High blue cod bag limits are a 'major issue'

MPI says it wants a national blue cod strategy to review all aspects of the blue cod fishery across the whole of New Zealand. Photo / ODT File

Recreational bag limits set too high is the outstanding "major issue" facing blue cod fisheries off the Dunedin and North Otago coasts, according to feedback from fishers, the Ministry for Primary Industries says.

Feedback from the ministry's first stage of public consultation this spring shows 66% of the 412 respondents from the area known as BCO3, which covers the South Island's east coast, identified recreational bag limits as the top issue for what the ministry says is "the third most popular recreational fish in New Zealand and...an iconic South Island species".

Total allowable commercial catch settings (41.5%), amateur fishing charter vessels (36.4%), illegal take (32.8%), and localised depletion (31.8%) rounded out the respondents' top five issues for the fisheries.

A statement from the ministry applauded the input from South Island fishers. Inshore fisheries manager Steve Halley said 335 people attended South Island information sessions, and the ministry received more than 1100 responses to an online survey.

He said fishers' concerns depended on the areas they were fishing, but "in general, feedback has indicated that blue cod fisheries in most areas are doing OK, however there are issues in some areas that need to be resolved".

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment yesterday, but in September after two drop-in sessions hosted by the ministry in Dunedin and Moeraki, the ministry's Dunedin team manager, Allen Frazer, said the southeast coast was "New Zealand's most important recreational fishery for blue cod ... It's probably the most valuable — both for recreational and commercial — (coastal fishery) in the South Island".

In BCO3, the Kaikoura area bag limit is six, with the minimum size set at 33cm; in North Canterbury the bag limit is 10, with a 30cm minimum size; and in the southeast the bag limit is 30 blue cod, with a 30cm minimum.

In Kaikoura, total allowable commercial catch settings was cited as the biggest issue for local fishers.

Only Outer Banks Peninsula fishers saw the same issue as predominant. In Oamaru, Moeraki, Karitane, Outer Otago Peninsula, and Taieri Mouth, where the bag limit is higher than in Kaikoura at present, recreational bag limits were identified as the fishery's major problem.

In Moeraki, 83% of respondents to the ministry's survey said recreational bag limits were a major issue.

Of the 450 respondents from the BCO3 area, 63.2% had fished for blue cod in the area for 11 years or more; 85% of respondents were recreational fishers.

The ministry's 12-member expert panel met for the second time after the consultation and the ministry is expected to present options for a National Blue Cod Strategy early next year in a second round of public consultation. The ministry says it "wants a national blue cod strategy to review all aspects of the blue cod fishery across the whole of New Zealand.

"But we're starting with the South Island so we can deal with some priority management concerns."

The blue cod's range is quite limited and the ministry believes there are "several" distinct populations within management areas, which means certain areas are susceptible to overfishing.