There has been a mixed reaction to the Ministry for Primary Industry’s consultation document, which in part makes provision for the establishment of recreational fishing parks in the Marlborough Sounds and Hauraki Gulf.

Marlborough Rec Fishers

Marlborough Recreational Fishers Association President Peter Watson says while anglers welcomed any move to give greater importance to recreational fishing in the Marlborough Sounds, there were too many holes in the proposal.

“We don’t want a political sideshow. We want sensible management of the total fishery and a restoration of a degraded, ailing environment in the case of the Marlborough Sounds.”

He says as fish were migratory, often moving long distances to spawn and/or migrate seasonally, areas outside the parks had a strong relationship to the park ecosystem.

"Fish do not recognise a park boundary line on a map. They often migrate considerable distances seasonally, so the total national fishery needs much better management.”

He says Marlborough anglers were wary after the harrowing experience with successive governments over the blue cod and set-net issues.

Since 2008, under the recreational blue cod and set regimes imposed by successive Labour- and National-led Governments, there had been discrimination against the recreational public.

Peter Watson says the governments gave low priority to recreational fishing, despite over a million New Zealanders going fishing each year and fishing rated by research as the number one sporting activity.

He noted that commercial shellfish operations would still be permitted, alluding to the Marlborough Sound’s stressed scallop fishery, which was teetering on disaster.

The Sounds fishery’ degraded environment was a major threat, with recent surveys showing alarming sedimentation from forestry clear felling, aquaculture and, to a lesser degree, farming. Peter Watson said aquaculture continued to be allocated public seabed space, despite indications it was at, or over, saturation point now.

Aotearoa Fisheries

New Zealand’s largest Maori-owned fishing group, Aotearoa Fisheries, applauds the government’s focus on sustainably managing and protecting our oceans, but is concerned that recreational fishing parks and marine and seabed reserves and sanctuaries will adversely affect Maori fishing rights.

Aotearoa Fisheries Chief Executive Carl Carrington says it is very clear that the proposition to exclude all commercial and non-commercial customary fishing from parks, reserves and sanctuaries is making Iwi anxious. 

“Maori have fought hard to have their fishing rights recognised under the treaty and, for iwi to have confidence in treaty settlements, the government will need to carefully consider these rights,” he said. “It does provide some reassurance that the government says it will seek greater consultation with Maori and the community to work through the issue.”

“As an agent of Maori in matters concerning the marine environment, Aotearoa Fisheries has an important role to play in preserving Iwi fishing assets, secured as part of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Settlement given effect by the Maori Fisheries Act 2004. The proposals, as they are set out, will have a significant impact on the rights of Iwi under the Treaty Settlement,” he said.

“Iwi have always held a key role in the sustainability of a resource that should be available for everyone to enjoy for generations to come. In addition to personal responsibility, Iwi fishing quota rises and falls on the tides of sustainability already.”

If the proposed changes are to go ahead, Aotearoa Fisheries supports the notion that fair compensation must be given to those whose livelihoods are affected.

With regard to recreation-only areas, Mr Carrington questions whether it is an effective sustainability tool.

“I believe a combination of a well-managed Quota Management System, responsive fisheries management decisions, and the implementation of protection areas, where needed, will deliver the best possible conservation and economic balance for all New Zealanders,” he says.

“The other key to achieving effective sustainable management (ie longevity) of this shared resource is being able to measure all catches – customary, commercial, charter and recreational – as effectively as possible. Without it, we do not have adequate data on which the government is able to base responsible fisheries management decisions.”

NZ Outdoors

The Government's consultation document on marine and recreational fishing parks has drawn fire from the Outdoors Party.

They say it will have negligible impact on recreational sea fishing and shows how little those politicians who support it understand fishing and the outdoors.

"Sediment and pollution from aquaculture, forestry run off, changes to estuarine morphology from reduced river flows, and ploughing up the seabed with scallop dredgers and trawl nets are all factors in why our recreational fisheries are going down the gurgler." says David Haynes, spokesperson for the Outdoors Party.

"Given the catastrophic decline of the Tasman and Golden Bay scallop beds, you have to wonder why this government proposes continuing to allow the destructive practice of scallop dredging in the Marlborough recreational fishing park,” Haynes says.

"Research in the Sounds has revealed 30 years of seabed decline as a result of sediment and seabed disturbance, 71% of that in the last four years alone. Aquaculture is also a known source of sediment from faecal matter and fish food waste, and yet this will also be allowed to continue in the Sounds fishing park.”

"But the biggest spoilers to recreational sea fishing nationally are declining fish stocks and a quota management system that rewards waste and results in hundreds of tonnes of fish being killed and dumped overboard. Rather than deal with this issue, the government would rather 'tinker with tinsel'."

Given that, by the government's own admission, so little commercial fin fishing occurs in the inner Hauraki Gulf, designating this a recreational fishing area will have no impact on fish stocks, according to Haynes, and once again he reiterated that the issues for thousands of inner Hauraki Gulf fishers is the preferential rules for the commercial trawlers over recreational sector. Recreational fishers suffered a reduced snapper bag limit and an increase in minimum size in 2014, whilst the commercial sector's take remained unchanged.

"The concerns of over a million recreational saltwater anglers and a billion-dollar-plus recreational fishing economy once again seem to come second to a handful of powerful corporate fishing enterprises," Haynes says.