ex Elly 265 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries has closed the inner Hauraki Gulf to fishing of spiny rock lobster for three years. Shane Jones says the closure, starting from April 1, is to allow the lobster population to restore itself. The closure extends from the Okakari Point Marine Reserve at Cape Rodney, north of Leigh, to Point Jackson Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/545923/minister-closes-inner-hauraki-gulf-to-fishing-of-rock-lobster 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bad Kitty 323 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 1 hour ago, ex Elly said: The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries has closed the inner Hauraki Gulf to fishing of spiny rock lobster for three years. Shane Jones says the closure, starting from April 1, is to allow the lobster population to restore itself. The closure extends from the Okakari Point Marine Reserve at Cape Rodney, north of Leigh, to Point Jackson Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/545923/minister-closes-inner-hauraki-gulf-to-fishing-of-rock-lobster Great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,767 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Schnapper next Quote Link to post Share on other sites
waikiore 483 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 The total catch for this area remains unchanged so does that mean the Barrier crays will get hammered? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Psyche 807 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Barrier crays have already been severely hammered, people who has dived there over the last 30 years can testify to that. People who dive in areas where crays are functionally extinct get very excited when they go to places where the marine ecosystem is less damaged- they rip in and tell themselves stories that justify continued pillage, but in reality crays have been ruthlessly overfished virtually everywhere access is not problematic. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Frank 173 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 19 hours ago, Bad Kitty said: Great! Its good news albeit the statement "the closure, starting from April 1, is to allow the lobster population to restore itself" is an admission that past governance of the fishery was a failure with multiple previous governments being equally to blame for allowing it to get to this point. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
darkside 69 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 6 hours ago, Psyche said: Barrier crays have already been severely hammered, people who has dived there over the last 30 years can testify to that. People who dive in areas where crays are functionally extinct get very excited when they go to places where the marine ecosystem is less damaged- they rip in and tell themselves stories that justify continued pillage, but in reality crays have been ruthlessly overfished virtually everywhere access is not problematic. I've dived one spot in the pig group for 40 + years. They have come and gone a bit over that time and 5 years ago were in pretty good shape. But after a summer snorkeling in Fiordland I had another look couldn't bring myself to take any. Hopefully the "caluerpa fishing reserve" helps the population rebuild at the Barrier. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Frank 173 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 14 hours ago, darkside said: I've dived one spot in the pig group for 40 + years. They have come and gone a bit over that time and 5 years ago were in pretty good shape. But after a summer snorkeling in Fiordland I had another look couldn't bring myself to take any. Hopefully the "caluerpa fishing reserve" helps the population rebuild at the Barrier. When I see divers videos of Cray Nests in Fiordland its like an infestation under every rock, I imagine the gulf was like that once, it must have been incredible. I don't know if its true but I recall hearing about crays crawling under boat ramps at Whitianga in the early 60's then dying as the tide receded and creating an appling pong for ramp users, this was before the export trade apparently. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
waikiore 483 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Crays were available along from Milford and inside Rangi till the 70's 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 136 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 yep, scollies off Mckenzie bay, crays around Rangi in '79. Not hard to get a feed off noisies. Should include GB an all offshore islands from astrolabe to NC. Let the larval stream do its thing. Five yr minimum. Successive govts couldn't have fckd it up any worse, curious to know if private enterprize could do any better. Not that the resource should belong to PE. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
motorb 44 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Private would take one short sighted set of management to run a stock to extinction before moving onto the next species. Plenty of existing examples of this to know it wouldn't work. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,767 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 34 minutes ago, motorb said: Private would take one short sighted set of management to run a stock to extinction before moving onto the next species. Plenty of existing examples of this to know it wouldn't work. Read the history of the Grand Banks cod fishery. Depressing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Frank 173 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 1 hour ago, Black Panther said: Read the history of the Grand Banks cod fishery. Depressing. This comprehensive RNZ article encapsulates the political commercial and public tensions over the crayfish resource and fisheries management in general. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/542412/high-court-rules-2023-minister-s-decision-on-crayfish-catch-limits-unlawful The point is made that we do have a fisheries act (law) to regulate how the fishery is managed for sustainability, if the fishery is depleted (kina barrens and other factors) ) it implies government and industry are not in compliance ( literally breaking the law ? This is the basis for legal challenges by organisations such as Legasee and ELI (Environmental Law Initiative) with the high court ruling recently in favour of ELI in contending that sustainable fishing had "not been happening" per the Fisheries Act. In summary the High court agreed that MPI and the minister are non compliant. (see the article link).T he judge also made the point that the minister was led into error by his officials, who did not base their advice on the best available information, (read sloppy work) 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
harrytom 697 Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 On 25/03/2025 at 9:06 PM, Black Panther said: Schnapper next HaHa.What are you trying say,no snapper about?Plenty around now ,not in the sizes we were once a customed too,but if any good with a knife and utilize whole fish a 330mm is plenty for 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
motorb 44 Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 6 hours ago, harrytom said: HaHa.What are you trying say,no snapper about?Plenty around now ,not in the sizes we were once a customed too, That's a very shortsighted view of the situation, and as someone too young to experience these stories of a past healthy hauraki in the 70s/80s, and myself wanting things to be better for my own future kids and grandkids, I find that attitude to be a pretty appalling. (That's the polite version.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
harrytom 697 Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 49 minutes ago, motorb said: That's a very shortsighted view of the situation, and as someone too young to experience these stories of a past healthy hauraki in the 70s/80s, and myself wanting things to be better for my own future kids and grandkids, I find that attitude to be a pretty appalling. (That's the polite version.) If you cant catch a decent feed of fish in inner gulf look at your fishing skills or where you fish.Plenty around and dont keep blaming commercial. 4 trawlers operate in the Hauraki gulf and on average extract 100/120 snapper per trawl and its mid water trawling not bottom. Take 100 boats fishing flat rock and take 2 fish each every weekend you do the maths. Last time out we caught nil on the bottom but found snapper only 10m down in 40m of water.They are not constant bottom feders as would lead you to believe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 136 Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 A decent feed today isn’t what it was even 10 or 15 yrs ago. Because you have fishing skills to can still catch them but the gross breeders are, ahh, rare. We have got used to having to work for a plateful. And baking the whole fish instead of filleting. Went to port Jackson recently, had to dive and chum with kina to get a response. Ended up with dinner, but I should have just shot a couple or Parore while I was collecting kina. Would have been a lot easier. I don’t spear much any more, and definitely not species that are slow breeders like red moki. ( Who mate for life and practically swim onto your spear) Still get decent fish off West Coast though, probably because commercial & average fisho are less likely to hammer it. Biomass is supposedly improving? Dunno where the bull kelp has gone tho, supposedly owing to marine heat waves. Sad , loved diving in the remurapa. My desire to dive has almost gone given the depressing state of sea life that is left. Dived the bop to east cape in the ‘60’s. Hauraki Gulf in ‘70’s. Epic back then. We have no excuse for what has happened to Hauraki Gulf. We have let it happen. And the super market is full of fish that never were harvested. Territorial Reef fish! FFS! Rape and pillage until the complete ecosystem is gone. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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