15,000km of coastline and we're running out of fish

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

New Zealand is running out of its favourite fish.

Multimillion-dollar-earning hoki and the prized snapper are among the severely depleted stocks of the fish we catch, eat and export.

And the $1.2 billion commercial fishing industry - New Zealand's fourth-largest export earner - faces possible cuts in quota so stocks can regenerate, the Weekend Herald has learned.

Reduced bag limits for recreational fishermen are also possible.

The bad news will be delivered to new Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope once a report on diminishing fish supplies is completed next week.

He faces tough decisions over quota for fish such as hoki, the biggest export-earning species - worth $220 million last year - after previous catch reductions failed to halt its decline.

Other stocks thought to be in trouble include hake (a deepwater fish mainly caught with hoki), oreo dory (a long-lived deepwater species) and rig (shark or lemonfish, often sold for fish and chips here and in Australia).

The top 10 export stocks make up 80 per cent of export sales.

Snapper numbers off the North Island's west coast have plummeted to half the level considered the lowest needed to allow fishing at present rates.

It had been hoped that the west coast snapper fishery would rebuild by 2007, but that is now unlikely to happen before 2018.

Figures such as these will put pressure on the Government to reassess its quota management system.

New figures show:

* As little as 2 per cent of snapper are older than 10 years, compared with a quarter 20 years ago.

* Western stocks of hoki could be as low as 13 to 22 per cent of the original fishery - 20 per cent is the danger level for sustainable fishing.

* Southland oreo, worth $20.5 million in exports last year, are estimated to be at 30 per cent of original stock, and are projected to decline to 26 per cent in two more years.

Ministry of Fisheries chief scientist John Anala would not comment on the stock assessment work because "things might change".

Last night few in the fishing industry would discuss the findings.

Although the report's figures are based on snapshots of areas, they are likely to indicate the national situation, as surveys are conducted on a rolling basis.

The eastern hoki fishery, around the Chatham Rise and in Cook Strait, looks in good shape, but western hoki quota may have to be reduced from 180,000 tonnes to between 100,000 and 140,000 tonnes.

Recreational Fishing Council president Ross Gildon said snapper fishing on the west coast had "turned to rubbish".

He said hobby fishers were urging a "precautionary" approach, but the industry was taking the maximum sustainable yield on research that was at best a "guesstimate".

Hoki was another case where the huge tonnages being caught were depleting the fishery.

"We don't believe the research is adequate to justify such high tonnages in the hoki fishery," Mr Gildon said.

Fishers are expected to strongly oppose quota cuts.

Forest and Bird spokesman Barry Weeber, who has been involved in considering the stock assessments, said the Fisheries Ministry had relied too heavily on the quota management system (QMS), brought in in 1986, to keep fish stocks at harvestable levels.

"I think fisheries managers have been smug about the QMS and haven't looked closely enough at the stocks," he said.

"The ministry seems to restructure itself every year, rather than sorting out how to deal with the information it has and reduce the impact of fisheries on the environment."

Leigh Fisheries chief executive Greg Bishop said snapper was a prolific fish, and the main snapper fishery off the North Island east coast from East Cape to Cape Reinga was in good shape.

But Mr Weeber said the eastern area had not been surveyed for four years.

The minister will make decisions on the report by August after a briefing from officials next month.