Lobster Industry Veteran Hits Back at Critics

LOBSTER INDUSTRY VETERAN HITS BACK AT CRITICS OF INDUSTRY INITIATIVES TO REBUILD BAY OF PLENTY FISHERY

A senior Bay of Plenty rock lobster (crayfish) quota owner and professional fisherman operating in the CRA 2 management area – Te Arai to East Cape - believes that his industry should be applauded for retiring 25% of their annual catch entitlement for the second season running. The CRA 2 industry have confirmed a commercial catch reduction from 200 tonnes to 150 tonnes for the season which commenced on April 1st.

Butch Waterhouse, who has fished for more than three decades, says that the voluntary catch reductions have been implemented by an industry with a long-standing commitment to sustainable use of the CRA 2 rock lobster fishery. He scoffed at recent claims that the reductions were made under pressure from recreational lobbyists or from MPI.

Butch Waterhouse said “we don’t need to be told how to run the business in which we are all so heavily invested. Fishing is not a lot different to farming, both are at the mercy of nature. As farmers go through droughts they tighten their belts, adjust stock numbers and implement best practices to see them through the hard times. Reducing our commercial catch limit is one tool the industry can utilise to help ride out the trough of stock abundance we currently observe”.

“The CRA 2 industry has again been guided by good science to set a more conservative catch limit than was allowed by a CRA 2 Management Procedure. The procedure has performance indicators which can trigger both catch reductions and catch increases according to observed stock abundance”, said Mr Waterhouse.

“If the trigger is pulled then a recommendation is made for the Minister to reduce the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the fishery. Historically he has done that by cutting only the commercial catch limit (TACC). For the past two years we have been sitting just above that trigger indicator and had confidence that our stock numbers will naturally improve. However, we want it better than just OK, so we have invested in enhancing stock abundance; giving nature a boost”.

The rock lobster industry in the Bay of Plenty and elsewhere believe that they alone shouldn't shoulder the burden to improve stock abundance.

“The commercial operators want the other users of the resource to do their bit in helping stocks rebuild. This is where the lobster fishery situation differs from farming”, said Mr Waterhouse, “there are other users of the stock and as our New Zealand population increases their impact on the fishery is increasing – it needs to be better understood that we operate under an output control system that allows for four user groups - customary, recreational, commercial and regrettably, Illegal operators – fish thieves”.

“The CRA 2 commercial operators have consistently put their hands up over many years and demonstrated they are prepared to contribute to the rebuild of the fishery, and whilst there have been some limits placed on customary use at a local level, absolutely nothing has been offered from any of the recreational lobby groups. To compound the problem MPI seems to be losing the battle with fish thieves”.

Mr Waterhouse is adamant that the recreational sector can no longer bury their heads in the sand and only blame the commercial sector for some perceived lack of fishing success.

“The recreational effort is increasing every season”, said Mr Waterhouse. “Multiply the number of new divers introduced to the sport in the past decade by the daily bag limit and the numbers of days that could be fished – look at the quality of their gear; the range of the recreational fishing and dive fleet; and the consolidation of the recreational dive charter industry across CRA 2 and common sense tells you that the only way the sector can remain within their allowance set for the TAC is to significantly reduce the recreational daily bag limit”.

“The allowance made for fish thieves by far exceeds any required reduction to rebuild to a healthy and sustainable fishery”, said Mr Waterhouse, “commercial, customary and recreational stakeholders need to band together and stamp out the black market. We only need to look over the ditch to our Australian counterparts and learn from them. Tighter controls on gear and bag limits, telson clipping of recreational catches, and recreational vessel registration have significantly reduced casual fish thieving and almost eliminated the black markets for lobsters - we need to follow suit”.

The Bay of Plenty rock lobster industry, represented by the CRA 2 Rock Lobster Management Company, thinks it is time that the Ministry for Primary Industries implemented additional controls into the New Zealand lobster fisheries that will give them the ability to identify, apprehend and successfully prosecute the fish thieves and black market operators.

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