Council
Chief says Fishermen left Behind
by Joseph
Beaumont
This
article was original published in the Southland Times 21 April
2005
The "ad hoc" imposition of marine reserves,
including the proposed reserve at Nugget Point, was failing
to preserve fishers' rights, the New Zealand Seafood Industry
Council said.
Chief
executive Owen Symmans said yesterday establishing marine reserves
was a "blunt tool" to protect the marine environment,
potentially taking property rights without compensation for
commercial fishermen.
"The
Government should concentrate on identifying the risks and then
putting in place management regimes which best manages those
risks," he said.
Marine
reserves were not a fisheries management tool.
They
were only one of the many mechanisms available under the Fisheries
and Resource Management Acts to manage biodiversity risk.
"Fishers
too have rights. We are a responsible industry and support the
protection of biodiversity but decisions as to how this is achieved
must take into account the property rights of fishermen."
Mr Symmans
said the industry wanted an approach that protected property
rights and sustain the marine environment, "rather than
seemingly arbitrary decisions on what waters should be closed
off to everyone and locked into a marine reserve".
However,
a spokesman for Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope said the
quota management system did not confer special rights on commercial
fishers, who had to share the marine environment with many other
users.
Clear
procedures followed in establishing a marine reserve included
assessing whether there would be "any undue interference"
with commercial fishing.
"This
is part of the reason why the Minister of Fisheries must concur
with any decision of the Minister of Conservation to establish
a marine reserve," the spokesman said.
Department
of Conservation Otago conservator Jeff Connell, who next month
will formally apply for the marine reserve at the Nuggets, said:
"all property rights are subject to the general law, and
that includes the Marine Reserves Act."
Mr Symmans
said his council also supported recreational fishers.
Their
voice was being ignored by Conservation Minister Chris Carter,
who was "steamrolling through" new reserve applications.
"I
echo the Recreational Fishing Council's concerns – that
Mr Carter has to consult all affected parties before making
decisions on closing tracts of water and compromising property
rights."
The fishing
council had said more than 7 percent of New Zealand waters were
now marine reserves, which was close to the Government's target
of 10 percent.
However,
a spokesman for Mr Carter said these figures were misleading
as they "compared apples and pears".
Of the
7 percent of New Zealand's marine reserves, 98 percent was taken
up by only two reserves, around the outlying Auckland and Kermadec
Islands.
The 10
percent target applied to both New Zealand's territorial waters
and to its exclusive economic zone, which extended 370km (200
nautical miles) out to sea.
Only
2 percent of that combined area was at present under "some
form" of marine protection, not necessarily marine reserves,
the spokesman said.
