Diving for dinner? - Not any more.
In 2013 a proposal to open some areas of the Otago coastline to allow commercial diving for pāua was roundly rejected by recreational fishers.
Rallying behind the “Pāua to the People” banner divers and fishers made it very clear to the Government just how important these kaimoana areas are for local divers. The proposals were quite rightly dropped. But, having won that fight we all seem strangely quiet about Department of Conservation (DOC) proposals to now close these same areas completely and forever.
If the 2013 fight had been lost, at least we would still have been able to go fishing in our favourite areas. But if DOC’s proposed closures go ahead, it will be a far worse result for local fishers – we can say goodbye to some of the best seafood gathering areas in the country.
The South East Otago Marine Protected Area ( SEMPA) proposals currently being consulted on by DOC will result in the loss, forever, of any diving and fishing for the table from:
Stony Creek to Pleasant River;
Flax Point south to and including White Island;
All of Green Island; and
All of the Akatore area (the 9km of coastline north of Watsons Creek).
Of course the SEMPA proposals are bigger than just those areas, but let’s just consider these four.
The area we fought hardest on in 2013 was on the south of Cape Saunders, Otago Peninsula. In the right weather and conditions, a short swim or kayak trip from Smaills Beach takes you in amongst brilliant pāua, cray and finfish spots. But if we let DOC have their way, where is the next nearest spot for Dunedin divers? Heading south, with Green Island and the Akatore coast gone, then it’s an hour and a half drive to the Kaka Point mātaitai for the next good dive spot. Heading north, you could try the north side of the Peninsula, but well over half of that is sandy beach and much is inaccessible or only small reef areas. Since last year all of the Warrington and Karitane reefs have been closed by the local Taiāpure committee. So the closest replacement spot is an hours drive up to Shag Point or the Moeraki mātaitai.
At least we could still fish the mātaitai – for now. But you can bet that local runaka will be less than pleased to see Dunedin divers and fishers showing up on a weekend to get a feed from their customary areas.
And there is an even worse aspect of the SEMPA proposals. Not only will divers and fishers be excluded from coast we like to fish, but any good areas left will have to support a big increase of fishing effort caused by displaced catch. When popular fishing spots are closed, the catch level inevitably goes up in the remaining open coast and these small areas will get hammered. This is simple arithmetic, but DOC and Fisheries New Zealand don’t seem to get it.
In a recent media release we were told that "the Government is committed to protecting our environment and valuable marine biodiversity,", which is good to know. But I don’t understand how closing a few choice areas while displacing even more pressure onto the rest of our coastline will protect the environment. Some small areas may be better off, but the majority of the region’s marine biodiversity will be worse off.
There are only a couple of weeks left to make your views heard. Forest and Bird will be sending in thousands of rote submissions from their Auckland power base. We need to make DOC aware of what the divers and fishers actually living here think of plans to not only take away perfectly healthy fishing grounds, but to wreck the health of Otago’s fisheries by increasing fishing pressure along our coastline.
Ian Gunion
Tautuku Fishing Club Inc
