MFish Update

“He pänui” Northern Region September 2006

Ohiwa Harbour and Mt Maunganui Temporary Closed Areas

Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton has agreed to renew the temporary closures of green-lipped mussel beds in Ohiwa Harbour and at Mt Maunganui. At Ohiwa the closure provides statutory support for a local traditional rähui over the area.

"The Ohiwa mussel beds are an important resource for the people of Te Runanga O Ngatï Awa and Upokorehe Hapu of Whakatohea." Jim Anderton says. "These beds have become depleted in recent years, and this has affected the ability of tangata whenua to take these shellfish for customary purposes."

The previous closure on taking green-lipped mussels from Ohiwa Harbour ran between December 2003 and December 2005, and was established under section 186A of the Fisheries Act.

However, the harbour's mussel beds are still depleted and have not yet recovered to a level where harvest would be sustainable. So the people of Te Runanga O Ngatï Awa and Upokorehe Hapu of Whakatohea extended their traditional rähui over harvesting from the beds and the Minister has closed the beds to harvesting for a further 2 years, beginning on July 21.

The situation is much the same at Mt Maunganui, and once again the Minister has decided to extend the closure, this time for 15 months, also starting on 21 July.

October Review of Sustainability Measures & Other Management Controls 2006

Sustainability Review October 2006

The July Bulletin summarised the items that the Ministry is reviewing at present. Submissions on the sustainability review closed on 31 July. MFish is due to give its final advice paper to the Minister during early September, with decisions due to be announced in late September, prior to the start of the fishing year on 1 October.

Regulatory Review April 2007

MFish is also reviewing whether to make the following proposed changes in fisheries regulations that are applicable in the northern North Island:

• Proposal to update guidelines for the setting and varying of deemed values used for balancing commercial catch at the end of a fishing year;
• Freshwater Eels – proposal to apply the South Island commercial eel maximum size limit (4 kgs) nationwide;
• Fifth Schedule – proposal to review species on the Fifth Schedule, which allows for 45% aggregation of quota shares;
• Inshore trawl form – proposal for a new form to replace existing inshore trawl catch and effort returns to provide better information;
• Catfish – final advice following earlier consultation on proposals to prohibit the possession of live catfish by recreational and/or commercial fishers (Note: Final advice paper to be released the same time as the above items final advice papers. The initial position paper and consultation was previously carried out in 2004).

The closing date for submissions on these proposals was 25 August 2006. Over the month of September, the Ministry will prepare its final advice paper for the Minister. The Minister is expected to make a decision on these proposals by the middle of October 2006, but they will not be implemented until April 2007 to allow time for regulatory amendments to be made.

Review of Recreational Regulations Round 2: 2006

The Ministry is also inviting comment on a further set of proposed changes to the regulations that apply to recreational fishing. They are:

• Whether undersize fish/ fish larger than minimum size/ tagged fish should be allowed to be taken and then released without being counted as part of a fisher’s daily bag limit;
• Introduce/change minimum legal sizes for:
• Gurnard – to 25cm
• Trumpeter – to 45cm
• Blue cod – to 30cm in the North Island
• Change the scallop season to begin on 1 September and end on 31 March (current season is 15 July – 14 February)

Closing date for submissions on these proposals is 8 September 2006.

Annual Research Planning Group meetings

Each year at this time the Ministry holds a series of research planning group meetings to identify the research needs for particular fisheries. These meetings are open for anyone to attend. Following discussion by each of the research planning groups, research proposals are considered by a Research Co-ordinating Committee before being formally consulted on in the New Year. Should decisions be made to carry out particular research projects, these normally start at the beginning of the following fishing year (ie, 1 October 2007 for proposals discussed at research planning group meetings in September/October 2006).

Upcoming Research Planning Group meetings for 2006 include:

Rock Lobster	4 September	Wellington
Inshore finfish	5 September	Wellington
Shellfish (mainly paua)	13 September	Wellington
Eels	15 September	Hamilton
Aquatic environment	18 & 19 September	Wellington
Shellfish	21 September	Wellington
Snapper	25 September	Auckland
Recreational	26 September	Auckland
Research Co-ordinating Committee	12 & 13 October	Wellington

Shared Fisheries Policy

The Shared Fish Project is aiming to provide more certainty to all fishers on how Total Allowable Catches will be allocated to customary, commercial and recreational fishers, in fisheries such as snapper that are “shared” between all three sectors. Subject to gaining Cabinet approval MFish is aiming to release a discussion document outlining ways that this could be done. After this the Ministry will be undertaking a series of activities to facilitate consultation, including:

• Posting the discussion document on the MFish website and providing a submission facility;
• Posting and emailing out the discussion document to a wide range of fishing organisations and individuals;
• Meeting with iwi and recreational forum groups;
• Holding public meetings in main centres.

A four-month consultation period on the discussion document is planned.

Consultation papers on the web

All of the papers that the Ministry is currently consulting on as part of the regulation reviews are available on the new Ministry of Fisheries website, at:

MFish Consultations section 

This site also lists everything that’s coming up for consultation in the next few months (including the Shared Fisheries proposals), so you can have a look and ask for any papers on issues that you would like to know more about.

There are also links to other pages including:

• The Status of New Zealand's Fisheries: created to inform the public about the sustainability of New Zealand's fisheries;
• Nabis: provides spatial & visual representations of our marine biological & fisheries management data;

• Starfish: a teacher & student resource with lots of information about New Zealand’s Fisheries

To view go to: http://www.fish.govt.nz

Coromandel scallop fish plan

A draft version of the fish plan MFish and stakeholders have been working on cooperatively over the last 8 months was sent to the Minister for his information in July 2006. More work has yet to be done to both confirm objectives for this fishery, and prioritise some of the suggested tools for better achieving them. Most stakeholders who have been involved have found that it is good to get around the table and talk with other sector groups, but they emphasise that it does require a lot of time and work from them. However, some innovative approaches are starting to be discussed, so it looks like the hard work from stakeholders should pay off in a better-managed fishery.

Northland scallop catch limit

Following consultation with fishery interests in the Northland scallop fishery, MFish is now preparing a final advice paper for the Minister on an in-season increase to the total allowable catch (TAC) for the stock. Recent research surveys indicate there has been a significant rebuild in scallop abundance following the low levels that occurred in the late 1990s due to tubeworm and black gill disease.