SOUTH RECREATIONAL FISHERS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING – 15 MARCH 2008

HELD AT MFISH OFFICE, 45 FILLEUL ST, DUNEDIN

PRESENT

REGIONAL UPDATES

Dunedin (Ted Young)

Weather: Refer stats. Very good.

Sea Conditions: Better than last few years for this time of year.

Fish Species:

Rock lobster and blue cod very good. Paua in some areas still OK. Groper very good. Red cod not targeted but starting to show up in the Taieri Mouth area. Cockles OK away from commercial areas. Tuna in the Haast area. Salmon on the west coast very good. Best season ever. Huge numbers of marine mammals everywhere, particularly west coast.

Compliance:

Doing well but don’t pick on insignificant issues as it may annoy people thus losing their goodwill.

North Canterbury (Chris Shuker)

Weather: Very strong nor-easters, southerlies very occasionally.

Sea Conditions: Rough a lot of the time, 6 metre nor-east roll.

Fish Species:

Good season for rock lobsters around coast and in shallow. Great catches of blue cod in Motunau and around Banks Peninsula, up to 630 mm – limit bags regularly. Plenty of paua around Motunau Island and Kaikoura coast. Still plenty around Banks Peninsula but around 115 m. Red cod scarce, moved out with rig and elephants. Dogs moved in in force. Plenty of tuatuas and cockles staying within limits but taking large amounts in groups. Large butterfish off kaik, good numbers for spear-fishers Best salmon season for years, up to 36 lb. Plenty of marine mammals around, large pods around Peninsula and along coast.

Compliance:

Good to see officers and HFOs out in force. Still should know rules before quoting bible. No complaints from local HFOs, public complying. Has been great off peninsula on southern side. Well protected from nor-easters. Been one of the better summers for years. Some great fishing. Fishers coming up from Motunau and Leathfield Beach fishing lower Motunau, taking 30 cod and heading back. Commercial fishers from Motunau have seen regularly. Sign at Oaro needs updating.

South Otago (Nelson Cross)

Weather: Best summer for years.

Sea Conditions: Excellent with afternoon easterlies.

Fish Species:

Rock lobster good, blue cod excellent, lots of paua around but just under the size limit. Good numbers of school groper on outer reef. No reports of red cod. Good stocks of mussels and cockles. Good salmon fishing around the Nuggets in early January. Bottlenose seen off Campbell’s, good interaction.

Compliance:

No major issues reported.

General

Once again a very unpopular Mätaitai forced on us.

Shag Point/Moeraki (Noel Parker)

Weather: Dry, big winds.

Sea Conditions: A lot of easterly rolls, dirty water.

Fish Species:

Good size rock lobster. Big blue cod being caught when conditions allow. Paua still about when water clean. A few groper at reefs. Not many red cod about. Good catches of trumpeter and moki.

Compliance:

Still people taking undersize fish.

General

Poor few months for fishing due to sea conditions.

South Canterbury (Gerald O’Rourke)

Weather: More north easterlies but the south winds are still there on occasions.

Sea Conditions: Up to three metres when the prevailing nor-east wind blows. The sea becomes very dirty.

Fish Species:

Blue cod almost non-existent. Numbers of paua are still on the south reefs but the sea has to be calm and clear to harvest them. Some school groper were taken on the south rock by two crews in early January. Red cod have not returned to the Canterbury Bight in previous numbers. Abundant supply of mussels on the reefs about Timaru. Some good size moki up to 3.5 kilos have been caught since the set net ban has come off. A much better season for salmon at the Rangitata and Opihi Rivers. Some fish up to 10 or 12 kilos has been caught. Hectors dolphin are still plentiful around the coast of South Canterbury.

General:

It’s good to see more salmon being caught in the local rivers.

Kaikoura (Bill Hartley)

Weather: Better than average for this time of year.

Sea Conditions: Good – a lot more fishable days than in the past few years.

Fish Species:

Rock lobster OK. Most people getting one or two blue cod per trip, size still down. Numbers of paua down but still getting a feed. No reports of red cod. A bit more surface activity (kahawai, etc). Chatting to commercial fishermen who still targets groper, ling, warehou, etc said only get a few bins of ling per season instead of 60 t – warehou can be just as bad.

Compliance:

HFOs expressing major concern over paua poachers. Locals upset about the amount of trips by some recreational cray fishers, also charter operators. Need C.O.P – logbooks (to show how many fishing and what was caught). Stop practice of cray “gift” enticement. Also concern about amount of fish coming out of the water. Possibly need bag limit (recreational and charter).

Akaroa (Bob Meikle)

Weather: The early part of the period was still windy and changeable but from mid-January on it was more settled and north easterly conditions rather than alternating to southerlies prevailed. There was a marked absence of the usual mid-summer nor-westers.

Sea Conditions: During January/February there was quite lengthy period of calm waters which resulted in extremely clear water prevailing. This was accentuated by the lack of nor-westers which produced very low flows in the major rivers.

Fish Species:

Divers reported some good catches of rock lobster around Akaroa Heads area. No doubt the good visibility assisted. Quite a few legal size blue cod have been taken near the harbour entrance and around at Pompeys Pillar. Our club is still encouraging the use of large barbless hooks, although we note, unfortunately, that a number of fishers are still using smaller barbed hooks. We shall continue with our education campaign in this area. Very few legal size paua available. No reports of groper. Very few red cod caught. The few that have been taken have been good size with the largest observed being 600 mm and in good condition. A small trawler operating mainly in the Squally Bay area, close inshore just to the west of the harbour entrance, whose traditional catch is mainly red cod at this time of the year, reports taking very few. It is worthy of note that he reports catching lots of very small red cod, between one and three inches in length, in his trawl and his catch consists mainly of gurnard, the gut of which has been full of these small cod. There are still plenty of mussels but the amateur interest in them seems to be falling off. It is noteworthy that there have been no closures due to algal bloom for some time, but I am led to believe that this is because it has been discovered that the bloom that has led to these closures in the past has now been identified as being of a non-toxic nature.

Numerous salmon taken, particularly at Waimakariri and Rakaia River mouths with some good size and well-conditioned specimens taken. Estimated to be the best season for some years. Flatfish netting has been permitted from 1 February. Fishers have been setting their nets with consideration of dolphins being present but I am not aware of any having been seen within the upper harbour area this year since netting began. Good catches of well-conditioned and large, mostly yellow-bellied, flounder have been taken, the best set I have heard of was 16 fish. Sea lice seem to be more prevalent this year.

Divers report an abundance of butterfish and moki throughout the area with large well-conditioned fish of both species being seen and taken. It is hoped they leave some for the net fishers after the 1st of April.

There has been a marked increase in the abundance of Hector’s dolphin in the harbour, but their presence has been more erratic than usual. They have been plentiful for a couple of days or so and then there will be a day when there are very few in the harbour. I am not aware of any reason for this.

Compliance Issues:

From discussions I have had with the Department of Conservation Ranger and Fishery Officers, the set-net restrictions have been very well observed. Local tourist boats have reported buoys seen in the area but all have turned out to be either crayfish pots or set lines. Some amateur fishers, investigating possible set net buoys they have seen, found them to be attached to sound devices placed by dolphin researchers.

Unfortunately, however, on the afternoon of 13 March two of the Swim with the Dolphins tourist boats, Black Cat and Akaroa Dolphins reported a set net on the edge of the kelp at Motor Bay in Akaroa Harbour. The local DoC Ranger recovered the unattended net with two good conditioned butterfish and a spottie in it, released the fish still alive and located the offender near the harbour entrance. We are hopeful that a prosecution will follow.

Canterbury (Russ Chidgey)

Sea Conditions: Seas have been rough, easterly winds.

Fish Species:

Plenty of legal size paua around. Plenty of blue cod around also if you were in the right spot, legal limits taken. Surf-casting has been average, many days virtually no catch except small dogfish, some elephant fish and rig taken in the evening, mid February at Dorie a rare day, good size grey boys taken (several) 5 kg to 11 kg size. Otherwise mainly dogfish caught.

Compliance:

MFish were called on at 5 pm on New Years Eve to Omihi, south of Kaikoura, three guys were out in front of campers taking undersize paua, what made things bad was the fact that they were openly throwing around the small paua and laughing about taking them, plenty of small paua taken and put in bags. MFish Officers got three phone calls from campers and MFish officers caught the guilty party red-handed. I heard at a later date, the three was fined $250 and issued with a warning.


Introduce Brian Horsnell from the Otago Underwater Club (63 Albert St, Dunedin – ph 4559959 (hm), 4664281 (wk) horsnell@xtra.co.nz

National Forum

Alan Key and Jim Crossland reported on the National forum. They considered it was productive. Provided actions accrue, it will have been useful.

Customary Fisheries

Areas of Significance Project:- Nigel Scott

Nigel gave a presentation on the Ngai Tahu Areas of Significance Project.

Canadian Non-commercial Fisheries:- Devona Adams (Regional Recreational and First Nations Fisheries Co-ordinator, British Columbia, Canada.)

Discussion Points raised by Recreational Fishers:

- Perceived lack of accountability by Wellington spatial and policy teams
- Need for micro or local management of areas
- Perceived lack of consideration given by Ministry of Fisheries (MFish) to input given by recreational fisheries into policy and spatial decisions
- Perceived bias toward commercial interest by MFish
- Concerns raised that only the economic side of fishing was considered by MFish and not the social impact (in policy and procedure)
- That there seemed to be a growing expectation from Central government for their group and others to volunteer time for various projects.
- The need for the MFish to commit to providing more scientific information on which to base daily bag limits etc.
- A reluctance to base any management change on anecdotal evidence
- A concern that should recreational and customary harvesters take cuts, that, rather than be used for fish population enhancement, it will be allocated to commercial fishers as TACC.
- Concerns about Charter boat operators and the need for a code of conduct to guide their operations
- Happy with current improvement in Cra 7 and CRA 8 stocks, but, not happy that they had not had an opportunity to have make submissions on the increase in quota.
- Concerns at dislocation of CRA quota decision making

Recreational concerns about Customary Fisheries

- Concerns about quantities issued in customary permits, anecdotal evidence customary permits of 400 paua and 200 toheroa being issued. (Otago delegates stated that they believed rünanga in their area were acting very responsibly when issuing customary permits).
- Concerns about being asked to gather paua for local marae in addition to what was required by the recipient of the permit.
- Could be perceived as Maori acting as irresponsible managers of the coast line.
- Lack of information on proposed and recently gazetted mataitai
- A desire to have more community involvement and more information sharing much sooner about any proposed mataitai.

Response given:

- Nigel offered to follow up on any perceived abuses of the permit system
- Geoff explained that to gather extra kaimoana for kuia and kaumätua was consistent with customary fishing tikanga and this, perhaps, should have been explained a bit more clearly by the permit issuers.

Questions and statements made by recreational fisheries;

- Felt that Kaka point had been “snuck in” and wanted to know if a deal had been made with Department of Conservation to now implement a marine reserve?
- Who was responsible for the management plan for the Kaka Point mataitai and would the community be invited to be part of the management group?
- That the lack of information had created a lot of negative feeling and mistrust among the community

Response given:

As yet the committee responsible had not meet to consider any management plans and all interest groups were likely to be contacted at that time. The group has been made aware that as far as the Ministry staff and Nigel were aware no “deal” had been made with DoC.

- When had the extension for the Mataura mataitai been lodged and would the community have a chance to participate in the decision?
- Was there any guide lines in place for issuing customary permits
- That the recent Newspaper article had created a lot of negative interest among the local community.

Response given:

No decision had been made as to if and when the application would be lodged and that the normal processes from there required public consultation. It was also stated that each runanga set its own guidelines when issuing customary permits and it was up to them to manage their coast line responsibly.

- Was Otakou runanga applying for a mataitai in the harbour and if so what were the boundaries?
- That recreational user would like to know sooner than later so they could make an informed decision as to whether to support it or not.

Response given:

That Otakou Rünanga had made no decision at this time and should they decide to go down this path they would have to start by advising their own people first.

Note: Recreational fisheries have asked if a customary representative would be interested in being part of their group.

A copy of Devona’s Power point presentation is available on request.

Kaikoura Concerns:- Bill Hartley

Paua poachers – need for a local Fisheries Officer.

Every fishable day, some are going out and getting their limit bag of CRA?.

Charter code of practice – gifting CRA entitlement.

Local discussion on “boat limit” (Murray, very difficult to enforce).

Cost of fuel and effect on recreational effort location. Localised depletion implications.

RCO

Bob/Jim – RCO still scarce but signs of juveniles.

Otago – signs of RCO improving.

Blue sharks and a few porbeagle – yeah!


MPA process – exclusion of Fiordland?!!


National Issues and Local Issues for the Year

MPA – need shared fisheries resolved first – no-one knows what the playing field will be like for engagement in the MPA process? VIP. Want moratorium until shared fish is sorted.

Fishery access, localised depletion, and, the need for local/micro management.

BCO 5 working group – Peter Moir to keep us informed.

Flatfish – information and research on the apparent drop off in rec access! There are no Flounders in our estuaries!

CRA issues 7 and 8.

Follow-up on RCO in Akaroa.

Charter boat code of practice including logbooks.

Recreational requirements from Ministry consultation.

Shellfish plan representatives, participation and relationship with rec advisory group.

BP shellfish.

Banks Peninsula BCO bag limits.

Paua and UBA.

Boat Safety Person –mail-out Ross’ paper.

North and south reefs from Timaru ; need for local management.

Assistance with BCO issues in Kaikoura.


Next Meeting

31 May 2008.