Meeting Notes: North Island-South East
Regional Recreational Forum
Saturday 31st May, 2008, Napier
Open Meeting
Meeting chair, Andy Warmbrunn (MFish) opened the meeting at 9.30 and
welcomed members. Andy noted that Lianos Triantafillos from NIWA would
be attending the meeting for a discussion on surf clams from 11.30 – 12.30.
Attendees
Andy Warmbrunn (Chair-MFish)
Billy Brough (M-Fish)
Edward Beetham (Wairarapa Sports Fishing Club)
Wayne Bicknell (Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club)
Colin Murray (Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club)
James Parahi (Pania Surfcasting Club)
Jenny Hills (Mahia Boating Club)
Alain Jorion (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
Simon Mills (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
George Zander (Ngawi Sport Fishing Club)
Lianos Triantafillos (NIWA – Surf Clam discussion)
Sid Tibble (Customary – CRA3 discussion)
Apologies
Hilton Webb (Gisborne/Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club)
Neville Buckley (District Compliance Manager – MFish –Gisborne)
Meeting
Introduction
Andy confirmed the agenda items.
Regional
Updates
Colin and Wayne provided an update on the Napier area. Not a lot of fish have
been caught recently and the weather has not been good for fishing. The spiny
dogs have come back as the water temperature has dropped.
These items included regional updates, MFish updates, forum discussions on
commercial boats and set netting, CRA3, and filleting at sea, and a presentation
and discussion on surf clams and hapuku/bass
James provided a surfcasting report and noted that surfcasting in Hawkes Bay
was good up until May with the best catches been taken around the Mahia area.
Catches of snapper have fallen off during May and there have been no recent
catches. From February to April there were a lot of snapper, gurnard and kahawai
caught. James didn’t know why catches have been so poor in recent weeks.
Jenny did not have a report from Mahia as she has not been fishing.
Simon discussed CRA2 and said that the situation in the area was similar to
CRA3 with few fish around and some experienced divers struggling to catch a
crayfish after four or five dives. Around the Lottin point area the snapper have
been average and there are strong concerns about the decline in hapuku/bass.
Simon noted that there has been more inshore schools of kahawai, tarakihi
catches have been average, and over summer there were some good catches of
skippies. Warmer water temperatures than usual brought down a lot of mahi-mahi
and blue marlin.
Simon expressed concerns about purse seiners coming in as close as 100m in
the Cape Runaway to Tëkaha area which may be affecting the inshore fisheries in
the area. He also noted that Paua around Lottin Point were under considerable
pressure with few legal sized around and a lot of illegal take.
Alain gave a report of the Gisborne region. He noted that spiny dogs were present
in high numbers, tarakihi catches had been consistent although there were few
large fish around, and there had been some good catches of snapper around 3235 cm.
There had been more easterly weather patterns this year than previous years
which had affected the amount of fishing over the last couple of months. Some
hapuku have been caught but only small ones and none caught on the closer in
rocks. Alain expressed his concerns about the decline in hapuku. He also added
that Wayne had been awarded the most meritorious tuna catch for a tuna caught
near Tolaga Bay and that Simon had caught 3 Marlin in one day.
George provided an update on the Ngawi area. George noted that cray fishing
has been dismal although divers were reporting a lot of juvenile crays that were a
couple years away from recruiting to the fishery. The weather in general has been
poor in the area restricting the amount of days fishing. There have been good
catches of blue cod around 2.5 -3kg, plenty of paua although not close in, plenty
of good tarakihi and ling available, and there have been a few reasonable catches
of hapuku/bass.
George expressed his disappointment that signage has still not been erected in
the Ngawi area and gave Andy a letter from the Ngawi Sports Fishing Club to
pass on to MFish compliance. He also noted some concerns about the approach
being taken by the Ministry of Fisheries concerning paua shells and the
enforcement of the regulations.
Edward informed the forum that due to a high amount of NE winds little fishing
has occurred in the Castle Point area. Edward commented that albacore showed
up in good numbers around March whereas skippies never turned up at all. There
have been some catches of tarakihi and blue cod however hapuku are becoming
very hard to find. Edward also added that a large dead 16m sperm whale was
washed into Castle Point and pushed around to Whakataki beach where is was
later buried.
Action: 1) Andy to pass on letter from George to Napier Compliance DCM
and follow up on signage in Ngawi.
MFish
Updates
Deemed
Values
Andy informed the forum that the East Coast Inshore Team had recently been
reviewing the deemed values for a number of fish stocks in FMA2. Andy told the
forum that there were only a few stocks being reviewed this year as compared to last
year, that there would be no increases in deemed values for any stocks, and there
may be some decreases for one or two stocks. He added that he would update the
forum with the final changes at the next meeting.
2
NPOA
Sharks
Paua
Andy handed out the draft National Plan of Action for Sharks to each member of the
forum. Andy invited all the members to look through the plan over the coming months
and, if required, sharks could be discussed at a forum in the future.
Andy referred the forum to the two page discussion document concerning
accumulation and export limits of paua. Andy informed the forum that this was a
discussion to help inform the Ministry of Fisheries on recreational opinions regarding
the issues for a possible future Initial Position Paper and that the Ministry had and
was consulting with the commercial paua fishing industry and customary fishers as
well. Andy explained to the forum that the issues should be discussed with their
respective clubs and any comments on the proposed management tools, or any
other approaches club thought may be beneficial should be submitted directly to Alan
Kilner in the Dunedin Inshore Team.
The members discussed the issues presented briefly and agreed with the
introduction of an accumulation limit at 3 times the daily bag limit and for this to be
incorporated with the same export limit of 3 daily bags.
Action 2) : Andy to inform members of deemed values changes at next meeting
Action 3): Andy to find out if members want to discuss sharks at next forum.
Member’s
Discussion
Items
Set Netting
Wayne discussed his concerns about set netting with the forum. Wayne discussed
that he thought set netting for species such as hapuku may have been on the
increase. Andy noted that the current information from MFish catch effort reporting
data showed that there has been no increase in set netting targeting hapuku or any
increase in catch levels in general from set netting. Andy also highlighted the
restrictions MFish has on releasing specific catch and/or vessel data.
Wayne also had a number of questions. These included: How, or if, lost set nets are
reported, how set net mesh size limits are used for different target species, and if
customary fisheries are allowed to use set nets in exclusions zone. Andy responded
that he was currently unsure of the answers and would talk with compliance and get
back to the forum via email the following week with the answers.
A customary application was also circulated regarding a customary permit that would
allow a commercial vessel to take up to 10 tonnes of finfish for four trips to provide
for pätaka purposes. Concern was raised that this fish would be taken from inside
the restricted area in Mahia and further concerns were raised about the storage of
the catch. Andy said that he would discuss the issue with Napier compliance officers
and Pou Hononga and get back to the forum members regarding this issue the
following week. Andy asked the forum if customary fishing was an area where
members may want some upskilling as it would be possible to get someone to talk
on the subject at the next forum meeting. Members replied that they would like more
information and education regarding customary fishing and that they would like
someone to attend the next meeting to provide this.
Filleting at
Sea
George raised his concerns regarding filleting at sea. He questioned whether it was
illegal for recreational fishers to fillet at sea and that compliance officers do not seem
to check charter boats catch (either filleted or unfilleted). Alain added that if fishers
were to fillet lobster at sea this would also enable recreational fishers to exceed their
bag limits.
Action: 4) Andy to reply to the forum within a week to questions raised by the
forum concerning set netting and filleting at sea.
3
Action 5) Andy to invite a customary speaker to the next forum to up skill
members regarding customary fishing.
Guest
Speaker
Issue:
Surf Clams
Lianos Triantafillos gave a presentation on surf clam research that will be beginning
in FMA2 (mainly Napier and Gisborne) starting in early June. Lianos relayed to
members the what, where, how and why surf clams are being targeted for research.
He noted that the dredging occurs close to shore and that it may be viewed
negatively by some in the communities where research will be undertaken. He
emphasized that commercial harvesting of surf clams may be some years away and
only if the research is successful. Lianos added that the dredge and processes being
used has a minimal impact on the environment as it operates in a high wave energy
area and survival of shellfish on return to sea is around 90 -95%.
Action 6) Andy to keep members updated as to where and when surf clam
research is occurring.
CRA3 Update
and
discussion
Alain reported to forum members on the progress of the CRA3 fish plan and his
experiences and opinions of the process. He felt that amateur fishing rights, and
the social and cultural rights of the recreational sector, have not been addressed.
He was also concerned about the way management strategies would be
implemented and the effect of the foreshore and seabed decision.
He was disappointed that what he felt were the two most important issues, that of
abolishing the concession and commercial free areas, were not part of the plan but
were being submitted to Minister for consideration outside of the plan as consensus
on these two issues had not be achieved. He stated that he felt that the customary
sector is against better crayfish fishing for all and that this sector has a conflict of
interest between their customary and commercial rights. Alain also was unhappy
that the wording in a section the most recent draft of the CRA3 plan had been
changed to not include the word conflict.
He noted that he has support from a large proportion of the local community in
Gisborne, that they too are unhappy with the current situation, and stated that he
has knowledge of a roster that recreational fishers would be using to cut
commercial crayfish pots. He also commented that he disagreed with the NIWA
conclusion that there was no local depletion of crayfish in CRA3.
He presented the group with a map which showed two proposed areas to be closed
to commercial fishing. He stated that the most important of these areas was
situated directly of the Gisborne city boat ramp.
Sid Tibble, who was invited by George to comment on the issue from a customary
perspective, then addressed the forum. Sid informed the forum he was mandated
by three marae in the Waipiro Bay area. He stated that he was very concerned with
the decreasing numbers of crayfish available to fishers and that the management
process seemed to be taking a long time. He noted the importance of maintaining
the fishery for future generations to come and that Maori had a responsibility to
Tangaroa as a descendant of Papatüänuku and Ranganui. He felt that the time to
act was now.
Colin raised the idea of possibly closing the fishery for 3 years to all fishers to let it
rebuild. Sid agreed that a rähui on the fishery for a time might achieve the objective
of rebuilding the fishery. Sid also invited the forum members to sit down and
4
discuss the issue in greater detail at a kororua at the Kerekere marae.
Billy replied to a number of the issued and comments raised by Alain. He noted that
MFish only joined the CRA 3 stakeholder meetings after the establishment of the
initial group. The initial group agreed on a number of issues set out in a Terms of
Reference (ToR). Outside of any agreement reached in a meeting, the ToR sets
out if a sector group is able to release information to the media.
The CRA 3 fisheries plan sets out what the fishery stakeholders want to achieve in
the long term, and how these aspirations will be achieved through a range of
management strategies. However the implementation of management strategies
can only occur outside of the fisheries plan (ie, MFish regulatory round to introduce
closed seasons etc).
Billy explained that the ability to monitor when an objective has been achieved is
very important. This is why the wording of one objective was amended. However
the rationale behind the objective was retained in the explanatory text, which was
not amended.
Billy added that the management strategies in the draft CRA 3 fisheries plan were
agreed to by all parties (eg, management procedure to rebuild CRA 3 stock).
Management strategies not agreed to by all parties are not included in the fisheries
plan (eg, recreational only areas). There are examples of management strategy
proposals put on the table by other sectors that did not receive cross sector
agreement and were therefore left out of the plan.
Billy acknowledged that fisheries plans take time to develop, and require
considerable effort and input from stakeholders. However fisheries plans should
not be viewed as ‘weak’ documents, because of the time and effort required to
produce them.
Hapuku/
Bass
Billy gave an update on the status of the Hapuku/Bass proposal. He told the forum
that there had been 22 submissions received on the Initial Position Paper (IPP)
and that these submissions were quite varied. He stated that the submissions did
not show widespread agreement on either the local depletion of hapuku bass or
the possible cause of the depletion. As a result of the lack of widespread
agreement within the recreational sector, coupled with the lack of factual
evidence, the Ministry of Fisheries had no option but to advise the Minister to
retain the status quo. He also noted that in this forum's submission there was no
agreement that it was a recreational only problem.
Some members of the group stated that the timing of the paper was unfortunate
and that it would have been good to have a meeting to discuss the issue and that
the time allowed for was to short and that the proposal came out of nowhere.
Andy reminded the forum that in the past the forum has been critical of the slow
process and uptake of the Ministry of Fisheries to progress issues and that this
issue had been progress primarily due to the concerns raised in this forum.
Members thanked Ed for the time and effort he put into preparing the submission
and gaining everyone’s views and opinions.
Action 7) Andy to distribute final HPB ministerial decision to members when
it comes available
5
Comment [A G1]: This right?
Forum
Relationships
Andy ran a brief discussion on how recreational clubs that are currently not
represented in the forum may possibly report into the forum process. Simon
raised the issue that the far northern area (East Cape) of the forum was not
represented very well. Other forum members agreed and suggested that the
addition of a forum member from this area should be considered.
Andy noted that there are a couple of new clubs within the NISE forum
boundaries, and other established clubs, that are currently unaware of the
forum and its role. Andy enquired if forum members would be happy for Andy
to contact these clubs and give out the contact details for the nearest forum
member or if they would prefer the contact to be directly through Andy. Most
members thought it would be good for Andy to contact the clubs and also let
them know of the forum and the forum member who is responsible for their
part of the coast.
Action 8) Andy to follow up on contacting clubs and representation
from the far north
The following agenda items are to be discussed at the next forum meeting:
Next meeting
Closing
•
Customary fishing
•
Sharks (if requested)
•
Forum Relationships
Andy thanked the members for their time and effort they put into the forum
process and closed the meeting at 3.40 pm.
6