Editorial - Tuesday June 18, 2013

Fishing for the future

IT IS unfortunate that the recreational fishing lobby has reacted so negatively to a Ministry for Primary Industries review of the allowable catch of snapper within Snapper 1, which includes Northland's east coast. Under any circumstances it makes sense to reassess, some 15 years after it was last done, the impact current catch regulations are having in terms of protecting the stock, and imperative to do so if, as the ministry says, that catch is demonstrably unsustainable.

The recreational lobby group LegSea, an offshoot of the Sport Fishing Council, responded last week by predicting that the recreational daily limit of nine snapper per angler could be reduced by up to 40 per cent. Even if the limit was to be reduced to say half a dozen, that still represents a good day's fishing for the average person who's simply looking to feed their family. The argument becomes moot, however, if in fact the current take really is unsustainable. In that case the alternative to reducing the total taken would be to accept that one day there will be no snapper left to catch.

Other measures could be taken to protect the fishery's future, including increasing the minimum legal size and reducing the commercial catch. The ministry will doubtless be reluctant to countenance the latter, given that anything that reduces export income seems to have all but untouchable status in this country. Suggestions that the commercial catch be reduced by 10 per cent have reportedly been withdrawn already, even before the reassessment gets under way, which is not a good sign.

Hopefully, but don't hold your breath, the wastefulness of trawling for snapper will also be examined. LegSea claims, with a ring of truth, that "huge" numbers of snapper are being dumped because they are smaller than the legal minimum. We have yet to see incontrovertible evidence of that, but it will be a rare recreational fisherman who does not believe it, or at least suspect that that is happening.

The images we see on television from time to time certainly suggest that the average trawler net comes aboard full of very small fish, an impression that is reinforced by the sight of some of the fish available on the market. It is not unusual to see snapper fillets that are so tiny they are almost transparent, and even if the fish are of a legal size, netting them in vast quantities is clearly a wasteful means of catching them.

Some years ago a trawler ran aground on the beach at Ahipara, the owners sending out the call that anyone who wanted a feed was welcome to help themselves, given that the catch was otherwise destined to rot. If memory serves those snapper were tiny, legal perhaps but the size that many recreational fishermen would return to the water, and in many cases so badly crushed as to be unusable. Fishery management might have changed since then but the main means if catching snapper hasn't, and it is unlikely that there has been any improvement in the proportion that are damaged beyond use as anything but cat food before they hit the deck.

If the management of the snapper fishery in Snapper 1 is to be reassessed, this would be a good time for the ministry to look at how fish are being taken, how much of the catch is either being dumped because the fish are too small or are being landed in a state that makes them unfit for human consumption.

A proper monitoring process would obviously cost money, which the ministry will say it doesn't have, but a hugely valuable resource is at stake here, valuable not only in terms of potential export earnings but also of the customary rights of Maori and the God-given right every New Zealander believes he/she has to catch snapper for the table.

Hopefully the ministry will also lift the minimum size, significantly. A snapper that measures 27 centimetres from nose to the V of the tail is not a big fish, and should be returned to the water. Kaitaia's 90 Mile Beach Captain Morgan Snapper Bonanza sets a greater minimum size than that, as did the Snapper Classic before it, and it would be no great imposition to demand that recreational and commercial fishers alike return more to the water than they currently are.

The problem in terms of trawling is that once the fish are in the net their die is cast, however. Without having intimate knowledge of the trawling industry, it would seem reasonable to believe that very few snapper caught in nets would be in any condition to go back into the water once they have been found to be too small. Smaller snapper that take a hook can also suffer damage that makes returning them to the water pointless, but lifting the minimum size to say 35 centimetres would do no harm. At the very least it would give those who ignore it reason to fear the appearance of a Fisheries officer.

The other problem for the ministry, however, is that it has no idea of how many snapper are being taken recreationally, or any ability to enforce the nominal total recreational catch. It can calculate the catch only by guessing how people go fishing on any given day and how many snapper they go home with. It is a given that many recreational fishers go home with far fewer than nine snapper, but it would be foolish not to believe that others take more, in some cases many more.

It's all a matter of guesswork, but currently recreational and customary fishers are entitled to an annual catch of 2,600 tonnes from Snapper 1; in 2011/12 they reportedly took 3,800 tonnes, although how the ministry knows that is anyone's guess. The ministry has some knowledge, obviously, based on occasional surveys and on the findings of Fisheries officers, who maintain a relatively high profile in some areas, such as the Hauraki Gulf, and very little in others, such as the entire Far North. Truth be told, the ministry doesn't have a clue how many snapper are being taken, and may not have a much better idea regarding how many are still waiting to be caught.

Recreational lobbyists say daily catch returns show snapper stocks are improving, while the ministry says they are well below the target for long-term sustainability in the Bay of Plenty, Hauraki Gulf and Northland. Somewhat confusingly, the Minister says overall the stock is growing and in good health. Snapper numbers overall had risen 70 per cent over the last 15 to 25 years, but were still only half the current management target. Mr Guy will launch a consultation process next month, promising that the status quo will be among the options, perhaps combined with a reduced recreational daily limit and an increase in the total recreational catch. Presumably he expects more people to go fishing for fewer fish, but how the ministry might monitor that, given its total lack of control over who goes fishing where, will remain one of life's mysteries.

The priority must be that the snapper fishery is protected. No one wants to see snapper in the same catchbag as paua, which seem likely to be harvested to extinction while everyone fights over their fair share. Most fishermen, surely, would be happy to go home with half a dozen decent-sized snapper, and more of other species, and would prefer to stop at six than not catch any at all.