NZSFC – Who, What and Why?

The NZ Sport Fishing Council began life in 1957 as the Big Game Fishing Council. As the name suggests, the clubs and their members were primarily focused on game fishing. In 64 years a lot has changed.

As the robustness and performance of recreational boats improved, more people began to take to the waters in increasing numbers. Whilst inshore fishing was standard fare, game fishing from smaller craft was becoming an more popular pastime. To reflect the changes happening at the club level, the Big Game Fishing Council became the NZ Sport Fishing Council (NZSFC).

Today the NZSFC is the largest representative body of recreational fishers in NZ. NZSFC is made up of 55 Clubs with 38,200 members. Club sizes range from 35 members to 7,000 members. Many are situated at some of the most stunning coastal locations in NZ.

Most of the Clubs have a strong connection to the local community and provide a range of activities and services to members. All NZSFC Clubs welcome members from other clubs. This provides members with opportunities to sample value-for-money meals at places with some of the best marine views in the country.

Each NZSFC affiliated Club has at least one nominated delegate who meets with other club delegates from the respective 8 zones. Each Zone nominates a delegate to represent the zone and its clubs at NZSFC board level.

The delegate system ensures that grassroot club members have the ability to affect Council policy. These volunteers regularly grapple with some of the most complex matters facing todays recreational fishing industry. (More on that later)

NZSFC has three primary goals -

1. Promote fishing
2. Advocate for access to fishing
3. Advocate for a bountiful marine environment

NZSFC fishing promotion has two main thrusts. The first is the promotion of youth activities, and the second is gaining governmental recognition of fishing as one of NZ’s largest recreational pastimes.

Approximately 600,000 kiwis identifying as regular fishers. The reasons for fishing range from mental health benefits to providing a feed for friends and family.

Despite the massive participation numbers, the Government and Sport NZ has yet to acknowledge fishing’s importance as a recreational activity. Millions of tax payer dollars are funnelled into traditional sporting codes each year, where the participation rate in the late teens becomes a dribble.

NZSFC continue to be a vocal advocate for the recognition of fishing as an investment activity that benefits hundreds of thousands of kiwis throughout their life.

Where should that investment start? Youth fishing. As the saying goes, give a person a fish, feed them for a day, teach a person to fish and feed them for a lifetime. NZSFC have been developing a number of youth programmes and are excited to see the inaugural Youth Nationals kicking off in April 2022. We hope to follow this up with a programme later in the year to bring a number of water-based activities to regional youth communities.

NZ recreational fishing access is coming under intense pressure from environmental NGO’s and commercial lobby groups. Traditional recreational fishing spots are being included in a number of marine park proposals around the country that will drive recreational fishers out deeper and into areas of conflict with inshore commercial trawling. So far, the reefs around the Bay of Plenty’s Motiti Island have been closed under the RMA and similar action is underway in the Bay of Islands.

Recreational fishers and the industries that rely on them for a living should be greatly concerned about these restrictive plans. NZSFC has been fighting a very lonely and expensive rear guard action. An action being funded by the 55 clubs and a few supporters. While we collectively missed the boat in the Motiti case (legal opinion thought it could never happen) we are vigorously involved in the Bay of Islands case to prevent a reoccurrence of Motiti.

The third area of focus for NZSFC is advocating for a bountiful marine environment. This can appear contradictory to what has just been said above. However, the environmental closures being advocated are a band aid to the real issue facing domestic fish stocks. That is the commercial fishing in inshore waters.

Why would moving commercial trawling out of inshore waters help NZ fish stocks? The proof is already there for all to see. The Firth of Thames/inner Hauraki Gulf has always had restricted allowances for trawling, and yet, despite having the greatest recreational pressure of anywhere in the country the snapper population is growing. Sadly, the same cannot be said about other species in the Hauraki Gulf.

Secondly, Snapper 8, an area from North Cape to Kapiti on the west coast of the North Island, has had severely restricted total allowable commercial catch since the fishery collapsed nearly 20 years ago. The stocks have recovered to such an extent that the fishery is now one of the few if not the only one in NZ with 50% of its original biomass. Over the last 20 years recreational were still able to catch snapper and didn’t affect the recovery. As the saying goes, one fish at a time isn’t a crime. Moral of the story being that when bulk harvesting methods like bottom trawling and dredging are restricted, the fish population grows.

NZSFC is not against commercial fishing. It produces a contribution to NZ GDP and provides access to kaimoana for those that don’t fish.

We at NZSFC argue the quota management system continues to fail New Zealanders and is no longer fit for purpose in 2022. The quota management system was designed in an era of commodity driven business models where selling high quantities of low value primary produce was the order of the day. The model requires continuous catch increases to continue returns by using the lowest cost harvesting method possible. Every primary producing sector in NZ has successfully moved on from this type of model – except fishing.  

NZSFC has developed an alternative model, called Rescue Fish, which outlines how the commercial sector, iwi, and government can move into the modern era and release pressure on fish stocks, better manage the resource, build back local processing and provide more value to those who actually catch the fish.  https://rescuefish.co.nz/our-alternative/     

At NZSFC, we are fighting hard to protect the interests and future of recreational fishing in NZ. It is an area that consecutive governments have refused to tackle, which has led to direct legal action in environmental courts from NGO’s to restrict our recreational activity. This is in some misguided belief that stopping those who catch 10% of the fish is going to in some way miraculously save fish stocks.

If you are a recreational fisher concerned about your future ability to go fishing, or someone wanting to meet like-minded people and enjoy some of the most idyllic club environments in NZ, then get along to your nearest NZSFC Club and join up.

If you want to contribute financially to the battle please visit https://legasea.co.nz/support-us/donate/  

- Steven Stanford, CEO, NZSFC