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I recently took my kids to the Barrier and besides getting a feed we saw Dolphins, Sharks, Orca all in the first 24 hours. What a awesome place.

 

Doesn't appear that can be said for our Crayfish stocks. CRA2 is in crisis.

 

Take the survey - I supported a total ban for 2 years:

 

https://www.legasea.co.nz/crayfishcrisis/

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11989593

 

Cheers

 

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The Gulf is a treasure no doubt at all.

I haven't dived the inner Gulf for ages but dive the Barrier a lot.

There is one rock there i have dived, most years, several times, for 38 years now.

While nothing like the cray population or average size of the early 90's this year has been stellar, crays all over the rock.

 

I know one hot year doesn't prove global warming but it does show that the populations can improve quickly.

In Fiordland the effort per kg of crayfish has been going steadily down which is a great sign.

 

Cra2 is a big area and I wouldn't like to see commercial guys out of work completely, they lose their markets etc.etc.

Equally the recreational take has to drop.

As it seems few get close to the limit of 6 a day, lowering that won't make any difference at all.

 

To recover I would like to see a big cut in commercial and a ban on recreational but don't see that option.

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I started counting all the cray pot buoys around the Broken islands , Grey group etc.. I stopped after 50, and there were many more to go. I do wonder if all had a pot attached? Wondered if some were there as a deterent to the odd recreational pot or 2?  But if they did, either there are lots of crays and someone is doing very well? or they are pretty well cleaned out and someone is after the remaining few?

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The trophy fish is less of an issue with crays.

I see big crays fairly often but almost always miles out of reach, they are too smart.

For the commercial guys the big crays are worth less per kg in the high end markets.

So they tend to return them alive anyway rather than waste their quota.

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From Diving friends this year I am told that the crays were abundant and what we were fed on New Years at the Barrier would appear to bear that out.

I too wish that Rangitoto and the inner gulf was still producing, but I believe that may be a vain hope with all the silt in close.

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