| 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:
| Jan 03 |
2 fish |
| Jan 02 |
35 fish |
| Jan 01 |
34 fish |
| Jan 00 |
45 fish |
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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