Northland Regional Recreational Forum – Second Meeting
14 February 2006
Venue: Bay of Islands Swordfish Club, Paihia
Time: 4.15 pm
Present:
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John Torr
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Craig Worthington
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John Holdsworth
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Paul Batten
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Simon Howard
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Graeme Heapy
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Steve Radich
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Des Subritsky
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Doug McColl
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John Chibnall
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Stephanie Hill
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Todd Sylvester
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Robin Connor
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Ian Bright
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Harvey Fergusson
Previous meeting
The meeting notes from the previous meeting were accepted, although Paul commented he would like to see more formal records in future.
Availability of notes / contact details
The group briefly discussed having the meeting notes available on-line, along with members’ names/contact details. There was general agreement that this would be useful.
Action:
Regional Update: Members
- Graeme congratulated the Ministry on recent changes made to the recreational regulations for mussels and scallops (allowing shucking at sea; divers taking additional bag limits of scallops and dredge oysters for up to two safety people; allowing take/possession of mussels with SCUBA). He commented there are a lot of mussels in the Bay of Islands.
- Ministry pamphlets on the changes to the regulations were distributed, along with the process for determining further recreational regulations to be reviewed.
- Craig observed a lot of kingfish just under legal size; there is a high charter boat presence, although they are complying with the size limit. He had caught a mako, after not having seen one for a long time. Plenty of other sharks e.g. bronze whalers, hammerheads. Snapper patchy.
- Paul: kahawai difficult over last two years. Huge reduction in size over time (as seen looking at past catch records). Limited size range of snapper either above or below the 1-2.5kg range. Trevally common. Sharks very limited.
Anger about Dr Glaister’s letter to the Northern Advocate.
Specific question about drag netting at Parengarenga Harbour.
- Doug: Successful Lions fishing contest took place over Anniversary weekend. $9000 made auctioning fish. 560 anglers were involved, and landed 1,500kgs of snapper (both east and west coast). Heaviest snapper was 9.99kg; average weight 2.15kg. Kingfish: 37kg was the heaviest; several around 24-27kgs.
The Doubtless Bay Protection Group has had a public meeting about goals for the bay. Some want a marine reserve to help build up fish stocks. Doug had argued that is not the purpose of a marine reserve. A DOC project has recently been done to survey the bay.
-Des: is involved with Guardians of the Kaipara. Have been unsuccessful with the Minister so far. Is hearing the message back that they are trying to keep it just for the locals, but disputes that is the case. Sees the problem as being that quotas are too high in the harbour, particularly for flounder and mullet. There is limited commercial fishing for other stocks e.g. snapper, kahawai, trevally. Recreational fishers in the harbour mainly target snapper, or big game fishing off the coast.
- John C. is also in favour of the changes to the recreational regulations. Agrees with Craig’s summary of fishing in the area.
- Simon is interested in the impact of water quality on fisheries in the Bay of Islands.
Concerned about volume of development, traffic etc in the Bay. Would like to see boat registration to have information on recreational fishing pressure.
- Harvey Fergusson noted from his experience a decrease in larger boats, but big increase in trailer boats.
Simon notes very limited garfish in the last few years, and no juvenile garfish or trevally.
- John T: snapper very patchy in Whangarei. Noted a late wave of spawning fish coming into the harbour. He had been seeing piper (garfish). No trevally catches in the harbour. String rays in harbour. Fishing good round outer islands for gurnard, john dory. General impression from people that fishing is hard. No sharks; no kahawai boil-ups.
Worried about impact of Furuno fishing competition 3-4 March and potential local depletion. The target area for competition is about half what it was when competition was held in Hauraki Gulf.
New boat ramp at One Tree Point.
- Steve: has seen small schools of kahawai in the Bay of Islands. Snapper fishing difficult. Smaller fish winning tournaments now – average size of fish coming down.
Disappointed with decrease of west coast snapper bag limit – because access to fishery is so dependent on weather, people may like to take more for food when fishing is good; therefore sees reduction as having big impact on people. Debated round the group – some still see 10 as a reasonable quantity.
Catching marlin and yellow fin off west coast, and have been for a few years. Unsure about garfish – have heard from someone who is happy with availability, although didn’t agree himself. Kahawai patchy.
- John H (by email): Snapper are small; larger fish have been hard to find. Kahawai schools are sporadic. The few that were around at Christmas have gone. Marlin and tuna fishing is patchy along with water temperature/colour, despite easterly conditions. Tuatua have come back in some areas.
Summary actions from members’ regional update:
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Follow up drag netting question with Paul.
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Provide information on total number of commercial fishers who have fished in the Kaipara Harbour in the last few years.
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Characterise garfish fishery in Northland (any commercial fishing, volume, past catches, science info etc. Is any information available on impact of water quality?).
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Ministry to investigate whether what information is available about volume of fish taken at previous fishing competitions, and whether it has caused localised depletion.
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Ministry to check whether feasibility of using existing club catch records has been assessed – is there a possibility of a research project to access this data?
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Summarise information on east coast snapper fishery (of interest to most members).
Regional Update: MFish
1. Recreational regulation review.
Craig wants the kingfish bag limit to be reduced to one, because there is plenty of eating on a single kingfish. Agreement from Simon, but suggestion this may be more of a local issue. General discussion about how an idea could get advanced for review – canvassing views of other recreational fishers, checking to see what sort of consensus there is etc.
2. Marine protected areas
Handout on MPA policy and implementation plan discussed.
Questions:
3. Sustainability reviews
Discussion of outcome of review of grey mullet. Some members raised concerns about compliance (blackmarket problems). Problem with review was that existing tools were not appropriate for local management (versus stock level management).
4. Website
5. Compliance update (Harvey Fergusson)
There has been quick public uptake on the changes to the recreational regulations. From Harvey’s perspective, greater pressure on scallops and mussels is likely as a result of the changes.
It has been one of the quietest summers for compliance. Some undersize scallops; very rarely undersize snapper. Harvey feels people are increasingly conservation-minded (which Simon linked to education).
West coast paua still a problem; shellfish beds in some places hit hard.
Notes there is very little commercial fishing in the Bay of Islands, and overall probably half as many boats/fishers in the north as 10 years ago.
Summary actions from MFish regional update:
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Send full copy of MPA policy and implementation plan to those who requested it.
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Provide information to John Torr on whether/how the new marine reserve in Whangarei harbour will be marked.
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Clarify what information is available on website – especially link through to “Plenary” document that summarises most recent science information and gives catch histories for the commercial fishery.
Shared fisheries project (Robin Connor)
Robin Connor from the policy team led discussion based around the document ‘Notes for Recreational Fishing Forum Meetings
January-February 2006 – Shared Fisheries Policy Initiative.’ Key issues and challenges discussed include:
1. Criteria and processes for setting the total allowable catch – i.e. management objectives in relation to where the overall catch limit is set (given that the overall catch limit contributes to availability and size of fish for recreational fishers).
Forum members felt that the quality of information on which catch limits are based is important. In particular, where information is uncertain, members would like to see more conservative decisions about catch limits.
2. Increased certainty in allocation of the total allowable catch (setting and adjusting customary, recreational and commercial shares) while maintaining flexibility for responding to changing demands (e.g. population).
Discussion included how you could fairly assess the history of a fishery as part of moving forwards.
3. More accessible management tools to allow for the enhancement of non-commercial values.
4. Effective management measures to ensure there are appropriate incentives for commercial and recreational take to be maintained within their share.
The forum discussed problems they felt the current system has for keeping commercial catches within the limits. Problems with deemed values include access to catch entitlements for smaller companies; and no correspondence between overcatch in one year, and the catch limit in the subsequent year.
5. More cost-effective and reliable information on non-commercial catch and participation rates.
The forum discussed ways of getting better information on recreational fishing usage and catch rates/volumes. For example, could use club records (historical series); charter boat reporting; fishing competition records.
Actions:
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Provide more information on how recreational fishing data is currently collected, what different methods have been tried etc.
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Provide information on whether/how club records etc could be used.
Next meeting:
There was agreement that a full-day meeting would be useful for next time – part of that time to be spent in ‘internal’ discussions amongst forum members, and part with Ministry presence (including Robin Connor). The intention of the second part of the meeting would be both to discuss the outcomes of the morning session, and also to have some of the same functions as one of the normal forum meetings (e.g. a brief update on what else the Ministry is doing).
Discussion about whether to have the meeting on a weekday or weekend, and in either Whangarei or Paihia. Suggestion was to meet on one of the weekends after Easter:
Action: