Kaipara study paints grim picture

By ARNOLD PICKMERE

A groundbreaking report on fishing troubles in the Kaipara, by far the country's biggest harbour, will this month finally hit the desk of the Minister of Fisheries, Pete Hodgson.

Three years in preparation, it will tell the minister that fish stocks in the 65km-long Kaipara, just north of Auckland, are in trouble.

Research by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) confirms that commercial catches of flatfish, grey mullet, and dogfish (rig) are falling.

Shellfish beds - pipi, cockles and scallops - are becoming depleted. There is wide support for immediately closing the harbour's scallop beds, in particular, for two years.

The serious depletion of the West Coast snapper fishery over the years has also affected snapper in the Kaipara, often described as a nursery for young fish. Snapper caught in the harbour are usually only a bycatch for commercial fishermen.

The past decade has seen increased competition and conflict, including threats and vandalism, between people fishing the harbour.

In simple terms, the evidence points to more people spending more effort trying to catch fewer fish.

The most controversial suggestion by the Kaipara Harbour Sustainable Fisheries Management Group, whose 12 members represent a wide cross-section of community and fishing interests, will be to make the 500sq km harbour a separate quota management area, possibly with a kind of permit system.

At present the Kaipara is part of a huge quota area of sea surrounding the top half of the North Island.

Evidence suggests an increasing proportion of the catch allocations for the whole area are being caught in the Kaipara, even though catches in the harbour are falling. It is easy to fish in bad weather and close to the Auckland market and port.

The group's report will also offer the minister a raft of suggestions on making fishing in the harbour sustainable. These include using shorter nets with bigger meshes to allow fish to grow to larger minimum sizes - and breed more effectively.

Another idea is to get people fishing recreationally to use hooks too big to be taken by juvenile snapper.

The group has rejected the idea of rahui or fishing bans in parts of the harbour as simply transferring fishing pressure elsewhere. And it has already suggested that doing nothing is a high-risk option with likely unfavourable consequences, including more conflict for harbour space. SEE ALSO


Tough fishing

Catches in the Kaipara Harbour are falling.

A report will suggest big changes in its fishery management.

More conflict is predicted if changes are not made.