NORTHLAND NON-COMMERCIAL FORUM
Date: 5 March 2008
Venue: Copthorne Hotel, Waitangi (Paihia)
Time: 4.00pm to 8.00pm
Present:
John Holdsworth, John Chibnall, Simon Howard, John Torr, Geoff Stone, Ron Fenwick, Des Subritzsky, Graeme Heapy, Doug McColl, Darren Edwards (MFish), Murray Bruges (MFish), Kaye van der Straten (MFish), Tracey Smith (MFish).
Apologies:
Paul Batten, Hamish Faire, Richard Civil, John Taunton-Clark (MFish).
1. OPENING THE MEETING
Meeting opened by Murray Bruges and round table introductions completed. One new forum participant present – Tracey Smith from the North-West Inshore team based at MFish, Auckland.
2. MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MINUTES
MFish clarified comments from the last meeting regarding whether the level of spawning biomass affects recruitment (with particular regard to snapper and grey mullet stocks). Some forum members voiced their discomfort that MFish stock assessments consider recruitment to be independent of spawning biomass, and that successful recruitment is more dependent on environmental conditions. It was suggested that this is an issue that can be addressed through the upcoming fisheries planning process.
MFish reported on grey mullet spawning behaviour – spawning in mullet species (including grey mullet) occurs outside harbours in deeper saline waters. Some forum members dispute this, based on their catches of grey mullet upriver within freshwater and within harbours in what they believe is full spawning condition (plenty of roe).
The remaining minutes from the previous meeting in Whangarei were approved.
Action
- Forum comments regarding snapper and grey mullet recruitment and biomass to be passed onto the convenors of the north-east and north-west finfish plans.
- To confirm the spawning behaviour of grey mullet, and provide a reason as to why mullet in possible spawning condition have been found within harbours and freshwater areas.
3. GREY MULLET
Forum concerned about the sustainability of east coast grey mullet catches. Fishers believe that increasing catches demonstrate signs of stock recovery on the east coast this year, and are concerned that commercial fishers might specifically target east coast grey mullet and cause local depletion issues as has occurred in the past.
Action
- Provide forum members with information regarding catch trends on the east coast.
4. CHARTER BOAT REPORTING
MFish informed forum that a pre-consultation meeting on charter boat reporting will be held on the 31st March. Members discussed their concerns that charter boat reporting may result in a decreased entitlement for charter fishers. It is a primary concern of this forum that charter boat customers retain the same catch rights/limits as all other recreational fishers. There is also a concern that charter boat Reporting may require registration fees – it would not be viewed as fair by the forum members if MFish was to charge charter boats for the collection of their data. John Holdsworth informed the forum that he has already provided a submission to MFish on these concerns.
Action
- To keep the forum updated with the progress of the charter boat consultation process.
5. RECREATIONAL HARVEST ESTIMATES
MFish provided information to the forum regarding Recreational Harvest Estimates, which outline the upcoming research tenders for estimating recreational harvests. The forum is keen to find out how funding is allocated to recreational research priorities.
Action
- Provide forum members with information regarding the amount of funding and the currently allocated to recreational fishing research and upcoming recreational research projects.
6. AUCTIONING TOURNAMENT CAUGHT FISH
MFish reported back to the forum about the rules for auctioning tournament caught fish. The tournament organisers must obtain a MFish licence from their District Compliance Manager, and the auction must only benefit a charity – not a person or a club.
7. TOURNAMENT RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE PARTICIPANTS
The forum raised concerns about the number of people that enter and fish within fishing tournaments, and the localised depletion impacts of high numbers of fishers (and the removal of large numbers of large fish) in a short time period. Forum members feel that tournament organisers are in a good position to educate competitors about hook sizes, number of hooks, release procedures, size/weight limits, space restrictions, number of fish allowed per person etc.
Action
- Forum may wish to take this further and discuss with other regional non-commercial forums.
8. KAHAWAI LEGAL CHALLENGE UPDATE
John Holdsworth
The appeal was held last week, with arguments around how the current management settings fit with the purpose of the Fisheries Act. The Crown put in a written submission which refuted the commercial argument. The next update is due in April following results of the review on the stock status of kahawai and allocations.
Action
- Provide forum members with further updates as information becomes available.
9. COMPLIANCE UPDATE
Darren Edwards
Compliance work tends to be concentrated on recreational fishing compliance over the summer period. The numbers of Toheroa are concerning, and there continues to be some unregulated harvesting (without customary permit). In regions further north, the use of a Rahui has helped reduce poaching quite significantly.
From the 1st of April, net stalling will be illegal within the Kaipara Harbour. There have been a few issues of recreational harvesting of soft-shelled crayfish. Most fishers have been very compliant with fish size limits, with few undersize fish found.
The compliance team has been putting quite a lot of effort into monitoring the commercial fishers of Northland, and there are a few prosecutions coming up in the near future. The recent trend is for most of the commercially caught fish from Northland being transported for processing in Auckland. This might result in a decreasing local commercial fleet, with smaller boats leaving the fishery.
There is increasing inter-agency compliance work (with Police and Customs), and these collaborations will be ongoing. Project Protector will enable compliance to monitor out to the 12 nautical mile line.
There are some customary issues with some offenders ignoring the courts system.
The compliance team has 20 Honorary Fisheries Officers (HFOs) in the Far North. Currently there are only 4 within the Bay of Islands and they are looking for another if anyone knows of someone who may be interested.
The West Coast scallop season has now been altered to be inline with the East Coast season.
10. MEMBER UPDATES
SH: - Mullet numbers and sizes are up this year, there are lots of young fish in the waters which is encouraging. Trevally have arrived, and fishing for kahawai and flounder is good. John dory have been suspiciously absent from recent catches. There is some concern about beach seiners arriving and their possible effects on local abundance.
DMc: - There have been a number of fish caught within Doubtless Bay tournaments recently. Can current and historical tournament data be used to infer trends in recreational catches over time? Possibly worth a look at the data given the issues with short time periods, subjectivity of effort, and ability to compare data across areas/time. Does MFish currently do anything with this data?
Murray responded by noting that changing minimum sizes, tournament dates and other variables are likely to confound any trends in the catch records of tournaments.
GS: - Overall the fishery is performing well, particularly snapper and kingfish. The marlin season has been mixed this year, with an unusually high number of blue marlin and mahimahi catches on the east coast (La Niña pattern), and most of the striped marlin taken from the west coast. There is some issue with learned behaviour of bronze whalers that are consistently taking caught kingfish from line fishers. Questions whether this is an increasingly obvious learned behaviour of certain sharks, or an indication of increased numbers of bronze whalers generally (these reports are echoed from the HGBOP Recreational Forum).
JH: - Nothing much to report, not a lot of time spent on the water. Reported to members about the recent tagging symposium in Auckland.
RF: - Both finfish and scallops have performed well this year, although snapper catches have provided smaller specimens recently than earlier in the season. There has been a lot of gurnard caught, but this may be due to increased use of soft baits and drift fishing practices.
DS: - Catches have been good for snapper, school shark and gurnard. There have been more catches of mullet and flounder, but not particularly large sizes. Trevally catches have been limited. Asian date mussels are proving an issue for net fishers.
GH: - The pinnacles region has had a lot of snapper with broken hooks within mouths. Also, the numbers of bronze whalers spotted by spearfishers at Cape Brett has greatly increased over the past few years. Many reports of bronze whaler attention to spearfishers competing in the National Champs recently.
JT: - Whangarei harbour has been fishing well, with good snapper catches. There are some local concerns regarding council aquaculture proposals for areas that are currently good recreational fishing spots.
Action
- MFish to find out what kind of analyses are completed on tournament catch data, and the usefulness/limitations of these to recreational harvest estimates.
- MFish will enquire with shark scientists whether there is any information available about bronze whaler behaviour and recent population trends around NZ coastline. Confirm Rick Pollock’s Whakatane observations.
11. FISHERIES PLAN UPDATES
The second meeting of the Northland Scallops Advisory Group has been completed. The group is still working through the Information Brief and developing methods of characterising the fishery before developing objectives.
Action
- Provide forum members with continued updates on current and upcoming Fisheries Plans.
12. RECREATIONAL REGULATORY REVIEW PROCESS
MFish and the Recreational Fishing Council are due to start a process to review the recreational regulations in the near future. Any suggestions on rules that could be reviewed to be forwarded to Murray Bruges, who will forward these on behalf of the Forum to the convenors of the process.
Action
- Forward onto the Recreational Review Group:
- Reduce the bag limit for bluenose
- Reduce the bag limit for grey mullet
13. SHARED FISHERIES
The joint stakeholder working group (of SeaFIC, TOKM & NZRFC) met in Auckland for the first time on 30 January. They are now close to confirming their position on the funding agreement, terms of reference and priorities for the operation of the working group. Option4 and Big Game Fishing Council are now represented on the steering group. Informal approaches indicate that the group will be pushed to meet the 30 April deadline for their report back (they have been tasked with recommending how shared fisheries should be managed, policy change requirements etc).
Action
- Provide forum members with continued updates on the Shared Fisheries process.
14. MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
The MPA Draft Classification Standard was provided to all forum members. A planning forum will be developed with approximately 14 people from a wide variety of stakeholder backgrounds, and meetings will be by appointment. This process is due to start shortly.
Action
- Provide forum members with continued updates on the MPA process.
DATE FOR NEXT MEETING
To be advised.