Photo credit: Chris Carter
Kia ora Friend,
A Horizon Research poll published on Friday by the Hauraki Gulf Forum revealed that 84% of those living in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park vicinity want destructive mobile contact fishing methods banned from the Gulf. This includes bottom trawling, scallop dredging and Danish seining. Only 3% wanted them to remain, with 13% with having no opinion.
These astonishing numbers show just how much Hauraki Gulf locals care for their environment and begs the question: why is it still going on?
In the recently published draft Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan, part of the Government's Revitalising The Gulf proposal, the ministry plans to allow bottom trawling to continue in undefined 'trawl corridors' and for the existing scallop dredging footprint to continue.
This is not good enough. It's time the government listened to what the people want and removed bottom trawling and scallop dredging from the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park once and for all!
Groups unite to call an end to all of bottom contact fishing in the Hauraki Gulf
LegaSea, the NZ Sport Fishing Council, NZ Underwater Association and NZ Angling & Casting Association have joined with conservation groups to call for an end to destructive mobile bottom contact fishing methods that destroy the seabed in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
Following the release of the Horizon Research poll indicating 84% opposing the continued use of these methods, the allied groups are calling for an end to all destructive mobile bottom fishing such as trawling, scallop dredging and Danish seining by 2024.
A letter was sent on Friday to David Parker, the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries requesting he add the removal of these fishing practices to the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan, scheduled for consultation in the new year.
The unprecedented alliance includes the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society (Forest & Bird), Greenpeace Aotearoa, WWF-NZ, Environmental Defence Society (EDS), the Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand (ECO), the New Zealand Sports Fishing Council (NZSFC), LegaSea, the New Zealand Underwater Association and the New Zealand Angling & Casting Association.
Read more
The great scallop dredge amnesty
Warkworth based diving company, NZ Diving, has had enough of scallop dredges ripping up the seafloor. They are running an amnesty for old and used scallop dredges.
Take in your dredge to the NZ Diving shop in Warkworth and you will receive $150 off your next dive course! Max 2 people and you'll get up to $300 off. Conditions apply.
Open water dive courses are worth $600, so this offer means your course price will be only $450, including rental gear. There are many other courses they can choose from if they already have certification.
Scallops damaged by dredging. Photo by Mike Bhana.
For more information and terms, click here. To learn more about NZ Diving or to book a dive, go to their website.
Another Gold medal win for Kōparepare
The 2021 Kōparepare Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé has won Gold for the second year in a row at the Marlborough Wine Show - one of only three Rosé wines to receive a Gold Medal! It also received 5 Stars from prominent wine critic Sam Kim.
To celebrate, Whitehaven are offering a 15% discount on all the Kōparepare wines until midnight Wednesday 28 November, for orders over $50.
This is a great way to stock up on some great wines for Christmas and the silly season.
And don't forget, Whitehaven donates $1 to LegaSea for every bottle sold.
Use the code XMAS2021 to get you discount when you buy your wines off the Kōparepare website. Shop now.
Kai Ika filleting is back in full force
As COVID restrictions eased most Aucklanders dusted off their fishing rods and enjoyed the bounty the Hauraki Gulf has to offer. Our filleting sites at Westhaven Z Pier and the OBC have experienced some of our busiest days ever, with boat loads of people happy to take full advantage of our service.
In conjunction with usual commercial collections, the kaimoana recovered from our filleting sites fed more families than ever before. Over the last two we managed to recover and share over 5,200kg of fish parts which may have otherwise been wasted.
If you want to help us continue to do more and feed more families you can simply use our filleting service at one of our sites.
Find out more about Kai Ika and our filleting services on the Kai Ika website.
A gaping hole in the fishing regulations is about to be plugged to stop the exploitation of vulnerable reef fish and to address community concerns.
Conflict arose in Tairua, Coromandel, earlier this year when hundreds of pink maomao were being landed and people realised no bag limits applied. MPI were powerless to respond because the regulations have not kept pace with changing fishing patterns.
The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Hon. David Parker then directed Fisheries New Zealand to review recreational daily bag limits for finfish, even though the Tairua scenario involved commercial quantities.
Over the past few weeks LegaSea has worked with our NZ Sport Fishing Council fisheries team, the NZ Angling & Casting Association and NZ Underwater to develop a joint submission in response to FNZ's proposals.
Together we supported an amended version of Fisheries NZ's Option 2: include all finfish species not currently subject to a daily bag limit in the combined daily bag limit, and within that the Minister –
- Sets a maximum limit of 3 per person per day of any of these reef species: pink and blue maomao, grandaddy hāpuku, pigfish and wrasses.
- Includes the maximum of 3 of any reef species within the existing combined daily bag limit.
- Bans the sale of these reef species.
Read the full submission here.
Thanks to all those that submitted on this review, including the 1240 people that submitted using the form on the LegaSea website.
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Ngā mihi
Trish and the LegaSea crew
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