Kahawai
- Whats the Problem?
Kahawai
Challenge team
June
2005
Kahawai Legal Challenge
Update New Zealand Fishing News
July 2005 edition
What's the Problem?
One of the most frequently
asked questions is what's the problem with kahawai? Many of us
have just enjoyed the late run of kahawai particularly off the
north east coast of the country. While these fleeting runs of
large kahawai have given us some joyous moments they are merely
reminders of what this fishery used to be like all summer long
- reminders of what we have lost.
Kahawai Decision
When Fisheries Minister,
David Benson-Pope made his kahawai decision last August he made
it on the basis of what had been previously caught i.e. based
on catch history. What he failed to consider was the effect that
purse seining had on kahawai numbers, particularly in the north
where the fleet is now based.
This race to build a catch
history was a maximum targeting period for kahawai. It was recently
described as a time when the prevailing attitude amongst commercial
fishers was lets “pig out on kahawai”.
Benson-Pope tried to justify
his decision by saying he had given recreational fishers the “lion's-share
of the catch”. What he didn't acknowledge was our inability to
go out and catch the allowance he had set aside for us, in some
areas. The claim that there is plenty of kahawai for everyone
and that the kahawai stocks in all areas are well above sustainable
levels is an affront to all those who have witnessed the decline
in this fishery, since the targeting of kahawai schools by purse
seiners.
The Reality
A former senior MAF scientist,
Lew Ritchie, had this to say in 1987. “Right now we may be witnessing
the end of kahawai as we know it. The commercial catch of kahawai
has risen from an insignificant level 10 or even five years ago
to currently (1985, the most recent year for which full catch
statistics are available) second in landed weight among coastal
and sixth in finfish overall in the New Zealand 200 mile Exclusive
Economic Zone. This is nothing short of a tragedy. It is a classic
case of the last available and easily exploited coastal fish being
plundered just “because it is there” by the greedy, the thoughtless
and the over-capitalised.”
Well it got worse and now
18 years later we are still trying to rebuild the kahawai stocks
in many areas. An MFish kahawai stock monitoring project has been
running since 2000 in KAH1, the area between North Cape and Cape
Runaway. Despite hundreds of hours interviewing fishers at boat
ramps each summer the survey has failed to measure the target
number of 1500 kahawai in each region, East Northland, Hauraki
Gulf and the Bay of Plenty. In fact the summer of 2004 was the
worst so far, particularly in the Hauraki Gulf, where only 764
kahawai were measured despite a doubling of research effort.
Hauraki Gulf
The summer of 2004 was
a particularly poor season for a variety of reasons, weather being
one of them. But the failure to reach these basic targets is proof
we have a problem with the availability of kahawai.
A new recreational harvest
survey for the Hauraki Gulf has produced some draft results. The
2004 summer catch of kahawai in the Hauraki Gulf was estimated
to be around 30 tonnes. Not only have few kahawai been caught
in the Gulf in recent years but the size has been very small.
The large kahawai that have occasionally been seen this autumn
will probably end up in the Bay of Plenty this winter and who
knows if they will ever return?
Kahawai Legal Challenge
One of the objectives of
challenging the Minister's kahawai decision in the High Court
is to get clarification of what our non-commercial fishing “interests”
are. When the Minister makes an allocation decision the law is
very clear, section 21 of the Fisheries Act 1996 says,
“(1) In setting or
varying any total allowable commercial catch for any quota management
stock, the Minister shall have regard to the total allowable catch
for that stock and shall allow for—
(a) The following
non-commercial fishing interests in that stock, namely-
(i)Maori customary
non-commercial fishing interests; and
(ii)Recreational
interests; and
(b)All other mortality
to that stock caused by fishing.”
Our argument is that the
Minister has not allowed for our interests in kahawai even though
he has given us an allowance of hundreds of tonnes for recreational
and Maori customary fishers. It is outrageous to think the Minister
can “set” an allowance and ignore the reality of these fish being
unavailable to catch.
Rebuild our Kahawai
Sadly our kahawai stocks
are at a very low level and need rebuilding very quickly. It is
difficult to see how we are going to achieve the rebuild when
MFish continue with their theme that there is no scarcity of kahawai.
Over 95% of the 2000 people who responded last year supporting
our submission stated that the kahawai they catch are smaller
and there are less of them about.
We
want our kahawai back
To quote Lew again,“Whichever
way the kahawai is looked at, it is a great New Zealander, like
tui and fantail, cabbage tree and flax, cockle and pipi, and like
them as deserving of the greatest care and respect of the New
Zealand environment and heritage. Like pipi and cockle, kahawai
is too important traditionally, mainly because of its ready availability
to all and its ease of capture, to be commercially exploited in
bulk, and it is unarguably far too important to be turned
into fish meal.”
Please Help
The Legal Challenge and
associated public awareness fund raising campaign needs all the
help we can get. If ever there was a time to contribute, now is
it. Please don't wait until it's too late, do something now. Stand
and Fight with us so we can give our children a better fishing
future.
Please:
- Call 0800 KAHAWAI (52 42 92) to find out more.
- Go to www.kahawai.co.nz
and order your Supporters Pack online.
- Simply dial 0900 KAHAWAI (52 42 92) to make a $20.00 donation.
The $20 donation will be debited to your phone account. Please
do this more than once.
- Email us at contact@kahawai.co.nz
