Fishers have nothing to fear from West Coast marine park

By JACI FOWLER*

Aucklanders love the coast. More than any other major city in New Zealand, we are the city by the sea. So it's great that management of our coasts is being debated so thoroughly. That's how it should be.

The West Coast Working Group has been grappling with ideas on the management of the Auckland west coast for the past two years, trying to develop an integrated approach to the management of the coast so that the needs of both recreation and the environment can be met.

The working group is diverse. It includes conservationists, recreational fishers, government agencies and iwi. It is not a Forest and Bird project, although Forest and Bird is providing help.

The working group has developed options that look at safeguarding sustainable recreational uses, including fishing, and a thriving marine environment where fish and all wildlife are abundant. We believe most Aucklanders would love to protect the environment and participate in their favourite recreation.

While some are point blank opposed to marine reserves, some have taken a broader view.

Recreational fisher and board member of the Recreational Fishing Council, Keith Ingram, recently said in the Herald that marine reserves were "but one tool to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. They cannot be allowed to become the only tool or the tool of first choice if suitable alternatives are available".

The West Coast Working Group agrees. Our April 2003 draft proposal for a marine park on Auckland's west coast is in line with this way of thinking.

The group proposes a marine park from the South Kaipara Head down to Port Waikato. This park is not a marine reserve and people will still be able to fish.

Commercial fishers would be moved out to four nautical miles from the shore, and that will benefit recreational fishers who would not have to compete with them.

The park would help to safeguard the quality of recreational fishing on Auckland's west coast and that's why the knee-jerk reactions of some recreational fishers are so counterproductive.

The proposed park would have an elected advisory board made up of all stakeholders, giving the entire area a concerted approach to marine management and greater political clout. That can only be good for the Auckland west coast.

The fact that many local residents are still arguing the same old case about lack of enforcement of rules and policing on the west coast shows that nothing much has changed through the efforts of many locals for many years. This is one reason why the working group believes a stronger and more unified voice is needed.

Recreational fishers have asked the Government to look at alternatives to marine reserves in certain situations. Here they have an opportunity. I hope they support it. Responsible users of the coast know that better management of the marine environment is needed. But it appears that a small number of others are against all efforts to help to protect the environment, even those that work in their favour.

A number of meetings held by the working group have uncovered fears among recreational fishers, who believe the entire west coast may be turned from a marine park into a marine reserve overnight.

Despite the group's efforts to inform recreational fishers that the proposed marine park legislation would not allow for this, some seem unprepared to listen.

This park will require its own legislation in the same way as the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

The proposed marine park would not control private land or the foreshore. The proposed boundary will be from mean high water springs to four nautical miles seaward.

However, the working party hopes the parks advisory group would work with local authorities to help to ensure that adjacent land development and activities are planned in a sustainable manner.

The advisory board would not have the power to make decisions or prohibitions over the use of private or public land.

These matters would be decided upon through the usual council processes.

So if you are one of the people who love the Auckland west coast - whether recreational fisher, dog owner, surfer or conservationist - the marine park may be just what you are looking for; a mechanism that would protect the coast but allow fishing.

* Jaci Fowler is a member of the West Coast Working Group, proponents of a West Coast marine park.