Fishing rental ‘not for revenue’

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 32

Fishing rental ‘not for revenue’

PA Wellington Resource rentals in the fishing industry would not be used as a means to raise Government revenues, said the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle.

The Government was committed to charging reasonable resource rentals for the commercial use of public property, he said in a speech for the annual conference of the Federation of Commercial Fishermen.

The rental for the inshore fishery would start at a nominal level of $3 a tonne.

“Clearly it would not be in the best interests of the Government to hamper the development of the

inshore fishery by charging unfair resource rentals,” he said. “Resource rentals will be reasonable and the industry will not be used as a milch cow to raise Government revenues,” he said.

Legislation introducing an individual transferrable quota fishing system was now before Parliament and should come into operation on October 1.

The policy would be expanded to include the paua fishery, now as an individual quota fishery. “Implicit in that is the understanding that as the fishery is overstressed, there will be catch reduc-

tions sought through the buy-back mechanisms that are an integral part of the I.T.Q. system,” Mr Moyle said. Some pressure existed to add transferability to rock lobster licences, and a series of meetings would be set up to discuss the issue.

Mr Moyle said he considered some form of transferability was essential for the future prosperity of the industry.

A Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries survey had found that orange roughy and hoki were distributed round the North Island, although no large aggregations had been found. Allocations would

be made available for exploratory fishing this year round the top half of the island to enable commercial testing of the resource.

Research surveys had also shown large populations of hoki existed round the South Island and in the sub-Antarctic. The Ministry was considering at the possibility of increasing the total allowable catch for this season.

“It is my intention, however, to immediately remove the area restrictions in this fishery.

“This will remove a major existing problem for the industry,” Mr Moyle said.