Meeting Notes: North Island-South East - Regional Recreational Forum

Friday 27th of March 2009, Napier

Attendees

Billy Brough (Chair - MFish)
Edward Beetham (Wairarapa Sports Fishing Club)
Colin Murray (Hawke’s Bay Sports Fishing Club)
Jenny Hills (Mahia Boating Club)
George Zander (Ngawi Sport Fishing Club)
Hilton Webb (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
Alan Rodda (Hawke’s Bay Sports Fishing Club)
Mike Bewick (MFish – Compliance)
Neville Buckley (MFish – Compliance)

Apologies

Alain Jorion (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
James Parahi (Pania Surfcasting Club)

Meeting Introduction

Billy opened the meeting at 8.45am and welcomed members to the city of Napier. Billy formally introduced Alan Rodda to the forum replacing Wayne Bicknell. Alan is a member of the Hawke’s Bay Sport Fishing Club.

Billy advised the members of two changes to the agenda. The order of items 5 and 6 would be reversed at the request of Ed, and depending of timing before lunch, item 8 may precede item 7.

The first part of the meeting was held outside to take advantage of the warm sunny weather conditions and views across Hawke Bay.

Item 1 - Apologies

Apologies were received from James Parahi and Alain Jorion.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 2 - Agreed Actions from previous minutes

The forum worked through the agreed action items from the previous meeting held in Mahia on the 2nd of November 2008. All 16 action items were completed from the last meeting.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 3 - Regional Update

Forum members submitted written regional updates to Billy, and provided the forum with a verbal overview of fishing from their respective areas.

Mahia area update – Jenny
Jenny reported the game fishing in Mahia has been good over the summer period. Good numbers of albacore and skip jack tuna were caught, but the marlin fishing was only average. Jenny noted the Mahia Boating Club is concerned that no yellow fin tuna had been caught over the last two game fishing seasons. A high number of sharks were spotted by fishers around Mahia, but are not targeted by Mahia Boating Club members. Good numbers of tarakihi and kahawai were caught around Mahia. Although snapper are present, fishers have reported catching only small sized fish. Jenny said there not many reports of rock lobster harvest around Mahia, however a 2.1 kilogram rock lobster was caught by a diver in the area. Jenny was very concerned about the falling number of fishers attending fishing contests at Mahia. Jenny suggested this may be because of the smaller prizes on offer and the general state of the economy.

Ngawi area update – George
George said the weather at Ngawi had been terrible. Six club days in a row were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. Only one day of the annual ‘Big 3’ fishing tournament was fished this year. George noted tarakihi and blue cod are present in reasonable numbers and are of a good size. Reasonable catches of hapuku were recorded, but the size of fish caught was relatively small. Although paua are still able to be taken by fishers, the easily accessible areas have been intensively harvested by recreational fishers. George reported an increase in the number of recreational fishers at Ngawi since the road was upgraded. He believes the increase in recreational fishing needs to be closely monitored by MFish. George noted the large number of seals at Ngawi.

Gisborne area update – Hilton
Like Jenny, Hilton said game fishing in the Gisborne area was good. Catches of albacore and skipjack tuna were common. He noted marlin (both black and stripped) and big eye tuna had also been caught. However yellow fin tuna were absent this year. Hilton said schools of snapper, kahawai and some kingfish were present in the Gisborne area. Tarakihi were said to be only average, with not many big fish. Hapuku were small and very patchy. Hilton noted sharks, particularly blue and mako sharks, were pestering fishers by taking fish on lines. He asked if MFish had any information on the growth rates for sharks and marlin. Hilton didn’t believe CRA 3 had improved, and said the Minister’s decision to reduce the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) did not go far enough.

Wairarapa area update – Ed
Ed said unfavourable weather conditions had hampered recreational fishers throughout the summer. He reported a high number of days with very dirty and sloppy seas. Game fishing along the Wairarapa coastline is described by Ed as being average. Albacore are available, but the size of the fish caught are very small. Ed said fishers were heartened by the improvement in the size and number of blue cod. Paua and tarakihi were also said to be good. The number of hapuku being caught had improved slightly on last year, however the fish caught were still very small. Seals and dolphins are present in large numbers around the coastline, and it is common to see seals quite some distance out to sea. Ed reported a high number of blue penguin sightings.

Hawke’s Bay area update – Alan
Alan reported kahawai were present in big numbers. Hapuku and tarakihi were available, but catches had been slow due to the adverse weather conditions. Catches of tarakihi south of Blackhead were said to be very poor. Snapper were available in good numbers, but were of a small size. The competition days were well attended by fishers. Game fishing had been good, with many tuna species being caught. Three marlin had been caught and weighed during the national championships. Alan noted that many fishers were concerned about the low numbers and sizes of gurnard being caught. Alan said a number of fisher he had talked to were concerned about the low numbers and sizes of gurnard. Gurnard are said to be the ‘bread and butter’ of recreational fishing in Hawke’s Bay,.

Surfcasting update – James
Nil

Billy thanked the forum members for their collective updates on fishing around the NISE area.

Agreed Actions

Billy to send growth rate information for sharks and marlin to forum via email or post.

Item 4 - Compliance Update

Mike provided the forum with an update on regional compliance matters. The poor weather and rough sea conditions over the past three months was reiterated by Mike. He outlined to the forum that the Napier based fishery officers had been busy patrolling the coastline over the summer period.

Mike said training of new honorary fishery officers (HFO’s) was currently underway. However there would still be gaps in the HFO coverage when the new recruits came up to speed, particularly in areas such as Akitio, Mahia and Herbertville. Mike asked the forum members if they knew of any suitable candidates in their clubs that may consider becoming HFO’s.

Neville updated the forum on a number of compliance activities and initiatives that had occurred since the last meeting. Neville showed the forum the newly designed plastic paua knife, and explained the distribution policy for handing out the paua knives to fishers.

The illegal sale of seafood at flea-markets and car-boot sales was highlighted by Neville. In response to concerns raised by District Councils, Neville said MFish was thinking of producing a one-page brochure explaining the rules relating to the sale of seafood. Neville explained people required permission from District Councils to operate flea-markets and car-boot sales on Council owned land or for the sale of food items. He suggested the forum members could take a lead role in contacting District Councils and supplying the one-page brochures. The forum members agreed they would like to assist Neville to contact District Councils and hand out the brochures. Neville said he would draft up the one-page brochure and send it to the forum members for review. Billy said he would compile a list of District Council contacts for each forum member

The forum thanked Neville and Mike for their detailed compliance updates.

Agreed Actions

• Neville to send the draft one-page brochure explaining the rules relating to the sale of seafood to forum members.
• Billy to compile a list of District Council contacts and send the appropriate contact (eg, Gisborne District Council contact to Hilton etc).

Item 5 - Report on the National meeting of Regional Recreational forums

Ed and Colin presented an overview of the National meeting of Regional Recreational forums that was held in Auckland late last year (2008). Ed and Colin believed the NISE forum was one of the more proactive forums at the national meeting.

Ed talked about the formation of a group to discuss how the recreational sector could better advocate their positions on fisheries management. The advocacy group comprised the chairpersons of the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council (Richard Baker) and the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council (Geoff Rowling) , as well as Kim Walsh, Derek Paul and Laurel Tierney. The group tasked with investigating an overarching national structure to advocate on behalf of all recreational fishers. Both Ed and Colin noted the group was yet to meet.

Colin said he thought the national meeting in Auckland was an improvement on the last national meeting held in Wellington. He believed the presentations were better targeted towards the participants and the MFish staff present, listened carefully to the discussions.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 6 - Direction of the NISE forum

Billy introduced the ‘Direction of the NISE forum’ item as a continuation of Ed’s paper that was discussed at the previous two forum meetings in 2008.

Ed provided the forum with some background to the item and suggested the forum members consider the forum as ‘our forum’. He thought the forum members had an opportunity to make the NISE forum work for them.

Following a vibrant discussion led by Ed, the forum members agreed:

• Billy should continue to chair the forum meetings;
• the agenda should include an item of general business where forum members could raise issues for discussion on the day of the meeting;
• no meetings should be held from the second week of December in any year until the end of the third week of March in the following year;
• any other time outside of this period, NISE forum members will make all reasonable attempts to attend forum meetings;
• information to support agenda items should be compiled into a single document and a hard copy posted to forum members before each meeting;
• where comments/submissions/feedback is required from the forum in between meetings, a sub-committee should be established and mandated by the forum to provide comments of its behalf; and
• the NISE forum is “our forum”.

A good discussion on the operation and function of a sub-committee ensued. The forum members agreed the sub-committee:

• is NOT intended to replace the NISE forum;
• will only operate in the event the NISE forum is unable to formally meet to consider an item before any deadline to comments/ submissions/feedback on that item expires;
• will be comprised of a minimum of three members sourced from the NISE forum;
• will have one member with the responsibility of coordinating discussions and collating comments/submissions/feedback;
• will operate remotely via email, telephone or video conference (with MFish assistance where required);
• membership will be chosen by the NISE forum on an issue by issue basis;
• will operate under an informal gentlemen’s agreement, with the caveat that the sub-committee must at all times represent the interests of the NISE forum;
• must report back to the next formal NISE forum meeting; and
• can be reviewed by the NISE forum members at any formal NISE forum meeting.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 7 - Draft Highly Migratory Species Fisheries Plan

Billy introduced the Draft Highly Migratory Species (HMS) fisheries plan and provided a short overview. He suggested the forum go through the HMS fisheries plan by section and discuss any matters as they arise. The forum agreed with this process, and noted they would like the draft comments sent to John Holdsworth as the recreational representative on the fisheries plan.

Billy compiled the forum’s comments throughout the course of the discussion.

Agreed Actions

Billy to send the forums comments to John Holdsworth as the recreational representative on the Draft HMS fisheries plan.

Item 8 - CRA 4 rock lobster fishery

Billy summarised the recent April 2009 sustainability decisions made by the Minister of Fisheries in respect of the CRA 3, 4, 7 and 8 rock lobster fisheries.

George and Hilton asked why the Minister hadn’t considered the removal of the winter commercial concession in the CRA 3 rock lobster fishery as part of the sustainability decisions. Billy reminded the forum that the winter commercial concession in the CRA 3 fishery, as well as the other commercial concessions in CRA 7 and 8, were not sustainability measures. Instead the concession minimum legal sizes (MLS) were regulatory measures aimed at maximising value. Billy noted MFish was in the middle of reviewing the three commercial concessions in CRA 3, 7 and 8, and that a discussion paper would be made publicly available as a precursor to either the April 2010 or October 2010 regulatory rounds.

Jenny and Hilton both believed the winter commercial concession in the CRA 3 fishery was adversely affecting the ability of recreational fishers to catch legal sized rock lobster. Alan, Colin, George and Ed supported Hilton and Jenny’s statement, and asked for the forum members to be advised when the discussion paper was released by MFish. Billy agreed to send a copy of any discussion paper reviewing the three commercial concessions when this was made publicly available.

Billy asked the forum if they wanted to continue the voluntary bag limit reduction for the CRA 4 fishery, given the Ministers recent decision to reduce the TACC for the fishery. The forum members agreed they wanted to continue the voluntary bag limit reduction for another year. The forum members believed continuing the voluntary bag limit reduction, in conjunction with the TACC cut, would assist the CRA 4 fishery to recover.

Alan thought the forum could improve the advertising for the voluntary bag limit reduction. He believed the bag limit reduction message wasn’t getting through to fishers, and suggested producing an A4 version of the existing brochure that could be put on club notice boards at boat ramps.

Ed and George volunteered to draft a press release outlining the continuing voluntary bag limit reduction. Neville said he would revise the existing brochure and send a draft copy to the forum members for review.

Agreed Actions

• Billy to send the NISE forum a copy of any discussion paper reviewing the three commercial concessions when this is made publicly available
• Ed and George to draft media release to support the continuation of the voluntary bag limit reduction from four to six rock lobsters in the CRA 4 fishery
• Neville to revise the existing brochure and send a draft copy to the forum members for review

Item 9a - October 2009 regulatory round papers – hand operated lassoes and holding pots

Billy summarised two of the October 2009 regulatory round papers looking at the potential introduction of holding pots and hand operated lassoes. Following a colourful discussion on holding pots and hand operated lassoes, Billy asked the forum if they wanted to make a submission.

The forum agreed to make a submission

• supporting option 1 to not allow the use of hand operated lassoes to harvest rock lobster; and
• supporting option C to exclude holding pots from general rock lobster pot limits and escape aperture requirements in the Fiordland Marine Area, and institute a separate holding pot definition and limit.

Billy suggested to the forum members that someone other than George and Ed compile the submission on behalf of the NISE forum. The forum nominated Alan and Colin to draft the submission on their behalf.

Agreed Actions

Alan and Colin to draft a submission on holding pots and hand operated lassoes, and to email the draft to the forum members for review

Item 9b - October 2009 regulatory round papers – FMA 2 coordinate review

Billy briefly summarised two minor amendments to the coordinates used to define landmarks and features in the Central Fisheries Management Area (CFMA) regulations that were located in Fisheries Management Area (FMA) 2. The forum simply noted the minor amendments corrected errors in the existing coordinates.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 9c - Candidate stocks for October fishing year deemed value review

Billy outlined that MFish were in the process of talking the stakeholders about nominating candidate stocks for the upcoming October fishing year deemed value review.

The forum members asked Billy for information on what stocks had been over-caught for the 2007/08 fishing year. Billy supplied the forum members with this information. Following a short discussion, including a recap on the purpose of the catch balancing regime, the forum put forward the following candidate stocks:

• Snapper (SNA 2)
• Hapuku/Bass (HPB 2)
• Gurnard (GUR 2)
• Blue nose (BNS 2)
• Moki (MOK 1)

The forum thanked MFish for the opportunity to offer their views and put forward candidate stocks for consideration in the deemed value review process.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 9d - Special permits for disabled persons

Billy provided a broad overview of the benefits and costs of issuing special permits for disabled persons to allow another recreational fisher to catch their recreational daily bag limit. The forum had an animated discussion about the opportunities and risks associated with MFish issuing permits. The forum agreed it did not support disabled permits because:

• disabled people are not precluded from enjoying a fishing experience;
• recreational fishing should be focused on value/pleasure and not on meat-hunting to fill a freezer;
• the existing daily bag limits are sufficient to allow a fisher to share their catch with a disabled person;
• the body issuing any permit needs to determine who is disabled and this could create problems; and
• enforcing permits, including sub-contracting out a daily bag limit, may prove difficult.

Billy said he would send a copy of the forums thoughts to the inshore analyst responsible for coordinating feedback from all the forums

Agreed Actions

Billy to send the forums comments on disabled fishing permits to the inshore analyst responsible for coordinating feedback from all the forums

Item 9e - Proposed recreational set net mesh size review

Billy gave a quick summary of the proposed review of recreational set net mesh sizes. The proposal was one of the outcomes of the national meeting of regional recreational forums, and sought to standardise, where appropriate, set net mesh sizes for certain species across fisheries management areas.

Two finfish stocks in FMA 2 were subject to the proposed review. Blue moki has a set net mesh size of 115mm, and butterfish has a set net mesh size of 108mm. The draft thinking was to move blue moki to 114 mm and butterfish to 100mm, if the review went ahead.

The forum agreed the set net mesh size for blue moki should be decreased from 115mm to 114mm in FMA 2. The forum believed the reduction in set net mesh size to 114mm would correct a historical error, and would have no impact on the sustainability of blue moki.

The forum agreed the set net mesh size for butterfish should be increased from 108mm to 114mm. The forum believed increasing the set net mesh size would impose a small cost to fishers required to purchase a new set net, but that this cost was less than the unknown impact on the sustainability of Butterfish by reducing the mesh size. The forum also concluded there would be benefits to fishers in only requiring one set net to target blue moki and butterfish (eg, set net mesh size of 114mm).

Billy said he would send a copy of the forums thoughts to the inshore analyst responsible for coordinating feedback from all the forums.

Agreed Actions

Billy to send the forums comments on set net mesh sizes to the inshore analyst responsible for coordinating feedback from all the forums

Item 9f  - Letter from CX concerning the restructure of MFish

Billy briefly explained the background to the letter from the Chief Executive (Wayne McNee) regarding the restructure of MFish. The forum noted the letter and had no comments.

Agreed Actions - Nil

Item 9g - MFish website and recreational forum home page

Billy outlined the new MFish website and the webpage for the NISE regional recreational forum. Billy asked the forum if they wanted to assist with putting content into the webpage, and whether they would be interested in adding short photo-biographies. The forum members were supportive of the new webpage and said they were happy to add photos and contact details.

Agreed Actions

Billy to create content for the web page and send draft to the forum members for comment

Item 9h - Area 2 finfish fisheries plan update

Billy presented a brief and summarised overview of the revised structure for developing the Area 2 finfish fisheries plan. The forum members were encouraged by the revised structure, particularly the reduced number of advisory group meetings. Billy explained the reduced number of meetings meant that when advisory group did meet, the meetings would be more intensive and require the forum members and the two representatives to do more preparatory homework.

Billy informed the forum members that Jim O’Brien from the NISW forum was the second recreational representative, along with Ed, on the Area 2 finfish fisheries plan advisory group. He asked the forum if they would be happy if Jim O’Brien joined the NISE forum as an ex-officio member. The forum members agreed it would be beneficial for Jim to be part of the NISE forum during the fisheries plan development stage.

Billy explained MFish would use the NISE forum meetings to educate the members generally, but importantly to prepare Jim and Ed for providing input on behalf of the recreational sector into the advisory group. Billy said he thought this approach would be beneficial to the forum, and the members benefit from gaining a better understanding of various science and fisheries management processes.
 
Agreed Actions

Billy to ask Jim O’Brien to attend the NISE forum meetings

Next meeting

The next NISE forum meeting will be held in June 2009 at a venue and date to be confirmed.

Close of meeting

Billy thanked the forum for their time and wished everybody a safe journey back to their homes, or to Mahia to attend the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council Zone 5 meeting.

The meeting was closed at 5.30 pm.