Nugget Point Apr 2005

This article was originally published in the Otago Daily Times 3 April 2005

Nugget Point

Balclutha: The Department of Conservation's proposal for a marine reserve at Nugget Point was being run by a small group in its Dunedin office hellbent on making it happen, a commercial fishing industry spokesman claimed yesterday.

In a stinging attack aimed at Doc Otago conservator Jeff Connell, Otago Rock Lobster Industry spokesman Malcolm Lawson said the level of arrogance and lack of democracy in ignoring the public's views was "not the New Zealand way" and he believed the public would be very disturbed to know the way Doc was handling the proposal.

"The whole of this proposal is being run by about four people in the Dunedin Doc office. They have formulated the proposal and conducted all of the meetings and presentations to date."

These same people would then receive the public submissions, analyse them and write the summary and final recommendation to the Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter. An independent reviewer would examine Doc's process but not the decisions it came to. What was worse, Mr Lawson said, was this reviewer would be appointed by Mr Connell.

For his part, Mr Connell said the Nugget Point proposal was being handled no differently than any other marine reserve application anywhere else in the country and he was comfortable with the way it had been managed so far.

Mr Lawson and other commercial fishing industry representatives met Mr Connell on Thursday but came away very unhappy with his approach and attitude towards the proposal.

In a statement, Mr Lawson said he asked what level of opposition would be required for Doc to walk away from the proposal. Mr Connell had replied it would not matter what the opposition was, as he was determined the application would be made next month.

Mr Lawson also claimed Mr Connell conceded he did not have the staff with the experience or expertise to analyse submissions from the commercial industry.

"The issues surrounding commercial fishing, such as property rights, the dynamics of fishing, the displacement of fishing effort, conflict and access rights, are very complicated and yet we will have to rely on people who know nothing about the industry to evaluate our submissions," Mr Lawson said.

Mr Connell admitted that when contacted yesterday, but said the application had to be studied and approved by the Ministry of Fisheries before it went ahead and its expertise would "come into play" then.

He stressed the Nugget Point proposal had been around for many years and the time had now come to resolve the issue "one way or the other".

Meanwhile, the Clutha District Council's support to have an alternative option fully explored has been welcomed by the group pushing for a guardians-style management of the South Otago coastline.

The group, made up of commercial and recreational fishers, property owners and tourism bodies, wants a body representing all affected parties to oversee the coastline rather than simply lock fishers out of the Nugget Point area for good.

Group spokesman Lionel Mason said it was reassuring to have "a major player" like the council interested in seeing the concept fully investigated. The group has been invited to explain its proposal at the next full council meeting on May 12.

But Mr Connell said this alternative had not convinced him to drop the marine reserve application.

He had no problem with alternatives being explored but noted the Fiordland concept took about eight years to finalise. He did not want to see that kind of delay at Nugget Point.

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