Marlborough Sounds closed to rebuild blue cod

Even when rules are in place to manage fishing, the sheer numbers of people going fishing in an area can place stress on fish stocks.

Recently the Minister of Fisheries announced that the blue cod fishery in the Marlborough Sounds will be closed for the next four years to protect the longterm future of the fishery.

This closure is to relieve the pressure on the fish stock and give time for the community to come together and make decisions on how this fishery should be managed into the future with a fishery plan.

Blue cod is a very important fishery to the Nelson/Marlborough Sounds communities. The Ministry received over a thousand submissions about measures needed to protect and rebuild the blue cod fishery.

While there was no universal agreement over what measures to take, the majority of submissions supported further action to protect the future of this fishery, with most supporting closed areas.

The fishing closure will come into effect on 1 October 2008 and will expire on 1 October 2012. It will be illegal for recreational fishers to take blue cod caught within the enclosed Marlborough Sounds area. This includes all ‘enclosed waters’ of Pelorus, Kenepuru, Queen Charlotte Sounds and Tory Channel.

Fishing for other species within the Sounds will still be allowed but blue cod caught unintentionally must be returned to the water immediately.

Commercial fishers in the area have agreed to continue the existing agreement to not fish in the enclosed Sounds while the closure is in force.

The Tory Channel blue cod fishery is not in as much trouble as elsewhere, but it has been included in the closure to avoid rapid decline to the same state as the rest of the Sounds, especially because of the increased pressure it would come under if it was excluded from this closure.

A scientific fish stock survey run by NIWA in late 2007 has confirmed that since 2004 the number of juvenile blue cod has seen an average decline of 57 percent across the Marlborough Sounds.

Along with this, the inner Queen Charlotte Sound is reporting no blue cod at all. Only the very outer areas of the Sounds, where commercial fishers operate showed a reasonable number of adult blue cod.

Previous measures to rebuild the population have been unsuccessful, including reducing the recreational daily bag limit to three blue cod per fisher per day, and increasing the minimum legal size in 2003.

Around 150 tonnes of blue cod are estimated to be harvested each year by recreational fishers, compared with 15 tonnes by commercial fishers.

Recreational fishing in the Sounds is likely to continue to increase over time as the area becomes increasingly popular for fishers both within and outside the region.

New developments in the area include an additional 500 new berths planned for the Picton and Waikawa marinas, as well as new baches being built around the Sounds. Boat trailer registrations in Nelson/Marlborough and Canterbury have increased by 40 percent over the last decade. New boats are also becoming more efficient by using sophisticated equipment to find the fish including GPS and fish finders.

Significant numbers of fishermen also cross the Cook Strait from Wellington and Mana to fish in the Marlborough Sounds.