Hauraki Gulf/Bay of Plenty Regional Recreational Forum

Date: 17th June 2008

Time: 1500-2000

Present: Peter Ellery, John Friend, Don Glass, Peter Hempleman, George Johnston, Geoff Manks, Anthony Olsen, Kim Walshe, Richard Baker, Andrew McCulley (MFish), Alan Moore (MFish), Murray Bruges (MFish), John Taunton Clark (MFish), Kathy Broadhead (MFish)

Apologies: Peter Stevenson, Rick Pollock, Ian Bright, Neville Buckley

Draft Summary of Discussion

Welcome and opening

The floor voted that Richard Baker take over chair role for the meeting as the elected chair Peter Ellery was delayed from attending the beginning of the meeting.

Approval of previous minutes

Geoff raised his concern that there had been a motion to change the design of the MFish crayfish measurers which was not mentioned in the previous minutes.

Also raised was a motion to support a potential closure of river mouths to set netting in the Whakatäne region.

Action:

MFish to check and amend previous minutes as required.

Matters arising from previous minutes

Local area management

Following on from the discussion of the previous minutes, Anthony spoke about a proposed mätaitai application by Ngati Awa for the area around Whale Island, Raurima, and Waihora and Maraetotora out to 500m.

Anthony spoke about using mätaitai as a local management tool to address local concerns. From his experience talking to the younger Mäori in his region, it appears that they are not fishing under customary permits, and therefore their fishing is recreational.

Discussion turned to the use of mätaitai as a local area management tool. The group discussed that there is need for an integrated approach to mätaitai applications, and a need to get public support through input and participation into the mätaitai process.

Forum members also raised their concerns about the lack of local area management tools available to non-Mäori. The forum agreed that there is a need for a local area management tool which meets the requirements of both customary and non customary.

Peter spoke of the uniqueness of mätaitai and taipure in allowing the customary sector to take a lead role in driving local area management, but emphasised the importance of community involvement throughout any process.

Concerns were also raised about how the tools should be presented to the public. The forum stressed that any presentation should be focused on how everyone can work together to achieve the goals and objectives.

George raised concerns about fisheries regulations not being well known and understood by the public, in particular, younger fishers. He also raised concerns that by increasing the number of regulations through local area management could create confusion, George questioned having regulations which were non consistent along the coastline.

Issues were raised about the naming of customary tools, with concern focused on how the general public would perceive the terms mätaitai and taipure. The group discussed the option of having an equivalent name in English.

Action:

Local area management a topic for a future meeting, with MFish to explain Section 311 of the Act to the forum.

Marlin catch

Catch records and restrictions for marlin fishing were distributed to forum members with a brief explanation of some of the management.

Action:

MFish to find copy of 1997 Marlin FAP.

Fisheries restriction maps

Updated fisheries restrictions maps were to be handed out to forum members, but the maps are still being produced.

Action:

MFish to distribute maps to forum members once they are completed.

The visibility of the group was raised as an issue during discussions. Forum members agreed that it would be beneficial to try and raise the group’s profile. It was agreed by members that this would be a future topic for discussion.

Education

The need for improved education was again discussed by the forum.

Richard asked MFish to look into supporting a school education program based on a character called ‘Hewi the Kiwi’ which is run by Mike Delany.

Action:

MFish to make enquiries into the program as a form of primary school education.

As stated previously, George raised concerns about the level of education of younger fishers. Many he encounters are not aware of the regulations.

Compliance update

Kathy Broadhead gave an update on the compliance issues to the forum.

Compliance has been relatively quiet in the recreational sector, with compliance work having more of a commercial focus over winter, with a significant Paua operation being undertaken across the country.

Alan gave a brief update on some of the intertidal shellfish issues around the Auckland area. Specifically the proposed Umupuia beach closure which was recently notified and submissions called, and a proposed seasonal closure at Cockle bay.

The forum discussed some of the issues with intertidal shellfish, and some of the potential solutions. In particular closed areas and season closures were discussed with group members giving their views and experiences.

Both closed areas and seasonal closures were seen to have potential benefits, although in the past there had been mixed success with some shellfish stocks not recovering despite being closed from fishing pressure.

Reasons why shellfish stocks had not recovered were discussed by the group. Habitat and sedimentation issues were both seen as important factors in the recovery of shellfish beds. It was proposed that the group looks to become more involved in the prevention of degradation and in the management of shellfish habitats. Other issues raised included sea water temperature, increased freshwater and global warming. The group agreed that the issue should be discussed further as an agenda item at a future meeting.

George raised that he would like to get hold of more copies of the updated version of the MFish recreational fishers handbook and recreational fishing rule leaflet. Richard also requested copies of the handbook.

Action:

MFish to provide George and Richard with boxes of the handbook and leaflets.

The discussion shifted to MFish’s crayfish measurers. Whilst issues had been raised at the use of the measurer, the forum was still concerned that MFish has decided to stop the production of the measurers. Members felt that the onus was on MFish to be proactive in producing, and distributing the crayfish measurers. The forum raised concerns again with the design of the crayfish measures not being intuitive. The forum suggested that the group could provide feedback on future MFish initiatives such as the design of the crayfish measurer.

Action:

Neville Buckley is to attend the next meeting to discuss issues and concerns raised by the forum.

Compliance Education

George spoke of the educational work he has been doing in the BOP region. The group supported the work which George was doing in and around the community, and noted the lack of support for people such as George as being an issue.

Education was discussed as being an important issue for the forum, with George emphasising the need to find people who will effectively get the message across.

Anthony raised his concerns about youth in there mid-late teens not being well educated and going out fishing without any knowledge of regulations.

Concern was raised that youth are being informed of fisheries regulations by Fisheries officers and how this could act as a barrier, with youth less likely to be responsive to the message from authoritative figures. It was also noted that it is rare to encounter fisheries officers, and it is not reasonable to expect them to provide any significant public education.

Kathy spoke about the initiatives which MFish is using to try and educate the public. In particular the coast watch program which has been a huge success in increasing public awareness.

Kathy proposed two questions for the forum:

1. How do we communicate new rules to the community?
2. What are people’s motivations to do the right thing?

Management of the Coromandel scallop fishery

Murray gave a presentation detailing how scallops management is undertaken, and how it differs from most other species. Murray explained how the TAC for Coromandel scallop is set on an annual basis with a baseline TACC and an in-season increase. The scallop fishery is cautiously managed, with the commercial sector only taking a portion of the potential sustainable yield for the past few years. Murray also explained that the commercial scallop catch predominantly came from a few commercial scallop beds which constantly produced a high yield of scallops.

Action:

A copy of the presentation to be provided.

Shared Fisheries

Richard and Kim gave feedback to the forum from the joint stakeholder working group.

Feedback was given from the steering group who identified that the volume of work was becoming too much for the amateur sector, but other than the workload the group is working well together. The timeframe to resolve the shared fisheries issue was also raised with Kim and Richard indicating that initial 2 month timeframe was not adequate to resolve the many issues associated with shared fisheries issue, instead the timeframe is more flexible, and the process is ongoing.

The TOKM customary representatives were confirmed as being Richard Orzeki??? and Sonny Tau.

Section 13 issues

John TC gave a brief explanation of section 13, and gave a brief background as to some of the recent issues.

Regional round up

It was raised that the forum was significantly smaller that it originally was. The forum discussed how the group would go about finding new members, and how the forum would elect new members. MFish agreed to source original scoping documents to see if there is a procedure for the introduction of new members onto a forum.

The group was keen to see that new members were sourced prior to the next meeting. Members suggested several possible new members and newspaper advertisements were discussed as another way to identify new members.

The forum also raised there support for members who would make the forum more representative, identifying that the forum did not have any representation from the Asian and Pacific island communities.

Action:

MFish to source original scoping documents, and begin the process to identify potential forum members.

Action:

MFish to create a charter of attendance, aimed to oblige forum members to attend meetings.

The upcoming sustainability round was briefly discussed. Richard made a suggestion that the recreational bag limit for Bluenose was too high and that it should be similar to or included within the häpuka/bass bag limit.

The QMS introduction IPP was also very briefly discussed by the group. Peter spoke of his concerns regarding redbait, and was interested in the rationale for species to be put forward for introduction into the QMS.

John Friend spoke to the forum about his concerns in CRA 3. He proposed a vote of no confidence in the CRA 3 outcomes. John voiced concerns from the recreational sector that there are very few legally sized crayfish in the area, something which they attribute to the commercial fishing effort. John agreed to distribute information to forum members. In principle the forum was happy to support John’s vote of no confidence, although the forum will seek to give the commercial sector the chance to speak to the forum prior to making any decision.

Anthony updated the forum on the recent customary forum committee. The forum raised concerns about the lack of compliance, not that fisheries officers were ineffective, but suggested the issue was that there was not enough of them.

The discussion shifted to artificial reefs with Anthony raising concern that artificial reefs can have negative effects on sediment and spat movement. He was concerned that artificial reefs are generally seen in a positive way, and that consideration was not given to the negative effects.

Fishplan updates

The next meeting of the North-west finfish plan will be held on the 24th June.

Date and location of next meetings

16th September 08 – Tauranga

18th November 08 - Auckland