Report on Community Issues survey into Sustainable fishing in Tasman Bay

Term 3 2010

After consideration of a wide range of possible issues the class eventually targeted sustainable fishing in Tasman Bay. We invited Doug Saunders-Loder President of the New Zealand Commercial Fishermans Federation and Geoff Rowling President of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council to explain their views on the issue. From this discussion the students researched some facts about the existing regulations applying to both commercial and recreational fishers in Tasman Bay. Our concern was that snapper fish stocks in Tasman Bay were under pressure and present restrictions may not be allowing their recovery.

We believed that most people in our community would share our concern about snapper stocks and support proposals to further restrict commercial fishing especially in the spawning areas.

Over four days in mid August the class (decimated at times by the flu bug) managed to interview 396 people. For the first time in memory we interviewed more males than females. Some females thought the topic did not relate to them. 87% were locals and two thirds had fished in Tasman Bay in the past five years. Only one in four rated their experience as successful although nearly half reported mixed success. Just 11% regarded themselves as regular fishers while 34% never go fishing.

One in four was involved or had family members involved in the commercial fishing industry. This proportion is high but not surprising as Talleys is the biggest employer in Motueka. Similarly It was also expected that most people (71%) regarded fishing as important or very important for the local economy.

When asked what people believed the status of snapper stocks were now compared with 10 years ago only 13% thought they were improving while 44% thought they were declining. People were divided about whether current restrictions (200 tonnes of quota) were allowing snapper stocks to improve.

There was strong support (72% up to 84%) for all proposals to further restrict commercial fishing of snapper in Tasman Bay such as reducing the quota, banning trawling in spawning waters, banning trawling in winter off Durville Island and restricting commercial fishing to the use of longlines. However, reducing the recreational fishing bag limit was much less popular with only 44% in favour. Those who claimed to be regular fishers were even stronger supporters of all the proposals further restricting commercial snapper fishing and 51% were opposed to reducing the recreational bag limit.

The collapse of the scallop beds was mainly blamed on commercial dredging by 45%, with 25% attributing blame to recreational dredging and 25% blaming environmental causes such as silting.

In conclusion, the students believe that these results suggest that our community does want further restrictions on commercial snapper fishing before snapper stocks are able to attain a sustainable population. The question now is how can that goal be achieved? What actions are required and who has the authority to implement them?

Click here to view the survey questions »
Click here to view the survey results »

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