 pound traces as the Taupo fresh run salmon can put up a brutal fight…..

The following is a direct “copy & paste” from the New Zealand Tourism guide website advertisement...

Every day we learn something new.

The New Zealand Tourism guide website promotion heading reads: Lake Taupo Fly, SalmJust in case you did not know tel could help assist them with on and Trout Fishing finally it is revealed that enough gear to go salmon fishing. In the heart of New Zealand’s North Salmon are in Lake Taupo. Of course SWMBO agreed - Island is Lake Taupo, the largest The presence of salmon in Lake the customer is always right. lake (606 sq km) in the country. The Taupo was confirmed by two So they - John (John Elmore from town of Taupo lies on Lake Taupo’s enthusiastic American tour- Catheys Valley, a tiny town of north-east corner and is roughly ists who arrived at the Tongariro about 250 people in California) halfway between Auckland (277km, River Motels in Turangi recently. with his buddy Tom, arrived at the 3 hours and fifteen minutes’ drive They had surfed the web and dis- TRM all ‘rarin to go’ salmon fishing. away) and Wellington (372km, covered - according to the New What could Ross Baker the pro- four and a half hours drive away).

Zealand Tourism Guide that: prietor say? NZ Tourism can- Lake Taupo is the caldera of a large (1) there were salmon in Lake Taupo, not be wrong! The tourist op- volcano which began erupting (2) there was an International erators have to back each other. about 300,000 years ago and has fishing tournament on AN- So at ‘sparrows *^#!’ the next morn- produced two of the world’s most ZAC Weekend, and that the ing - Ross took them on a ‘rec- violent eruptions in recent times; (3) Tongariro River Motel pro- ce’ along the river and in two loca- the Oruauni Eruption and the Taupo vides the only daily salmon fish- tions - below the Major Jones and the Eruption. For geologists, Lake Taupo ing report. So they phoned the Admirals Pool - he made sure they is one of the world’s most formidable Motels to confirm if the Mo- clearly identified fresh run ‘salmon’ volcanoes and scientists are on constant lookout for the warning signs that herald the next big eruption.

However, for most New Zealanders and overseas visitors, Lake Taupo is one big, beautiful lake and hugely popular for boating and fishing. In fact it is known as the world’s trout fishing capital. International fishing tournaments are held on Lake Taupo every year during ANZAC Day weekend. Fly fishing is allowed on all of the rivers flowing into the lake, as well as on the lake itself...

Just in case we were confused TRM also checked with Taupo tackle shops who knew nothing about the International fishing tournaments held on Lake Taupo every year during ANZAC Day weekend or the presence of salmon.

Now is a good time to consider giving the boat a spruce up before it goes into storage for the winter months.

A revolutionary new product from Aurora has hit the market that makes refurbishing your fibreglass or aluminium boat a breeze.

We bought a kit which includes Premium Boat Shine, which shines and protects; Boat Scrub, which deep cleans and de-oxidizes fibreglass and Boat Clean Plus, a really good cleaner/degreaser, that removes surface pollutants. The kit also comes with a power mitt, which makes cleaning easier.

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We used ‘Aurora Boat Clean’ & ‘Aurora Boat Scrub’ on the filthy vinyl rub rail scuff marks on the hull.

We have tried many products before, but nothing really cleans as well as boat scrub! It worked really well.

I’ve recommended your products to all my boating friends because they really work.

It’s difficult to explain to someone how much different our fibreglass boat looks after applying the Aurora products. All the scuff marks from tyres around jetties has come off.

The shine and newness your products gave our boat renewed our pride as a boat owner.

It is very common for me to use products which claim to do certain things and fall short, so it was almost like a miracle when I tried Aurora products.

Rivers closed to fishing said the winter ban was backed by the region’s anglers.

“They understand that the fishery is under threat thanks to environmental degradation and poor water management policies and this is something constructive they can do to help protect what they love.”

Signs in the affected area would be adjusted to advertise the new rules.

Fishing retailers would be contacted so those purchasing fishing licences would be made aware of the changes.

Thanks to Key, Smith and Barry here they are making a mockery out of NZ and flouting our laws for their own purposes.

It’s clear to see what their priorities are and it is not our nation, our land, our assets or our people!!

We elected these people to act on our behalf to manage our resources in the best possible way for our people yet they are bias towards farmers, and bent on the destruction of our land.

This is unacceptable on every level and this is why they support the TPPA, we are running the risk of becoming tenants in our country, so whatever they pass now, we have to make sure is overturned, they have to be OUT of Government come 2017.

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Ruataniwha project to proceed Irrigation New Zealand is delighted to see the Ruataniwha project is now in a position to proceed.

HBRIC has announced it has 196 Signed Water User Agreements, the numbers needed for the project to proceed. CEO of Irrigation New Zealand Andrew Curtis said: “This is good news for Central Hawke’s Bay as it will re-invigorate the shrinking communities of Waipukurau and Waipawa.

“This result shows farmer backing is strong for the project. This is not surprising given the Ruataniwha Plain’s current and future susceptibility to drought.

Mr Curtis said: “The mix of land-use is, as Irrigation New Zealand predicted, dominated by traditional mixed cropping, and sheep and beef finishing systems. This is what Central Hawke’s Bay has and will

always do well. There is also some permanent horticulture in the mix, and given the boom in the orchard and wine industries currently it is very likely this area of opportunity will be expanded further in future.

“The land-use mix should alleviate any environmental concerns for the Tukituki River. This, when combined with the dam’s ability to release water to guarantee summer flows

alongside mimicking natural flood events that cleanse it, means the Tukituki River is in a great position to maintain and improve upon it’s predominantly good water quality.

“Irrigation New Zealand is now looking forward to both the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Crown committing investments to this community dam project and the ‘land swap’ court issue being resolved in a timely manner.

Mr Curtis concluded: “No one disputes the Hawke’s Bay needs water storage. The local commu-

nity has now demonstrated its support for the Ruataniwha project. It’s time for regional and national communities to do the same.”

ED: As the dairying in New Zealand intensifies what are the implications?

Irrigation NZ are adamant that the Ruataniwha project will be a good thing for our waterways, only time will tell.

What this press release doesn’t say is that its only the farmers and not the wider community and river users that agree with this, so we need to keep a close eye

on the project and hold Irrigation NZ accountable for any mishaps.

So what is behind this project?

Is it shortsightedness, greed, will Irrigation NZ take responsibility for the project if it fails and destroys our waterways?

Sure they have farmer backing as all farmers want the water to grow there little empires, but what about local fishermen and other river users?

Irrigation state that the project SHOULD alleviate any environmental schemes and this is the DANGER WORD.

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Early Bird Bait & Tackle Report

We have had some great weather up here on the Coromandel Peninsular and with the great weather has come great fishing. At this time of year the Firth always produces better fish and at the moment it is living up to its name. Everyone is getting good results and most getting their quota within two hours or so.

Having good weather with very favourable winds always brings the

boats out and the ramps have been very busy with Waikawau boasting in excess of 250 boats.

Obviously, most of these guys are fishing the Mussel Farms but there has been great success towards the middle of the Firth, well away from the hussle and bussle.

Despite there being a lot of small Snapper around, most good fish taken would be between 35cm and 50cm. Kahawai are everywhere and ‘boil ups’ have been spotted up and down the coast as far down as the entrance to the Waihou River near Thames. Some of these monsters have weighed in at 5kg and fish bins have been full within minutes but whose complaining.

Shallow water has produced some good fish over the last fortnight with plenty of 8 to 12lb snapper coming out of just four metres of water. Back on the Mussel Farms, the northern end is producing but because of the amount of boats about and the constant drone of engines fishing

can be a lot harder than elsewhere.

You may have more chances if you move away from the farm and drop a berley bomb down. You will certainly get the Kingies around the boat and possibly even net a few piper.

Fishing from the shore is always harder but more and more specimen fish have been caught from small rocky outcrops over the last four weeks than has been for a long time. I have weighed in two Kingies, each over 15lb and plenty of good Snapper and Kahawai. Believe me! Smoked fish has been on the menu everyday.

As I have mentioned before, getting the kids into the sport is as important

as sending them to school. I have various photos attached to my report including Regan and Jimi. Regan caught the fish but brother Jimi is holding the fish. We also have Shilene with two nice ‘Pannies’, Connor Gould with his first ever Snapper and Fraser out on the Farms with a smile to make anyone cheer up. I also had to include Donna Cameron, my Landlady, with a beautiful 16.5lb Snapper.

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She was made up with the fish so much that after putting the fish down and turning around she knocked her rod and reel over the side; never to be seen again. (No doubt the rent will go up now to pay for it).

As a closing comment, I have some (not many) ‘Power Sticks’ by Fladen.

They are a very powerful two piece carbon fibre rod that can handle most things. They would be great for soft baiting and general purpose spinning. They are only $49.99 and would make a great addition to any fisherman’s collection of rods.

Air Rifles are flying out of the door so get in quick for a quality gun by ‘Gamo’. “Until next time”, ‘Tight Lines’.

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DIDYMO DAVE REPORT

Here is a group of young girls. These guys did some amazing work recently on the Waitahanui River Taupo, under the watchful eye of Didymo Dave.

In the last two articles I have discussed biosecurity and what incursions cost our country.

In this article I want to look at some of the practical things we can do to help stop incursions and the associated costs.

The CHECK CLEAN DRY programme is an obvious one and by now I hope you have grasped the concept of following that programme every time you shift from one waterway to another.

With the duckshooting season nearly here it is timely to remind all the duck shooters that this programme applies to them too, their boats and their dogs.

So what else can you do?

Well here’s a few ideas: 1. There are several offshore islands around New Zealand that are currently pest free as well as Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua.

So if you are going anywhere near those islands please give your boat a thorough check for pests/rodents before heading out.

Each time you return from a boating/fishing trip set some bait in your boat.

If it’s still there next time you head out you should be safe but a quick check for rodent poo is a good idea. My son Hadlee (Didymo Junior) and I assisted the DOC Rotorua team on Mokoia Island a few years ago tracking down and trapping a rodent. Another example of $000’s spent because someone was careless.

2. How about backing up the biosecurity people?

Next time you pick someone up off an international flight into New Zealand, ask them if they have any dirty boots, unwanted food items etc? You are allowed to do this.

3. Ever thought about what’s in your garden? if you have plants/ trees such as cotoneaster, wild cherry etc then accept that the birds and/or wind are going to spread the seeds around. The amount of work going into get-

19

ting rid of this stuff off the Taupo riverbanks is huge and yet people still want to grow it on their property. I don’t understand that?

4. Keeping an aquarium is a hobby that some people enjoy and there is no problem with that until cleaning the aquarium or disposing of unwanted fish. There has been a lot of effort gone into catching the red eared turtles found in Lake Taupo. Let’s face it they didn’t fly there so be careful with weeds and fish kept in aquariums.

5. Don’t shift anything! If it’s not there already then don’t shift it. That was the basis of the fight against the proposed Taupo based carp farm.

Don’t shift introduced species.

6. Develop a biosecurity attitude by keeping up to date with what’s going on, what can be done and coming up with new ideas.

There’s a band called Twisted Sister and one of their biggest hits is a song that sums up my attitude to biosecurity threats to our country. It’s called WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!

Please visit and LIKE us on Facebook www. facebook.com/Fishingandoutdoorsnewspaper and share with your friends and get out regular news and updates

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