About 200 people turned up to a meeting in Awanui organised by Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones on how kina barrens in the Far North can be dealt with.
A new regime to deal with the destructive issue of kina barrens could be in place before summer, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones says, after a Far North public meeting on the issue.
Jones held a public talk at Awanui Hotel last week on how kina barrens in the Far North can be dealt with, and was humbled to have more than 200 people turn up to listen to his talk and give feedback and ideas on how they felt the issue should be handled.
Kina barrens, a major issue in the Far North and elsewhere, are a sure sign that marine life is badly out of balance. A kina barren is an area that has been depleted of all life — except for kina. This is largely due to overfishing and the rapid reproduction of kina due to sea temperatures rising. Kina barrens can devastate entire coastlines.
Fisheries New Zealand is seeking feedback on two proposed measures to help address kina barrens and rebalance local ecosystems. The proposals include a new special permit for targeted culling, harvesting or translocation of kina and long-spined sea urchins, and options to increase recreational daily bag limits for kina in the Auckland East Fisheries Management Area, which includes Northland’s east coast.
Consultations on the proposals close on May 20, and Jones said the changes would help communities tackle the long-standing problem of kina barrens.
Jones said having so many people turn out to the talk was impressive and showed how deeply Far North folk felt about the issue and how important it was to solve.
He said the attendees raised three main issues — a fear that increasing catch limits would lead to a greater black market; the ecological imbalance, which, if addressed, would lead to more big snapper and big crayfish that would eat the kina; and that the Crown should provide funding to communities and hapu to cull kina in their areas.
Jones said any permits issued for taking unlimited kina would be for specifically identified grid locations that could be monitored.
“It won’t be an open season everywhere,” he said.
Regarding the ecological imbalance, he said there was no plan to limit taking big snapper or crays because research showed they were in abundant supplies in the wild.
Jones said there were also no plans at present to fund communities or hapū to carry out kina culls.
He said a temporary lifting of the rahui at Maitai Bay in November had more than 1000 kina removed in a few hours to help battle the kina barren blanketing the bay. This showed how big the issue was and how communities in the Far North, and elsewhere, wanted solutions.
“Our beloved kai are proving to be a pest and mahi needs to done to protect other marine life,” Jones said.
He said one bright spot was that the situation could lead to commercially grown and harvested kina, and somebody at the meeting suggested using the old kingfish farm at Parengarenga to do so.
“That’s [an area] worth exploring.”
Jones said once feedback on the proposals was received, it would be analysed and he would prepare a paper to go before Cabinet.
“I’d like to think we can get regulations in place before summer,” he said.
Dr Kelsey Miller and Associate Professor Nick Shears, of Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, made presentations to last week’s meeting.
“We support Fisheries New Zealand in their efforts to understand and manage kina barrens, but note the two proposed measures address the symptom by actively managing kina numbers rather than addressing the cause of kina barrens: overfishing of kina predators like crayfish and snapper,” the pair said.
“Nevertheless, active kina control can be a useful part of kelp restoration efforts. A new special permit purpose specific to restoration will support individuals, communities, and hapū looking to restore kelp in kina barrens. However, as kina are taonga and of commercial value, we support requirements for engagement, and development of a removal plan and monitoring prior to removal activities.”
For kelp to recover, kina densities must be reduced below 1 kina/sq m, regardless of removal method (harvest or culling). To be effective, kina removals must be systematic on large areas to prevent kina from returning, so specifically designed special permits would be the most effective strategy to ensure restoration goals are met. Increasing recreational catch limits has limited potential for reducing kina barren extent because harvest from barrens is unlikely given the poor quality of these kina as kai, and the large effort required to achieve desired density reductions on meaningful scales, they said.
“While kina removal is extremely effective in rapidly restoring kelp, we want to emphasise that removing kina does not address the underlying cause of high kina densities, and therefore is not a solution on its own.
“Changing the recreational bag limit will have limited-to-no consequences for the creation of sea urchin barrens. Kina numbers need to be reduced down to below 1 per metre square to have any ability to reverse kina barrens back to kelp forest states.
“We know from research conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad that reducing fishing pressure on sea urchin predators such as lobster and snapper is the best way to prevent the formation of sea urchin barrens.”
Jones said the academics’ presentations were interesting, but as a minister he had to operate with the financial constraints of the portfolio.