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MAY 2016
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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).