DOC Proposes New Boundaries for
Marine
Reserve at Nugget Point
| This
article was originally published on 31 March 2005
We now have
a revised proposal for a marine reserve at Nugget Point
said Otago Conservator Jeff Connell today.
The new proposal
has been developed after seeking feedback from the public,
attending meetings with a full range of interested parties,
reviewing material gathered as part of the 1992 application,
commissioning and
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studying
a sub tidal video transect survey and monitoring the recreational
use of Nugget Point’s waters over the peak holiday period.
“The
commercial industry representatives and Kaka Pt fishing club
have not been willing to give us information at this stage,
but have told us to come back and consult them when we have
drawn some lines on a map. So we have done that”, said
Mr Connell.
DOC’s
proposal is open for comment through April. The proposal will
be explained at a series of public meetings in Balclutha (6
April), Kaka Point (7 April) and Dunedin (8 April).
DOC will
approach key groups for face to face consultation on its boundaries
during April. These are adjoining landowners, commercial fishers,
recreational fishers, Ngai Tahu and environmental and scientific/educational
groups.
“We
will consider feedback from all sides on our proposal, before
we move to the formal process under the Marine Reserves Act.
We will not, however, be allowing the issue to drag on”
he said.
A marine
reserve at Nugget Point was first seriously mooted in 1989,
and the Director-General of Conservation made a formal application
in 1992. That application has lain on the table since then.
The new
proposal, at approximately 646 hectares, is smaller than the
1992 application. Key differences are a reduction in the south,
so as not to unduly interfere with commercial paua fishing,
and a boundary change in the north to allow more space for recreational
fishing to continue in the relatively sheltered waters off Tirohanga.
In addition, the seaward boundary has been changed to better
align with the steep underwater escarpment off the end of the
Nuggets.
“The
subtidal survey shows that contrary to the views expressed to
us by some people, Nugget Point does not “look after itself”
Jeff Connell added. “In the area of our new proposal,
several targeted species of legal size are surprisingly absent.
Removing fishing pressure will enable those species to recover
and regain their normal place in the marine ecosystem.”
