Where Have all the Snapper Gone?

When I first arrived in the Bay a few short years ago, there seemed to be a heady optimism about the future of snapper fishing. The radical quota management system had bedded in and indications were that snapper fishing was on the mend. Optimism reigned in a blossoming charter sector.

An interview I conducted with an official NIWA ramp surveyor confirmed the optimism. Snapper fishing in the Bay was very definitely looking up.

And for a few years, my own fishing experience confirmed the view. A really bad day was rare, good days were regular and great days happened several times a year.

The surge of improved fishing seemed to peak about three-four years ago. I remember the spring of 1998.That year, the fishing remained hot right on through Christmas and well into February.

So what’s gone wrong? Since last winter, apart from a few good weeks in spring, bad days have become common, good days rare and great days a fluke.

Most commercial fishos remain optimistic. Whether they are charter operators or fishing for quota, few openly consider the possibility that we’ve stuffed the fishery. But ask around and you’ll find a different story.

Most recreational fishos I speak with are finding it harder and harder to catch a feed, let  alone a memorable fish. And they’ve got no axe to grind, no interest to protect. I, for one, believe them.

I’d just love to believe that it’s a seasonal anomaly or two. Something to do with El Nino or La Nina, global warming, a glitch in a previous breeding cycle, or a change in the pattern and temperature of ocean currents. It would be so nice to believe that it’s not our fault, that they’re still out there, somewhere!

Wake up! Look around the world and you’ll notice that we humans have exhausted every major fishery discovered. We have this mining habit:  Make hay while the sun shines.

The sun is no longer shining on many elements of our fishery. The quota system isn’t working. It’s too blunt an instrument. And a key element, the capacity of Government to buy up quota to protect stocks is rarely, if ever employed.

The pressure from a combination of recreational, charter and commercial fishing on the Bay is incredible. It’s a tribute to a wonderful habitat that it has lasted so long.

Snorkelling in 20m of water inside Cape Brett the other day, I saw the evidence with my own eyes: in amongst large schools of non target species swam a small bunch of about twenty 10cm snapper, a little further down were another dozen just under legal size and near the bottom was a lonely 30cm giant.

To turn things around, the government must buy up quota to protect snapper stock. Since governments rarely bite the bullet, if the 70,000 fishos who supported option 4 contributed $100.00 each, at current prices we could buy close to a quarter of the total snapper quota. That’s really doing something!  Let’s do something. Tight lines!