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National supports recreational fishing24 September 2008
Mr Heatley was responding to concerns of recreational crayfishers, about the scarcity of legal crayfish in local waters. Commercial crayfishermen have this year voluntarily taken their pots out of the water until January 15 in order to give recreational fishers a better go. But recreational fishers, who are considering a mandatory exclusion period, say the voluntary restriction is a waste of time. They say commercial boats will still be used for some customary take and the restriction cannot be enforced. They also say there is nothing left for the summer after the commercial winter crayfish season. Spokesman Alain Jorion says they already need a size concession to fill their quota and they fish right up to that level. Anything left does not reach legal size by summer. The voluntary four-month closed season comes after two years of negotiations. The recreational sector want regulation to protect the crafish stocks. Mr Heatley says National also has a number of concerns about the way the fishery is managed, which he says is not helping its richness or accessibility as a food source. "While we are committed to the quota management system, it is unacceptable that staff numbers in the Ministry of Fisheries' Wellington office have burgeoned under a Labour Government, while the number of people employed in the core business of stock monitoring, biosecurity, enforcement and prosecution has not measurably improved. "National will remove all administrative, operational, and policy focus that is unnecessary and redirect these resources into the research and monitoring of fish-stock health. "We will also use these funds to improve frontline fishery officer policing in order to fight poaching. "A rapid reaction with catch limit decisions should follow," he said. National also believed the Department of Conservation's approach of bulldozing of marine reserve proposals was forcing a tiresome "fight for access" for fishermen. "National does not accept that the fish stocks should ever be run down to the point that the public who fish for food can no longer do this effectively. "No amount of money can compensate for such a loss of birthright," he said. "The only way forward is to better honour the current law's commitment to recreational and customary fisher's foremost allowance, as well as encouraging all sectors to resolve together how best to share the resource. "That's what the shared fisheries negotiations are all about," he said. "The Ministry of Fisheries can't hope to manage the fish stock with co-operation and agreement amongst fishers. There has to be buy-in for all parties, as they are the eyes and ears on the water. National would also be seeking recreational, customary and commercial agreement on the location of significant "recreational only" fishing reserves, Mr Heatley said. These had been successful in the past. National believed a significant amount of space should also be allocated to aquaculture. Since the aquaculture reforms took effect on January 1, 2005 not a single, significant, new Aquaculture Management Area had been created anywhere in New Zealand where marine farming didn not already exist. "This is but one reason why National is so determined to streamline the Resource Management Act, which is stifling so much potential growth across so many sectors, in our country." "Amateur fishermen are like all other New Zealanders - they are tired of being told what to do, political correctness and decisions being driven on blind ideology," he said. Mr Jorion said National's stance would be music to the ears of the 1.4 million non-commercial recreational people who wished to fish for food and fun to feed their families. "Recreational-only reserves, would not be much different to the Maori Mataitai reserves, he said. For commercial fishery companies, National planned to amend Labour's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to put them on an equal footing with other industries. "Labour's emissions trading scheme will significantly add to the costs of the fishing industry. Fuel is a major cost in operating vessels and the scheme's additional burden will undermine the viability of the New Zealand fishing fleet. "It is unfair that a 90 percent allocation of carbon credits is available for all other trade-exposed sectors such as steel, cement, and aluminium manufacturing, and for the dairy industry, yet only 50 percent is available to the fishing industry." National will amend the ETS legislation to provide for a 90 percent allocation for fishing. |
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The National Party has come out strongly in support of recreational fishers, with fisheries spokesman Phil Heatley saying there will be exclusive areas for them if National gets in.
