Fishing Ban for Cape Brett Area

[Psyche 626]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/130772549/environment-court-forces-new-nofishing-zone-in-northlands-bay-of-islands

Sounds like there's a lot of fishing pressure up North, last time I dropped a line up there it was pretty good but that was 25 years ago lol!

[Psyche 626]

Saw this as well https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/130578899/court-orders-minister-to-reconsider-unlawful-decision-on-number-of-crayfish-being-caught?rm=a

What caught my eye was;

Functionally extinct means there are a few left – but the population will never recover.

Pretty damning article, basically the system we have is outright pillaging, the industry says that the recreational take is 1/3 of commercial which I find hard to believe however they are demanding we do our bit.

 

 

[harrytom 642]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hauraki-gulf-recreational-snapper-take-triples-kahawai-catch-quadruples-in-past-30-years/4WEPWCLRP4KEPMR2BQTSDLIUEI/

 

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/state-of-the-gulf-recreational-fishers-catching-twice-as-much-snapper-as-commercial-niwa/FV4YPUKUJ3IVVBERRMPTA35CAY/

 

I believe it is now tripled

[harrytom 642]

The original article by NRC included no Customary take but cannot be enforced without a act of parliament as IWI have the right under the treaty.

[Lindsay 33]

What I find distressing is the old geezers at my boat club moaning their tits off about this. They don’t appear to understand the concept of extinction.

[harrytom 642]

2 hours ago, Lindsay said:

What I find distressing is the old geezers at my boat club moaning their tits off about this. They don’t appear to understand the concept of extinction.

No, what you will find distressing is each individual council enfocring the RMA around every bit of coast you have access too.Waikato asked for responses on areas they would like to close.But now have full rein under the RMA act and can procced to do what they like. The first example of this was at MOTITI Island (rena wreck site)closed to all in the name of protection.

[Psyche 626]

Do we want to continue in the direction we are going or change our ways and allow the coastal marine ecosystem a chance to rejuvenate?

Coastal fishing is interesting to me because its an area where private citizens are actually in direct competition for a resource with a commercial sector that has legal rights to it.   So you have two powerful interest groups in going for the same slice of pie, its as if there were no farms and the countryside was full of wild sheep and cows being hunted at a greater rate than they they could replenish. When I hear an area like Brett being closed its hard to accept it's the fault of recreational fishers.

[aardvarkash10 954]

9 minutes ago, Psyche said:

its hard to accept it's the fault of recreational fishers.

Therein lies the problem.  If everyone puts their energy into identifying "thems what's to blame", we all miss the reality- we have all contributed to the state of the fishery (feel free to insert the identity of any environmental commons to replace fishery).

[harrytom 642]

I put the blame fair and square on reccreational fishers when we are talking 1 or 2 miles out from the coast. There has only been about 4 maybe 5 inshore trawlers working the gulf now. When I can out to the mussel farm and between 3 of us take 21 snapperin a hour between 35cm 55cm not hard to do the maths.Having said that we might fish once a month. and mostly shared amongst the elderly. We will get locked out to the 10 mile limit before long as per the RMA and council defined seabed limits.

How many traler boats out today 2/3 thousand??

[darkside 61]

We are in Fiordland this summer. Bugger all recreational fishermen and let me say plenty of fish. We saw free jumping bluefin north of Milford. Last time I saw free jumping tuna in the north island was off Whakatane in the late 90s (yellowfin).

The recreational pressure from Tauranga north is just too much for the fishery to sustain.

[Psyche 626]

2 hours ago, aardvarkash10 said:

Therein lies the problem.  If everyone puts their energy into identifying "thems what's to blame", we all miss the reality- we have all contributed to the state of the fishery (feel free to insert the identity of any environmental commons to replace fishery).

Its part of our reductionist approach to solving problems, point fingers lol!  We have more boats, far better fishing gear and less fish, its going to take a combined effort to reverse the trend. What is concerning about the cray article for example is that divers "know" the crayfishery is stuffed- they dont need NIWA or any ministry to tell them that yet the pressure to continue harvesting continues unabated despite the quota system.

[harrytom 642]

5 hours ago, Psyche said:

Its part of our reductionist approach to solving problems, point fingers lol!  We have more boats, far better fishing gear and less fish, its going to take a combined effort to reverse the trend. What is concerning about the cray article for example is that divers "know" the crayfishery is stuffed- they dont need NIWA or any ministry to tell them that yet the pressure to continue harvesting continues unabated despite the quota system.

werent crays dropped to 3 per day?kawau/waiheke/barrier basically extinct. Now instead of putting total ban like scallops we are happy to put pressure on other areas.. Incidently I brought 4 commercial crays from the shop,silly price to what was a bottle of beer back in the day $155 for 1kg . Only brought as work gave me $100 so didnt paying extra $55 as the wife/boys have never had crayfish before,tried poting yrs ago,lost 2 pots(dont put pots down near comms) and found door open twice,clever crays managed to untie.