Speech to the Fishing Coast-to-Coast annual conference

Good afternoon and thank you for the invitation to address your conference.

On the last occasion I spoke to a Fishing Coast-to-Coast Conference it was as the opposition spokesman for fisheries. 

I am very happy today to address you as the Minister.

Going fishing is an opportunity that many New Zealanders take up.

SPARC has recently published the results of the 2007/08 Active New Zealand survey and produced a sport and recreation profile for recreational fishing.

Salt water fishing came out as the country's seventh most popular sport and recreational activity with 17% of the population taking part.

That is significantly higher than rugby, a pastime most would probably cite as helping define us as a nation.

Interestingly, rugby shared 21^st position with freshwater fishing, which just serves to underscore the popularity of fishing generally.

When you add in other forms of what the statisticians consider to be ‘fishing' the numbers get even higher.

This includes things like diving for paua, scallops and crays and gathering pipis and cockles.

In fact the Ministry of Fisheries has undertaken survey work over a number of years which suggests about 30% of the population engage in some sort of fishing activity in any given year.

This is a huge bloc of people any way you look at it.

October sustainability decisions

A month ago I announced my decisions on changes to catch limits and other regulatory changes for the fishing year starting on the first of October.

These decisions cover a range of species in the inshore area and the deepwater.

What I have done when making these decisions is focus on two intertwined things.

The first, and it underscores every fisheries decision I make, is making sure the decision protects the species' sustainability.

I always ask: what will this do to ensure the health of fish stocks?

The second, and without it I can't reach a view on sustainability, is delivery of good information.

I always want to base my decisions on the best information available.

I'm confident I've done both things in making these decisions.

We are reacting to the science and the trends we are seeing out on the water and making future focused decisions.

The best information we have available is not perfect though.

In some areas it is patchy at best.

Seaweed harvesting

Some of you have raised with me of your concerns about opening more areas in the North Island to commercial fishers to harvest beach cast seaweed. 

This was something I thought about carefully as I do understand the important role seaweed has in the marine eco-system. 

But I believe the rules should match the risk - and here, while the science is by no means absolute, the risk to the health of fish stocks is low. 

Commercial beachcast seaweed harvesters in New Zealand are still very much small boutique operators and their total harvest levels are low. 

The total harvest in the Gisborne to Wellington area, for example, is thought to be less than 1% of the annual seaweed deposits on the Wairarapa Coast alone. 

There is room for some growth here - room for New Zealanders to benefit more from this natural and constantly replenishing resource.   

This is not to say I will take my eye off the ball. 

We will be monitoring seaweed harvesting - and if change is required I will not hesitate to act. 

I have already shown my commitment to careful management by retaining closures in potentially sensitive areas despite the low intensity of harvest.

Recreational changes

Some of the new regulations will be of benefit to recreational fishers.

Recreational divers will be allowed to catch crayfish with cray lassoes or cray loops, provided they are not spring loaded.

This will simplify the regulations and let divers use a way of catching crayfish that is less damaging than other methods.

I have also approved a new minimum size for paua in the Taranaki region.

Paua in Taranaki are naturally small and usually don't grow to the minimum size of 125mm like in other parts of the country.

By reducing the size in this area it will mean that recreational fishers are able to catch paua and make the most of the fishery that, while small in size, is abundant in numbers.

I was very please to be able to make these practical, common sense changes in areas where the information we have suggests they can be made sustainably.

Paua accumulation

Another important change to the regulations is the new accumulation limit for paua.

Paua poaching is a big problem.

It is estimated that half of all paua caught is taken illegally and then sold on the black market here or smuggled out of the country for sale elsewhere.

From October 1 nobody will be able to accumulate more than two daily bag limits of 10 paua per person per day.

That is 20 paua per person in your possession at any time provided that the daily bag limit is not exceeded.

If you're a law abiding recreational paua gatherer then you have nothing to fear - you won't suddenly have fisheries officers knocking on your door asking to look in your freezer.

If a fisheries officer knocks on your door you can bet they've got good reason to do so.

The accumulation rule is about getting more wins against gangs of paua poachers, many of whom have used the defence of having legally accumulated huge amounts of paua to escape conviction.

It also allowed criminals to leave the country with suitcase loads of frozen paua.

Those days are over.

Recreational only fishing areas

As I'm sure most of you are aware, an important part of the government's fisheries policy is the establishment of recreation only fishing areas.

Establishing these areas is something I am committed to.

We campaigned on it and you can take it as read that John Key expects me to deliver.

To date I have had informal discussions with commercial and customary interests but the time is quickly coming where we have to have a formal process involving recreationalists.

The areas will need to be carefully chosen and that is a process that I do not intend to rush.

We won't be having a race for space; we will work steadily but carefully and we won't be acting in haste.

It may be that we can achieve good results which enhance the recreational experience in some areas where there's no commercial finfish take or where closures are seasonal rather than a complete ban on all commercial fishing all year.

Establishing recreational only areas could impose some costs on commercial fishers, they may be barred from areas they have fished in the past and have to travel further a field.

My intention is to minimise costs imposed on any sector; as with recreational charter vessel reporting I am looking for maximum gain for minimum pain.

I have asked them to think about this issue and make some suggestions to help me in my thinking.

This offer has not been taken as seriously as I'd hoped, so I intend being more proactive very soon.

Charter boat reporting

Commercial fishers have to report all of their catch in a lot of detail and provide that information to government regularly.

The customary sector is making great strides in the reporting of customary fishing activity.

In fact in the last nine months we have gone from receiving about 40% of the reports we are supposed to get from iwi to receiving over 95%.

The obvious gap here is information on recreational fishing; and with perhaps 30% of the population heading out fishing every year this gap is quite big.

We can make educated guesses but I think we need to do better than that.

This year's budget was very tight.

Due to the economic conditions there was very little extra funding available for new initiatives.

However, I managed to secure $3.4 million over four years for more recreational fishing research.

This will start addressing the information shortfall and will be split between two projects.

The first will research recreational fishers' catch in some of our key inshore fisheries.

The second is to put in place a registration and reporting system for charter boats that carry recreational fishers.

At the moment we don't have much confirmed information on the size of the charter fleet or where the boats are based.

That being the case we are similarly bereft of information on their fishing activity - where they're fishing how much of our key shared fish stocks are being caught by charter vessels. 

Some recent research indicates that that the number of charter vessels has increased significantly over the past decade, and that the fleet's activities have changed.

Without improved information it is difficult to gauge whether the growth in vessel numbers and fishing is spread across different areas and fishstocks or is heavily focused on particularly vulnerable fishstocks or localised populations.

There will be three elements to the charter vessel reporting system.

The first is registration.

We need to know how many charter boats there are and where they are operating.

We can then keep an eye on trends and see any potential issues as they emerge.

Second is activity reporting.

Let me be clear, this is different from commercial catch reporting and will be much simpler.

It will require charter boat operators to report monthly on the general areas they are fishing and the species they are targeting.

This will let fishery managers know where the effort is being expended, what species are attracting the greatest fishing pressure, and it will give a better idea of what areas are important to the sector when considering proposals for things like marine reserves.

The final aspect is catch reporting of a small number of species that are particularly vulnerable to localised depletion and fishing pressure, or where we have international management obligations.

This information will help fishery managers to ensure that catch allocations are adequate and appropriate.

And it will give information on specific fish stocks that are of particular interest and value for recreational fishers.

This sort of scheme is already running very successfully in the Pacific bluefin fishery and is giving fantastic information for fishery managers to work with.

I understand that there will be some adjustment and some extra effort required.

We are working out a way of getting the information that is needed without making unreasonable demands of already busy skippers and crew.

In short, I want maximum gain for minimum pain.

I plan to have the systems in place to have charter vessels reporting their activity and catch next year.

Other projects

There are several other projects underway already to improve information on recreational catch and release, including preparing a medium term research plan; the gamefish tagging programme; feasibility studies on new research methods; and international workshops on recreational catch estimation.

So there is a lot of work being done, and I look forward to it coming to fruition and helping to fill in the gaps.

Other budget initiatives

Despite the understandably parsimonious mood of the Finance Minister I am pleased that I was able to secure some other fisheries funding as well.

The budget gave almost $2 million dollars over four years to get the aquaculture industry moving.

This is an area that has real potential for sustainable economic growth; to boost our export earnings; and to provide jobs for kiwis.

It has languished under an inefficient regulatory regime for too long and we are going to get things moving.

There will also be more full time and honorary fishery officers patrolling New Zealand's coastline.

A boost of over $4 million over the next four years will increase the honorary fishery officer network from 172 to 250 and full-time fishery officer numbers from 95 to 104.

The additional officers will mean the Ministry of Fisheries can increase its general compliance effort in targeting known risk locations and species.

I want to say that really value our Honorary Fishery Officers.

They are volunteers who give their time to play a vital role in protecting our fisheries.

I would like to acknowledge their efforts and thank them for the contribution they make to manage our fisheries.

Marlborough Sounds blue cod management

I am very positive about the work going on the Marlborough Sounds right now.

A group of committed people with local knowledge and strong links to the Sounds is working together to come up with solutions to managing the Marlborough Sounds blue cod fishery.

They are developing practical, local solutions to a local problem.

They have a big job.

There are a lot of interested people and a lot of different views about the scale and cause of the problem with blue cod in the Sounds.

I have outlined my expectations to the Group and what I want to see in a management plan.

• I would like to see the fishery opened earlier than the original four year target, either wholly or partially;
• I would like rules that are easy for fishers to understand, and practical for them to use;
• I would like rules that are straight forward for Ministry of Fisheries officers to police; and
• I would like to see some form of recreational catch reporting, so success can be monitored.

It is important to emphasise that while I am keen to see the Sounds open as early as possible, there needs to be a clear and workable plan in place before that can happen.

The Blue Cod Management Group is working on that plan now and I expect the Marlborough blue cod fishery will be able to be reopened in early 2011 as a result. 

That will only happen, of course, if scientific research shows that opening the fishery is a workable option.

In the meantime the group has put together a code of practice to encourage responsible fishing and a poster covering the best hooks to use in their further efforts to promote the sustainability of the blue cod fishery. 

I commend them for the work they are doing.

Conclusion

I hope this has brought you up to speed on many of the things going on in fisheries at the moment.

I am pleased with what has been achieved since November last year, but there is still more to do.

I am eager to get on with the job and keep on making progress.

I would like to thank you again for hosting me here today and wish you all the best for the remainder of your conference.