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Statement
Green Party
31
August 2004
Greens secure
Govt commitment to kahawai fishery
The Green Party has obtained a written commitment from the Minister
of Fisheries today that catch limits for the kahawai fishery will
be reviewed over the next year. He has further committed to substantial
funding for collection of data on the state of the fishery and the
size of the recreational catch.
Green Party Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said that Minister David
Benson-Pope has undertaken to consider exclusion areas for purse
seine fishing along with revised catch limits, if the data supported
it.
"The Green Party considered very carefully whether to support the
Baldock amendment to the Fisheries No 3 Bill which would have cancelled
all catch limits but left the kahawai in the Quota Management System,"
said Ms Fitzsimons.
"We have a strong policy commitment that kahawai should be managed
primarily as a recreational fishery, with commercial quota only
to cover unavoidable by-catch.
"Our judgement is that the Baldock amendment, while well intentioned,
would not have achieved this.
"For one thing, it would not have passed, with both Labour and Act
voting against it, whatever the Greens and other parties did. Further,
it would have created a year of chaos in the fishery with no catch
limits at all, and no promise that they would have been set any
differently the next year."
Ms Fitzsimons said that the fundamental problem is that commercial
fish stocks are managed at very low levels, down to 20 per cent
of their original abundance. This is inappropriate for a recreational
fishery (as well as for the marine ecosystem generally) where the
methods used just can't catch a fish often enough.
"A hand line in a dinghy can't compete with a giant purse seine
net," she said.
"However, the Fisheries Act requires the most quota to be issued
to the fishers who were catching the most fish in 1990-92. That
is the purse seiners.
"The Minister has no choice in how he allocates the available commercial
quota, but he does have the option of setting a lower total catch
limit and of setting exclusion areas where purse seine boats can't
go. The Greens believe that is necessary now, but better information
is needed for the Minister to do it legally.
"We are disappointed that the total catch for kahawai has been set
too high to protect the abundance of the 'people's fish' for recreational
fishers. We will work with the Minister as he has invited us to
do, to ensure a better outcome for the 2005/6 fishing year," said
Ms Fitzsimons.
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