The competing angler

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 14

The competing angler

The property developer, politician, and fisherman, Mr Bob Jones, has caused more than a few ripples with his most recent suggestion. It is that foreign anglers be banned from the best fishing spots, particularly on the Tongariro and neighbouring rivers where Mr Jones frequently casts a fly. Mr Jones has demonstrated to the New Zealand television audience the earnestness with which he is prepared to protect his solitude while pursuing the wily trout. The encroachment of large numbers of anglers, flogging his favourite pool into a foam, now makes Mr Jones cross. He will not be alone in this anxiety to protect his peace and fishing haunts.

Many New Zealand fishermen resent the large influx of tourists to popular spots, but Mr Jones’s proposed solution is not a real remedy to the issue. Mr Jones suggests that foreign fishers should be issued only with a licence that precludes them from fishing the Taupo rivers. Presumably New Zealanders would be required to present passports or other proof of citizenship when attempting to purchase full licences. The scope for a swelling new bureaucracy — another of Mr Jones’s aversions — is immense. A short-term effect of his policy might be to deter some overseas fishermen from coming to New Zealand, but it will not guarantee Mr Jones’s solitude. Many of the 9000 or so foreign fishermen, and women, who try their luck and skill on New Zealand rivers each year are more considerate of the environment than their New Zealand counterparts. Mr Jones acknowledges that many American fishermen return their fish to

the river once they have caught them and that there are plenty of fish to go around. It is a matter, he says, of space. This is a sentiment that would be shared by the hundreds of New Zealand anglers who stand cheek by jowl at the mouths of South Island salmon rivers without a foreigner in sight. Nonetheless, Mr Jones’s cast has brought forth a useful suggestion. The national executive officer for New Zealand’s acclimatisation societies, Mr Bryce Johnson, said that the Tongariro River’s international reputation meant that competition for fishing spots between New Zealand and overseas anglers was likely to become more acute. What upsets many fishermen more, according to Mr Johnson, is that, when they have back-packed into a remote lake or river for some quiet fishing, a helicopter carrying three or four tourists arrives. Mr Johnson proposes the preservation of some lakes and rivers for fishermen prepared to make the effort to reach them under their own steam, banning access by helicopters or four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The notion has a lot of merit and should not be restricted solely to recreational fishing. The concept of wilderness areas is not new; what Mr Johnson proposes would be an extension of the wilderness area system already familiar in National Parks. The wide open spaces, the solitude, and the sense of remoteness that Mr Jones wishes to preserve stand high on the list of tourist assets that New Zealand can offer. Protecting and enhancing these assets by the reasonable exclusion of the trappings of modern technology is sound sense.