I don’t know about
you, but I find having my future pre-determined for me without a fair chance to
have my say frustrating.
Take, for example, the
Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan, which has been captured by those with hidden
agendas who consider marine reserves and locking people out of our coastal
waters as the only answer to fisheries management.
We were given minimal
time to ‘consult’ on proposals that lacked detail, produced little research to
back them up, and ignored calls from the wider public to halt all destructive
techniques such as dredging and bottom trawling. The devil is always in the
fine print.
We were asked to
submit on a ‘plan’ lacking detail, the current modus operandi of the present
Government. Had Labour revealed its plans for the likes of Three Waters and
co-governance before the election, it is unlikely they would be in power, let
alone capable of governing alone. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
There was a recent
glimmer of hope when Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker took a
conservative approach to setting the SNA8 Management Area’s Total Allowable
Catch. The Minister had bought into the target of returning the SNA8 stocks to
50% of the original biomass, for this region at least. Through the likes of the
NZ Sport Fishing Council’s public advocacy arm LegaSea, recreational fishers campaigned
vigorously for the minimum increase in the commercial catch. It must be
frustrating for the fishing industry not to make the most of this recovering
stock short term, but paying the long game in this and other fisheries can only
be good for us all.
The powers that be,
and industry, would like nothing more than to ringfence the recreational catch,
not making allowance for population increases and for any stock improvements
the public may have been responsible for via smaller daily bags and reduced
effort.
LegaSea submits that
it’s impossible to make a well-informed submission on marine protection without
understanding what will be put forward in the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan. Think
of a map with a whole lot of band-aids plastered all over it – that is what is
proposed.
It’s also not possible
to revitalise the Gulf without controlling the amount of fish being harvested
(both recreationally and commercially) and limiting the damage caused by some
bulk fishing methods.
The one thing we
should all be able to agree on is the removal of the later. Currently, the plan
allows for trawl corridors within the park and the dredging of scallops in two
areas.
There is a substantial
public appetite for positive change. We saw that when Ngati Hei’s leaders
worked with interested parties and other mana whenua to establish Coromandel scallop
no-take areas (rahui) to remove destructive methods and give stocks time to
recover. It has now been implemented over the entire scallop management area,
not just in Ngati Hei’s backyard.
That sort of cooperation
indicates genuine co-governance. The government didn’t need to ‘appoint’
representatives – tangata whenua of all creeds saw the benefits and worked
together to make it happen.
It is
how we should be working to secure the healthy future of the Hauraki Gulf and
for communities to achieve 100% seabed protection. It is a blueprint for
future localised management where the Department of Conservation is simply the
facilitator, not the creator/director of such endeavours.
LegaSea insists marine
protection initiatives will only be effective if applied in conjunction with
fisheries management. And it would be best if you had sound, independent
science to enable that to happen – and open and honest governance.
The current plan
allows for 12 high-protection areas, taking in the likes of the Mokohinaus in
the north and the Aldermans in the south and encompasses in between many of the
current grounds favoured by recreational anglers. There are five seafloor
protection areas where activities such as mining, trawling and dredging are not
allowed – remember, we have the cable zone running through the gulf where these
activities are already banned – and two protected areas that are extensions of
existing reserves such as Cathedral Cove and Leigh.
We should be taking
Ngati Hei’s lead, where the rahui or ban applies across the population with no
exemptions.
Closing people out of
fisheries, whether commercial or recreational, has its flow-on effects around
displacement of effort.
I live just outside
the Hauraki Marine Park’s northern boundaries and envisage a considerable
increase in activity in my backyard as people seek alternative grounds.
During my travels, I
have encountered some effective fisheries/ biodiversity management strategies.
One that stands out was in New Caledonia where there were rolling reserves, the
boundaries of which shifted every five years. Think of a farmer break-fencing
his pasture resources. These reserves were well-resourced and heavily policed
by Government agencies – we were checked daily via a helicopter patrol and
twice boarded by on-water officers in our five days of fishing. Talking with
the locals, it was a system that was working and respected by all.
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