Whitebaiters, take note: the future of Hawke's Bay's whitebait populations lies in your hands.
The 2016 season begins this Monday, August 15, and the Department of Conservation is asking whitebaiters to brush up on the regulations before they set their nets.
"The whitebait season dates and fishing hours are set to give whitebait the opportunity to return to their spawning grounds," says Hawke's Bay biodiversity ranger Dan Winchester.
"When people don't follow those regulations, it harms whitebait populations to a point where they may not recover."
Whitebait, the tiny, transparent young of several native fish species, are currently in decline across the country.
Regulations including season dates and hours, the requirement that whitebaiters stay with their nets and the one net per whitebaiter limit are in place to help combat this decline.
"Protecting whitebait species is at the core of what we're doing," Mr. Winchester says.
"We want you to be able to go whitebaiting in the future.
"We want you to share it with your family and whānau, so we need you to respect these regulations. Whitebaiting is a longstanding tradition for the Hawke's Bay community, and we're keen to keep it that way."
Beginning August 15, whitebaiting is permitted between 5am and 8pm until Sunday, September 25 (daylight savings).
From that date until the season closes on November 30, permitted hours are 6am to 9pm.
DOC rangers will be patrolling whitebaiting sites and talking to whitebaiters throughout the season to ensure people are complying with the regulations. Offending whitebaiters may be fined up to $5000 and can lose their equipment.
Forty-eight nets were seized along the East Coast in 2015. Mr Winchester says that the Hawke's Bay district's compliance rangers are hoping not to have a repeat season of high offence numbers.
- Information on current regulations is in a regulations pamphlet, at local sporting shops or by visiting www.doc.govt.nz/whitebaiting