Open Meeting |
Meeting chair, Andy Warmbrunn (MFish) opened the meeting at 9.30 am and welcomed members. Andy welcomed Brian Deller as an observer to the forum. |
Attendees
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Andy Warmbrunn (Chair, MFish)
Edward Beetham (Wairarapa Sports Fishing Club)
Wayne Bicknell (Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club)
Colin Murray (Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club)
James Parahi (Pania Surfcasting Club)
George Zander (Ngawi Sports Fishing Club)
Hilton Webb (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
Leigh Mitchell (MFish Fisheries Operations)
Tony McKenna (MFish Fisheries Compliance-Masterton)
Brian Deller ( Observer / Ngawi Sports Fishing Club ) |
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Apologies
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Jenny Hills (Mahia Boating Club)
Simon Mills (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
Alain Jorion (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club) |
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Meeting Introduction
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Andy Warmbrunn confirmed the main agenda items. These were: Hapuku / Bass, National Meeting of Recreational Forums report and a discussion with Tony McKenna from compliance (Masterton)
Other items on the agenda included the regional overviews and updates, fisheries plans, and the deemed values and catch levels for the 2006/7 fishing year. |
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Regional Overviews and Updates
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Wayne and Colin gave a combined summary of the fisheries around Napier and the Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club. They noted that good amounts of tuna have been coming in and skippies started arriving about a week ago. Albacore have been seen in good numbers and in the most recent fishing competition four marlin and some yellow fin were landed. Water temperature has been at or above the 20 degree mark. No sharks of minimum size were caught (40kg/120kg) during both the Coruba and Nationals. Colin said that 145 boats competed in the Coruba with a total of approximately 556 anglers and most boats fished the nationals as well. This was a great turn out as the swell was very large. The Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club is also expecting around 500 anglers for the upcoming Danks Fishing Classic to be held on the 14/15/16 March.
George and Wayne both commented that there have also been large numbers of spiny dogfish around. Leigh commented, and led a discussion, on sharks. Leigh explained that all sharks caught by commercial fishermen that are managed under the QMS must be landed and the entire body weight covered by ACE (ie not just the fins). She added that MFish has recently been consulting on the national plan of action for sharks. This document can be found at:
http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Consultations/Under+Review/NPOA+Sharks/default.htm?WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished
Some discussion occurred concerning surf clams. Leigh explained that surf clams first entered into the QMS in 2004/05 with a primary goal of enabling development within a framework that sets a sustainable limit on catches. MFish set conservative and nominal TACCs for all areas where there was no historical catch effort data. Some members expressed their concerns regarding the possible future harvesting of surf clams in FMA2. James noted that commercial harvesting of surf clams may have positive and negative impacts for surfcasters in particular. Leigh stated that the main company concerned, Surfco, had made a particular effort to keep the public informed of its current activities and were happy to talk to groups about their research. Andy informed the group that he would keep the forum members updated as to Surfco activities.
Ed gave a report for the Wairarapa and related that over the past couple of month’s large swells and easterly winds have prevented a lot of fishers from going fishing in the area. However Ed noted that the Wairarapa Sports Fishing Clubs “Superfish” tournament was quite good with the largest albacore caught being around the 10kg mark. Ed commented that sharks had been dropped from the competition and that large sharks had not been seen or caught in the area for quite some time.
Ed said that Paua stocks in the area needed to be watched carefully as the numbers of paua are just hanging in there. He also commented on the commercial crayfish fishermen’s decision to voluntarily shelve a further 20% of their ACE for this year and their commitment to continue to shelve quota for the next 2 – 5 years. The members noted that this was great to see that as all are concerned about decreasing fish stocks. Ed also noted the views and opinions of Brett Liddington who has retired from commercial fishing after 25 years. Leigh then explained the decision rule for CRA4 which is based on the CPUE from the previous year, and also discussed patterns of historic abundance and settlement rates of crayfish on the East Coast of the North Island.
Hilton related the progress of the CRA3 fish plan and noted that the group was making progress and had covered all the issues in great detail. Hilton also noted that the biggest hapuku caught during a club contest in November was 21kg which was a disappointing result. The Bay Bonanza fishing classic had 125 boats enter over the 26-28th January. A good selection of snapper was caught with the heaviest being about 12kg and the largest tarakihi was around 2.4 kg. Hilton commented that there seems to be a lot of snapper and tarakihi around at the moment although not of large size. He added that no sharks were landed during the competitions as none have been of size (90kg) although a lot of smaller blues/makos at around the 30/40kg mark had been seen around the boats.
During the contest on 15-18th March Hilton reported that there were some nice yellow fin caught and some marlin, the biggest being a blue marlin of 124kg. There were good catches of albacore and some skippies although Hilton commented that they haven’t really started coming in as yet. Water temperature reached as high as 21.5 degrees but has since dropped. In general Hilton reported good fishing off Tolaga reef with lots of yellow fin and generally the bottom fishing has also been good. Paua size seems small but the presence of fisheries compliance officers has been good.
George presented his report from the Ngawi area and noted that the weather had generally been poor with the odd good patch. As a result fishing has been restricted over the last 3 months and the Ngawi fishing contest was cancelled for the first time in 16 years. George told the group that there a lot of paua around but fishers have to go out a little bit further than normal to get legal sized paua. There is a good amount of legal size blue cod and tarakihi and fishers in the area are starting to catch gurnard which is rare for the area. Lots of bluenose is also being caught however not a lot of grouper. George added that seal numbers are continuing to increase.
George noted the crayfish fishery is still in decline and voiced his concerns over crayfish boats turning towards charter work, and future mätaitai applications.
James told the forum that the surfcasting has been reasonable so far with lots of good fishing towards the north around Whakaki and Mohaka. A near club record kahawai of 3.95kg was caught at Black’s and there have been lots of kahawai caught in the area. Around Clifton surfcasters have been catching snapper at the first motor camp and both gurnard and snapper have been caught at East Clive although not in large amounts. James noted that fishing has been similar to last year. During the Kahawai Challenge over 500 rods took part with lots of kahawai caught.
Action: 1) Andy to update the forum at the next meeting concerning the National Plan of Action for sharks
Action: 2) Andy to keep the forum updated on any developments regarding surf clams in FMA2 |
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Local Issues – Hapuku/Bass
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Leigh led a discussion on hapuku bass. She noted that, as a result of discussions the forum members had previously had concerning local depletion, a review of the regulations regarding the recreational take of hapuku/bass was taking place. She provided an overview of the options discussed in the paper and asked the forum if they were happy to proceed with the paper. The group decided that it would be good for the paper to go out for public consultation although Hilton noted some concerns about the implications of the paper. The paper will be released for public consultation over the coming weeks.
Ed gave Andy copies of reports that he had received from the Wairarapa club and Pukemanu club and their catches of hapuku. The reports showed that very few hapuku of good size have been caught by both clubs. Some discussion was had concerning some charter boats heading further out to sea and finding new ‘virgin’ areas to fish for hapuku and returning with full bag limits for all fishers on board. It was noted for 12 fishers this relates to 60 fish landed. It was also noted that some of the charter boats concerned are cray skippers that charter off season or due to reduced quota, and are putting pressure on the groper fishery.
Action: 3) Andy to notify the forum when MFish releases the hapuku/bass proposal for consultation. |
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Discussion with Masterton Compliance
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Tony McKenna introduced himself to the forum. Tony is a compliance officer working in the Masterton office and is managed by Ray McKay, the District Compliance Manager in Napier. The Masterton office is responsible for fisheries compliance within the Castle Point to Ngawi area.
Tony talked about the current challenges of reducing paua poaching in the area and noted that lots of shells were being dumped in lots of 500/600 in and around Masterton.
Tony commented on the success of the coast watch program in reducing illegal activity and noted fisheries officers rely a lot on recreational fishers for extra eyes and ears on the coast as well as maintaining good liaison with the local police. Tony related a story about the difficulties in policing the fishery in isolated areas, and the risks and challenges involved in dealing with illegal activity, communications, and aggressive individuals.
George noted that the signage previously discussed to be put up at Ngawi had still be yet to put up and asked when it would be erected. George also noted that the relationship between compliance and the Ngawi club could be improved. Tony stated that he would be happy for himself and Adrian, who is the other compliance officer in the Masterton office, to visit the club and resolve any issues the members may have. |
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National Meeting of Regional Recreational Fishing Forums
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Colin and Ed presented their review of the National Meeting of Regional Recreational Fishing Forums which was held in Wellington in November. Colin noted that he was a bit disappointed that more time was not allowed for discussing fisheries issues between members from other forums and that the time allowed for discussion of agenda topics was limited. Andy noted that this was the first time the meeting had been held and that other members had also commented on the need to allow more time for discussion after presentations. Ed and Colin noted that the meeting was a success and the standard of the attendees was extremely high and the amount of assembled knowledge around the table was excellent.
Colin also presented the results of the feedback survey to the forum. These can be found at:
http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Recreational/Recreational+Forums/National+Meeting+of+Regional+Recreational+Fishing+Forums/default.htm?WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished |
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Deemed Values
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Andy presented the most recent catch levels and deemed values paid for selected species for the 2006/2007 fishing year. Andy pointed out that new deemed values for some species were introduced on October 1, 2007, so have not had an effect on the figures presented. The forum members requested Andy provide the figures for Kingfish and Bluenose.
Action: 4) Andy to send out updated figures for bluenose and kingfish to members |
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Forum Management
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Andy raised the issue of attendance at meetings and commented that forum members should try to avoid missing more than two meetings in a row if possible. Andy added that he understood in some situations it was just not possible due to members’ other commitments but members should try their hardest to attend.
Members noted that there never seemed enough time to discuss everything in depth. Leigh raised the possibility of having one future meeting over two days to discuss issues more in depth. Members expressed that this seemed like a good idea. Andy said that either the next meeting or the one after it could be a two day meeting if members still thought it was a good idea closer to the date.
Andy also thanked Ed for his help in finding accommodation and a venue in Castle Point. Members noted that it was a good idea to have the meeting in Castle Point as it had allowed them to see the area and improve their understanding of the local fishery. |
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Fish Plans
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Andy distributed information concerning fish plans and also the introduction to the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) fish plan which includes tunas, marlins and swordfish. Leigh noted that her team had started planning for the Area 2 Finfish plan and in the near future the East Coast Inshore Team would be looking to set up a working group for the plan. |
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Next meeting
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The following agenda items are to be carried to the next forum meeting:
- Sharks - National Plan of Action
- Surf Clams Update
- Hapuku/Bass update
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Closing |
Meeting closed at 3.40 pm |