I attended the Westhaven Meeting this evening.My count said there were at least 22 persons present, and MPI had about 8+ of those.
Interesting introduction with Andy Irvine of MPI, then a long discussion about IEMRS (integrated electronic monitoring and reporting system) , the surveillance video programme. The man in charge anticipated questions clearly from earlier meeting experiences and gave a long discussion about the planned process. All video, GPS measurements and fishing data will belong to MPI and be viewed and processed by them.
MPI realise to create more added value to NZ's fishery they need to run a sustainable environmental and business model. No doubt about this in my mind.
I had the opportunity to ask the following questions;
1) From MPI's own presentation material supplied at the meeting - Volume 1 Page 5 says that "83% of fish stocks are sustainably fished" and that "123 species are in the QMS". I call the 83% a 'Nathan-Guyism', as I do not believe it is correct!
But Volume 111, Page 35 it states the following for Baseline/Current State; "Sustainability of fish stock harvest cannot be claimed where information is lacking." Lower down then "Status of around 50% of QMS fish stocks is unknown" and "approx 8.5% of fishing activity is monitored".
So how does MPI get the 83% sustainability figure?
Well the answer was wishy washy - one guy admitted he wrote Vol 111, someone else wrote Vol 1......it probably came from the highest value and most monitored fisheries. To be honest I believe none of them really knew how they came to that figure.
2) I congratulated them for Strategic Proposal 2 - Option 3 - Invest in ecosystem based management as this is what they need to do for the Hauraki Gulf a designated marine park. Why did the proposals not mention any action on dredging (damage to the benthic zone) and set netting (damage to reef fish communities) ? - and another participant said ban bottom trawling.
MPIs answer that no one had raised issues about dredging and set netting to date, but if we shout out loud they will consider those issues.
MPI have a set agenda to achieve with these meetings to overhaul the Fisheries Management System. These are the key goals of this consultation programme.
a) Introduce IEMRS on the majority of commercial fishing boats - the commercial dory's and boats less than 6 metres are a problem they admit. Trials have already indicated behaviour change from fisherman when they know their actions are being recorded. I have no problem with this objective.
b) Enable innovative trawl technologies. Review and change the legislation concerning trawling. This is defined in law and testing of new trawl rigs designed to prevent losses of small fish cannot yet go Commercial - can only be used for testing. This change has to be passed by Parliament. I have no problem with this objective.
c) Agile and responsive decision making. They want to make decisions faster like in (b) above.
For your info this is the way Government is changing - Govt Departments can and in the future will make changes to regulations and regulatory frame works, only getting Minister sign off and will not need approval by Parliament. It is a result of hung parliaments with vote negotiations. The HSNO Act, The new Work Safe Act are all designed to operate in this way - enabling government bureaucrats to become more agile and responsive in their decision making.
So the Fisheries Act is going to get the same treatment.
d) Better Information gathering. And they may use other parties to gather this information. I agree MPI does need better monitoring and research onto what is happening in the fishery.
Talking afterwards over coffee they acknowledge the pressure of recreational fishing. We agreed their are more boats, more fisherman all wanting to get a catch.
One MPI guys admitted he expected to see no more trawling in the Hauraki Gulf.
A Maori representative said that us pakeha waste to much fish......his monitoring point is counting the fish frames and heads dumped from the Omaha causeway.
So I think it is reasonable to expect the next group of meetings maybe about bringing behavioural change to recreational fishers.
Overall they have a vision that they wish to deliver and it will affect us all eventually.
If you want a say note that submissions close on 23rd December.
The documents and plans are all here;
http://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/consultations/future-of-our-fisheries