Originally published in the Kaikōura Star, September 2024.
Controversial comments suggesting there is an unknown amount of pāua harvest by recreational fishers in Kaikōura can be easily refuted by three years of scientific reports.
Fisheries New Zealand has contracted recreational harvest surveys every year since the Kaikōura pāua fishery opened to harvest after the 2016 earthquakes. The roving access point survey method is widely used in the USA and was approved by a Fisheries New Zealand science working group. The 2024 report on the recent survey will be published later this year.
Provisional estimate of total harvest by recreational fishers during the 2-month 2024 season is about 16 tonnes. In 2023 the estimated harvest was 12 tonnes.
When the season first opened after the earthquakes over the summer of 2021-22 large pāua were readily accessible and there was a ‘gold rush’ mentality, a busy few months when around 42 tonnes were harvested. Given that the fishery had been closed to recreational harvest for five years, fisheries managers ought to have anticipated this high public interest in harvesting pāua.
Prior to 2017 there had been no allowances set aside to provide for Māori customary or recreational fishing interests. It is reasonable to assume that year-round recreational catches pre-earthquake were well above the five tonnes estimated by Fisheries New Zealand to account for recreational fishing.
Until December 2019 the recreational daily bag limit was 6 per person. The daily limit was reduced to five per person in 2022, and three per person in 2023.
Despite the disparity in management, where Māori customary and commercial fishing can take place all year, local recreational fishers have abided by the 2-month open season and willingly participated in every survey since 2021, in the interests of conserving and rebuilding pāua stocks. Collecting data on-site meant that accurate data on the length and weight of surveyed pāua could be collected.
Even if people are not convinced of the credibility of the peer-reviewed reports, the Minister has a statutory duty to set aside a precautionary amount for the recreational allowance until further information is available.
Mandatory reporting of recreational catch is not considered a practical option as it would require a registration or licensing regime and penalties for non-reporting. The cost and uncertainty in the information provided would be high.
What’s more, the research into the accuracy of current self-reporting regimes, both here and overseas, finds them to be readily manipulated and riddled with errors. Self-reported catch, even in commercial fisheries, has a very poor record of accounting for total mortality in a fish stock.
The recurring calls for mandatory reporting of recreational catch do not arise from a genuine interest in accurate catch data or concerns for the sustainability of the fish stock. They are merely reflecting the well-known interest in limiting recreational harvest to a fixed quota in order to maximise the total allowable commercial catch.
More information
Science report. Harvest estimates from landbased amateur fishers— Kaikōura Marine Area to Marfells Beach New Zealand Fisheries Assessment Report 2022/40 J.C. Holdsworth. August 2022.
Science report. Pāua harvest estimate by land-based amateur fishers—Kaikōura Marine Area in 2023 New Zealand Fisheries Assessment Report 2023/62 J.C. Holdsworth, S. Curtis, P. Neubauer. November 2023.
2024 season process timeline – NZSFC record
https://www.nzsportfishing.co.nz/fisheries/species/paua/kaikoura-paua-reopening-2024/
2023 season process timeline – NZSFC record
https://www.nzsportfishing.co.nz/fisheries/species/paua/kaikoura-paua-reopening-2022/
2021-22 process timeline – NZSFC record
https://www.nzsportfishing.co.nz/fisheries/species/paua/reopen-kaikoura-paua-fishery-2021/
Article. The delusion of using phone apps to accurately record fish catch. June 2024.
