KAHAWAI SUBMISSION FEBRUARY 2004

Kahawai Submission

by Bay of Islands Charter Fishing Association

25 February 2004

BAY OF ISLANDS CHARTER FISHING ASSOC (INC)

25 February 2004                                                                                                            

Emma Knight,

Ministry of Fisheries

Fax 04 470 2669

(P.O. Box 1020)

WELLINGTON .                     

Dear M/S Knight,

SUBMISSION ON IPP DATED 12 JANUARY 2004

Our Association was incorporated in 1998 and represents some 40 members who are actively engaged in or directly associated with charter industry in the Bay of Islands.

We wish to make submissions on the proposals contained in the IPP dated as above in respect to three of the species to come within the QMS system effective 1 October 2004:

Swordfish:

In our earlier Submission dated 11 July 2001, we said:

We wish to convey our Association's deep concern over the sustainability of the broadbill fishery given high levels of extraction over the last 2 seasons, as tuna longliners have moved north to fish our waters once the quota for southern bluefin has been filled.
 

This year we have seen the migration north of approximately 120 extra boats to give a total fleet of around 150. There is of course no TAC on broadbill, and we believe this disastrous exploitation could see the same devastation as has been well documented in America.
 

The recreational broadbill fishery is emerging as a major tourist attractor for this country. Already we have seen one world record caught, and with many fish over 150kg being landed this year, those of our members who are investing time and effort in this fishery have created worldwide interest in what is regarded by experienced anglers as the best potential fishery that exists for the world's top gamefish.

Broadbill also form an important by-catch for longliners operating off the north east coast, who do not catch the larger numbers of bluefin available off the South Island's west coast. If local broadbill stocks collapse, not only will we have wasted a potentially lucrative ongoing world class sportfishery, but also will place a threat on the viability of locally based longliners.

Unlike the tunas, broadbill are not particularly migratory, and local depletions take a long time to show recovery. A restrictive TAC is urgently required, but certainly not at the levels of extraction from the last 2 years, as it is the current level of extraction that causes us concern.

As we believe this is a matter of extreme urgency, we would welcome the opportunity to make further information available to your officials, should they wish to contact us."

With some 31 months having now passed since making the above Submission, we now wish to register our concern that at 919 tons, the TAC for broadbill has been set with little knowledge of sustainability of the resource. Evidence from a tagged fish caught to the north of NZ after some 11 years is that growth rates may be as low as 10 or 12kg per year.

The huge potential for tourism income through the charter industry, comes not so much from the volume or accessibility of broadbill, but from the large size of our fish. At least 3 fish over 300kg have been captured by recreational anglers in NZ during the last 3 years, a size not matched since the Chilean charter fleet produced fantastic results in the 1950s.

As a result of the capture of just 3 fish last May (one the largest fish captured anywhere in the world since the 1954), a member of our Association has bookings worth over $50,000. Obviously there is also a considerable spin - off to other portions of the tourist industry from these bookings as well.

From our own reading it seems that one of the first indications of fishing pressure on a broadbill population is a decrease in size of fish caught and this may well be used as a measure of sustainability in our own fishery. It would be ironic if the confirmation that the TAC has been set too high was only proven after the special attraction of our broadbill population had already been lost!!!.

In these circumstances we believe the TAC should be set at an extremely conservative level of say 250 tonnes, providing a reasonable level of bi-catch landings for the tuna fleet. This would reduce the temptation for commercial targeting of broadbill in the easier to reach areas that are the backbone of our fledgling broadbill charter fishing industry.

Broadbill returning to NZ waters after spawning in the tropics during late spring display two distinct patterns. The first is to follow temperature breaks, feeding on the increased sea life associated with these variations in sea temp. The second is to aggregate around deep water bottom features, such as the Garden Patch off Cape Karikari, and the Poor Knights Rise where large aggregations of blue nose and squid form an important part of the diet. It is these latter areas that fishable by the charter fleet.

As well as conservation of fish size through a conservative TAC, we believe it is critical that the territorial portion of the broadbill population is not wiped out by the commercial fleet each season. For this reason, long liners should be banned from setting any portion of their lines within 25 miles of the mainland or outlying islands.  

Kahawai

In our Submission on this species dated 11 July 2001, we noted:

Our Kahawai have an international reputation for their fighting qualities and this has been recognised by Air New Zealand who are the primary sponsors of the Annual Saltwater Flyfishing tournament, the 5 th of which is to be held in the Bay of Islands this coming April .Kahawai are the primary target of these tournaments and attract anglers from all over the world. With the exception of those fish caught which may have been potential world records, all other fish were released unharmed"

We went on to suggest that if a TACC should be set for this species, it should be at "nil" as the commercial value of Kahawai was negligible as opposed to it's recreational value.

In the 31 months which have passed, these views are held even more strongly by our members who all report vastly diminished schools of Kahawai in the Bay of Islands. Piercy Island which has been one of the most outstanding areas for observing large schools of Kahawai (and trevally) surface feeding on krill, is now a very much hit and miss affair. Previously, passengers on the many Hole in the Rock boat tours were almost assured of observing this spectacular sight during summer months – now, they are fortunate if they get to see these fish at all!

The proposal to set a TAC of 3910 tonnes and a TACC of 1480 tonnes (37.85%) we feel is far to high and should ideally be "Nil" but we would be prepared to live with a maximum TACC of 500 tonnes reducing the TAC down to 2930 tonnes.

To illustrate the extreme value placed by recreational anglers on this species, we set out below an unsolicited testimonial offered by a visiting fishing guide from the UK who salt-fly fished with one of our members recently. He happened to be lucky on his visit to Piercy Island on the particular day:  

I have been fishing since I was age 4, I have caught a good few fish in the last 25 years.  My passion lead me to a career in fishing as a guide in Britain, while also opening up opportunities to work abroad in the capacity as a guide and also on media projects.

In that time I have caught some of the hardest fighting species available to light tackle anglers, or so I though until fishing out of the Bay of Islands when I caught a Kahawai. This is a sport angler's dream, it shoals, it takes a fly readily and fights like no other species that I have ever come across.  During my trip to the Bay of Islands I stayed at 3 different accommodation venues, purchased fuel, provisions, fishing tackle, etc, etc, so that I could fish for Kahawai using rods which I usually save for Trout. 

Having caught a number of fish, I took only a photo as a trophy and released my fish for yet another lucky angler to catch.  This is self sustaining sport which not only will bring pleasure to thousands of anglers each year but also directly boosts the economy, it is also very much a growth industry. 

Kahawai must be preserved, because while they seemed abundant on the day, indiscriminate commercial harvesting could soon see stocks decimated leading to problems within the Bay of Islands ecosystem. Commercial fishing for this species also makes no sense economically. What's better, just a few cents for a fish hauled from the ocean by net or hundreds of dollars of revenue from anglers travelling from all over the world to sample New Zealand's fabled sport fishing ?

This fish is too good to be caught only once

The answer is in the question! Don't follow in the footsteps of fishing industries such as those present in my homeland of Europe. Our Salmon stocks have crashed, Cod are on the endangered list and all the while our governments continue to implement poorly advised policy which does nothing to help and only exacerbates the problem. Long live King Kahawai!!!"

Nick Hart, Fly Fishing Guide, Somerset, England.  Feb 2004.

Yellowfin Tuna. 

We submit that the TACC for this species at 219 tonnes being 81.7% of the TAC, is too high. Recreational catch figures in the Bay of Islands area as obtained from the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club demonstrate a dramatic decline in this species over the past 5 years. The most recent month of January 2004 reveals Nil Yellowfin landed. Comparative results for the previous four January months are:

It is our view that A TACC of 100 tonnes should be sufficient to cope with by-catch

Yours faithfully,

GRAEME McINTOSH   (President)

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