Catch reductions cause concern
The fishing industry has criticised a decision by caretaker Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope to reduce the total allowable catch (TAC) for kahawai.
In late September, Mr Benson-Pope announced the sustainability measures and other management controls for the 1 October 2005 fishing year in which the TAC for kahawai was reduced by 10 percent.
“Kahawai is important to our recreational and customary fishers; it is also a significant commercial species,” said Mr Benson Pope. “I have been persuaded of the benefits of a faster and more certain rebuild of kahawai, and in having greater certainty that this species will not decline.”
The TAC for the North Island west coast snapper fishery (SNA 8) was also reduced from 2060 tonnes to 1785 tonnes to “allow the fishstock to rebuild more quickly”, the Minister said. He said the harvest reduction would be shared between all users of the fishery, and lowered the recreational daily bag limit in the northern part of SNA8 by five fish to 10, bringing it in line with the southern area of SNA8.The Minister also increased the penalty rate (annual deemed value) payable by commercial fishers in the snapper (SNA 8) fishery.
No changes were made to the annual TAC of grey mullet, rig or flatfish in the northern North Island region.
Te Ohu Kaimoana participated in the consultation round by providing submissions on the MFish Initial Position Papers (IPPs) for the management of the quota stock, and did not support a reduction of the Snapper 8 TAC because the fishstock was rebuilding at a rate consistent with the Minister's responsibilities.
In its submission to Mfish, Te Ohu Kaimoana said that recreational fishers were exceeding the catch and a bag limit was a step in the right direction. “Only more stringent monitoring combined with real penalties for exceeding the limit will address the problem,” Te Ohu Kaimoana senior policy analyst Kirsty Woods said.
As stated in its submission, Te Ohu Kaimoana believes that the Ministry based its decisions regarding kahawai on evidence supplied by recreational fishers rather than the long-term studies provided by industry.
The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council (SeaFIC) said that while it was pleased the Minister's decisions reflected the importance of sharing responsibility for sustainable management between all fishing sectors – commercial, recreational and customary fisheries – the reduction of 10 percent was unnecessary.
“[It's] very disappointing as there are no credible sustainability concerns in this fishery. The decision is completely inequitable in its effect on fishers. Although the TAC cut applies to all sectors its only impact in terms of reduced catches will be on the commercial sector, as no additional management measures are proposed to reduce the take of the non-commercial sectors.”
It is good to see that common sense has prevailed with the Northern North Island grey mullet, flatfish and rig, Mr Symmans said, and agrees that local access concerns cannot be addressed by changing the TAC.
With regard to the decision to reduce the Snapper 8 TAC, Mr Symmans said the TAC cut will have significant economic impacts for the industry and those companies that take snapper as part of their catch.
“At least the Minister has agreed that it is appropriate for all sectors to ‘share the pain' in securing a faster rebuild of the fishery,” he said
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