Talks on declining salmon numbers

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 34

Talks on declining salmon numbers

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL,

fishing reporter

One of New Zealand’s top big-game fishermen was in Christchurch on Thursday tcF meet recreational fishermen to discuss action over declining salmon numbers in Canterbury. Mr Garth Marsland is the recreational fishermen’s representative on the Auckland Fisheries Management Advisory Committee, which includes the Bay of Islands in its district. He said that recreational fishermen there were trying to stop longlining by commercial fishing ventures and had threatened court action to prevent it.

"The Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle, called a meeting with the Ministry of Fisheries and we agreed to withhold the court action until the outcome of talks between overseas long-liners and the New Zealand Government were known,”' Mr Marsland said.

They would know by August 1 but the indications were that tuna boats, which use long lines, would be excluded from the management area which runs from North Cape to Cape Runnaway and up to 320 km out to sea.

Mr Marsland said that if all possible long-line licences were taken there would be 9420 km of long line in those waters for 24 hours a day. “The types of fish caught by long-liners are all recreational fish and long-liners are doing damage to the industry there because they have an unlimited by-catch of marlin and other big game fish.”

Mr Marsland said that problems there were similar to those faced by salmon fishermen in Canterbury.

“In the 1985-1986 season $l4O million came into the Bay of Islands region from water activity — mostly fishing. This year the income will be below $lOO million because the fish are not

Mr Lyndsay Dell, president of the New Zealand Salmon Anglers’ Association, said Canterbury’s salmon fishing problems were similar.

Mr Moyle had provided representation for the group on the salmon bycatch committee, which would meet in mid-July, he said.

If no agreement was reached at the meeting, the association might take other action, said Mr Dell.

“For years we have been given reassurances about recreational fishing in this country but the numbers of salmon in the rivers in Canterbury have been getting worse and worse,” he said. Mr David Denton, manager of Cromb and Merritt, Ltd, said 20,000 salmon were being taken by commercial fishing boats which represented more than 25 per cent of the total run of salmon. “Salmon must enter the rivers to spawn and if they cannot get up the

river mouths they will stop breeding and the salmon industry will be ruined. “It is a recreational business as well as a commercial business and an invaluable tourist trade,” he said. Mr Denton said 13,000 freshwater fishing licences had been sold last season, mostly to salmon fishermen or those who targeted salmon among others such as trout, and the income from related services such as accommodation, travel, tackle and transport was of vital importance to the region.

“We are regarded as the greatest fishing country in the world but if the fish are not there the industry will fall into decline,” he said.

Mr Marsland holds the New Zealand broadbill swordfish record at 268 kg as well as the world alltackle record from his Whangarei boat for a thresher shark which topped 367 kg.