| Kahawai
Submission
option4
10
August 2005
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10.
Reports by fishing clubs/experienced fishers
10.1 The reports of fishing clubs and the direct observations
of experienced fishers should not be dismissed or given little weight
as being "anecdotal" evidence.
10.2 Such information is often the best available information where
scientific information is limited and uncertain, particularly where
that information extends back in time prior to the peak in purse
seine fishing.
10.3 The weight of non-commercial reports all support the same conclusion
that kahawai stocks have declined to unacceptably low levels and
kahawai catch rates/fish size remain disappointingly low in many
areas.
11. The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
11.1 There are particularly strong sustainability concerns in the
Hauraki Marine Park area, which is an area of significant national
importance.
11.2 Sections 7 and 8 of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 require
the protection of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
11.3 As noted above, a recent NIWA survey indicated that it took
a recreational fisher 8 boat trips on average to catch a kahawai
in the Hauraki Gulf in 2004. This is typical of the wider sustainability
concerns that exist for kahawai in the Hauraki Gulf.
11.4 A more drastic rebuild is needed in KAH 1 to protect the national
social, cultural and economic importance of the area. Significant
reductions in the TACC for KAH1 are needed to assist in rebuilding
stocks to allow reasonable catch rates and fish size in the Hauraki
Gulf Marine Park Area.
12. Social, Cultural and Economic Factors
for Non-Commercial Fishers
12.1 When setting kahawai TACs and TACCs/non-commercial allowances
social, cultural and economic factors relevant to the non-commercial
sector should be taken into account.
12.2 The 2005 kahawai IPP only appears
to evaluate the economic effects of proposed reduced TACs on the
commercial sector.
12.3 Social, cultural and economic factors relevant to the non-commercial
sector should also be evaluated. The 2005 kahawai IPP appears to
simply reference such factors without evaluating them in relation
to non-commercial fishers.
12.4 Such factors specifically include the importance of kahawai
as food.
12.5 The social, cultural and economic benefits non-commercial fishers
obtain from kahawai should be sought to be maximised.
13.
Implementing the reductions proposed
13.1 The 2005 kahawai
IPP stated at paragraph 7(p):
"Should the Minister decide to reduce the TAC and allowances
there is no proposal to apply additional management controls to
further constrain recreational catch. Recreational fishers consider
the catch will be within the current allowance without additional
management controls. There is no new information to suggest that
a revised recreational allowance would be exceeded with current
management controls and at current levels of abundance."
13.2 As noted above, there is no new information non-commercial
fishers will exceed their current allowances. option4 also submits
that if the non-commercial allowances are reduced by a further 10%
there is no new evidence to suggest that non-commercial fishers
allowances would be exceeded.
13.3 option4 submits that the 15% reduction to recreational allowances
made last year should be remedied and further reductions to catch
required to rebuild this fishery be applied only to the TACC to
recognise and address the historical issues. The cut to the TACC
needs to be greater than the proposed 10% to address the issues
raised in this submission.
13.4 Clearly, there is no urgency for the Minister to impose proportional
cuts to both commercial and non-commercial fishers, nor any fear
that non-commercial fishers would increase their catch if the allowance
is increased. Any surplus allocation to non-commercial fishers would
go uncaught and would be the equivalent of commercial fishers shelving
quota.
13.5 The greatest benefits of this approach would be that non-commercial
fishers could then conserve kahawai with no risk that the tonnage
of fish conserved would be taken by commercial fishers. The need
for further contentious decisions in the near future would be alleviated
and the non-commercial sector would feel that a long standing injustice
had finally been addressed.
TOP
14. Maori Fishing Interests
14.1 Maori have interests in all aspects of fishing, commercial,
recreational and customary.
14.2 Kahawai are considered a taonga, a treasure and certainly are
not viewed as a sport fish.
14.3 Sonny Tau, Chairman of Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi, recently
made the following comment as the 2005 NZRFC Conference:
“We treasure the kahawai as an integral part of our
ability to manaaki our manuhiri”.
14.4 Sonny Tau added:
“Prior to the signing of the Sealords deal when Maori went
fishing to feed their babies they were fishing customarily. Since
the 1992 settlement 99% of the time Maori now go fishing to feed
their babies, they are categorised as recreational fishers.”
14.5 Ngapuhi’s Professor Manuka Henare summarises manaakitanga
in this way:
“manaaki tanga relates to the finer qualities of people,
rather than just to their material possessions. It is the principle
of the quality of caring, kindness, hospitality and showing respect
for others. To exhibit manaakitanga is to raise ones mana (manaaki)
through generosity.” Maori customary fishing must be allowed
for, manaaki manuhiri is paramount."
14.6 Over the past few months two hui have been held with Ngapuhi,
other northern iwi and recreational non-commercial fishing interests.
The outcome of both hui was very clear; there are insufficient fish
in the water to meet the needs or aspirations of Maori, whether
they are fishing to feed their family (currently categorised as
"recreational" fishing) or for customary purposes.
14.7 Both hui unanimously agreed that achieving “more fish
in the water” is the only way to resolve their concerns. The
agreement reached at Whakamaharatanga Marae in Hokianga was formalised
into one document and will the basis of future discussions between
non-commercial fishing interests and MFish of Fisheries (Appendix
Two).
14.8 Ongoing mismanagement of our inshore shared fisheries, kahawai
in particular, has come at a high social, cultural and economic
cost for Maori. Tangata whenua do not want to continue to bear the
cost of poor kahawai management.
15. Kahawai as food
15.1 A high proportion of kahawai caught by non-commercial fishers
is taken for food. Cooked fresh or smoked at home, it is becoming
increasingly popular. Surveys of returning fishers at some boat
ramps have shown that 90% of fishers return home with no fish. Attitudes
to kahawai have changed. Today a wide range of fish species are
taken home for the table, as prime species have become less abundant.
15.2 There are many people in small coastal communities who rely
on the sea for food. They have no supermarket or often no shop at
all where they live. Many cannot afford to buy fish at retail prices.
Of course they do not eat fish all the time, but without it their
standard of living drops; they may go hungry. These people, Maori
and non-Maori, are subsistence fishers who rarely have a voice in
corridors of power or the offices of MFish.
15.3 Subsistence fishers are not defined as customary. They only
take what they need under the amateur bag limits and it is not for
the purposes of hui or tangi. It is for the purposes of traditional
harvest, quality of life, supporting an individual or family, as
is the custom in many seaside communities. Kahawai was once one
of their most accessible fish, caught from the beach, wharf or rocks,
harbours, estuaries, open coast headlands and reefs.
15.4 The Minister should evaluate the needs of subsistence fishers
and their need for access to a healthy kahawai stock.
15.5 Arguably, their needs are the greatest of all; not for the
quantity they take, but for the impact on their lives.
16. option4 Conclusion
16.1 option4 believes this submission proves that the kahawai fishery
needs to be rebuilt to restore access to a healthy fish stock to
provide all non-commercial fishers with a reasonable chance of catching
a reasonable daily bag of acceptable size kahawai.
16.2 option4 believes this submission proves that any and all further
reductions to catch required to rebuild this fishery should be applied
only to the TACC to recognise and address the historical issues.
Further we believe that in order to quickly rebuild these fishers
to a level above or significantly above BMSY then the TACC’s
should be set at the highest recorded commercial by-catch level
in each QMA. In some areas TACCs may need to be reduced more than
the proposed 10% to address the important issues raised in this
submission. In KAH8 where kahawai catch is predominately by-catch
no further reduction may be required.
16.3 option4 believes the proportional document demonstrates there
is no urgency for the Minister to apply any cuts to non-commercial
fishers allowance, nor is there any fear that non-commercial fishers
would increase their catch in the short term if the non-commercial
allowance is increased. Until the kahawai fishery rebuilds any surplus
allocation to non-commercial fishers would go uncaught and would
be the equivalent of commercial fishers shelving quota.
16.4 The greatest benefits of this approach would be that non-commercial
fishers could then conserve kahawai with no risk that the tonnage
of fish conserved would be taken by commercial fishers. As the fishery
rebuilds over time the non-commercial catch will increase and this
increase will be sustainable as it will be covered by the higher
allowance. The need for further contentious decisions in the near
future would be alleviated and the non-commercial sector would feel
that a long standing injustice had finally been addressed.
16.5 option4 urges the Minister to adopt a specific management objective
for managing each kahawai stock above BMSY, in order to leave more
fish in the water.
16.6 option4 urges the Minister to accept that the fishing method
that causes a sustainability problem should bear most of the catch
reduction required to fix the problem. For too long fishing companies
have been allowed to externalise the environmental and social costs
of their business.
16.7 The Minister must be made aware of the true extent of commercial
kahawai catch in the 1980s, which was responsible for fishing these
stocks down. This includes the “mixed fish”, “rejects”
or “felix”.
16.8 That, when setting TACs and deriving TACCs and non-commercial
allowances, the Minister should take a range of information into
account (as the best available information), including information
that defines the nature and scope of non-commercial interests in
kahawai, in order to make more sophisticated decisions in each fish
stock, rather than being solely reliant on recent catch history
information and proportional reductions.
16.9 The Minister should be informed that proportional allocation
improperly subordinates non-commercial fishing rights to the commercial
sector where biomass has been reduced significantly, and consequently,
the non-commercial catch is suppressed. A status quo catch history
approach with fixed proportional reductions does not address the
long-standing management issues in high use QMAs.
16.10 Therefore option4 believes that any and all further reductions
to catch required to rebuild this fishery in this current round
be applied only to the TACC to recognise and address the historical
issues. We believe that in order to quickly rebuild these fishers
to a level above or significantly above BMSY then the TACC’s
should be set at the highest recorded commercial by-catch level
in each QMA. In some areas TACCs may need to be reduced more than
the proposed 10% to address the important issues raised in this
submission. In KAH8 where kahawai catch is predominately by-catch
no further reduction may be required.
16.11 Issues for the Minister to consider and proposed allowances
in each of the main QMAs are detailed in Appendix 1 below.
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