Limit of red cod slashed under new guidelines
Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton yesterday announced the daily limit on red cod caught by recreational fishers in the southern and eastern South Island is to be cut from 30 to 10 red cod per fisher per day.
Declining numbers of red cod in the fishery were the reason, with very low numbers of juvenile red cod surviving into adulthood, he said.
The catch limit reduction, which comes into force from today, applies to the fishery that runs from the Clarence River on the Marlborough Coast around the southern South Island to Awarua Point, just above Fiordland.
However, Mr Anderton increased the commercial catch limits for rock lobster (crayfish) in the Southland fishery by nearly 211 tonnes to 1053 tonnes. In the Otago fishery, the limit increased by 3.7 tonnes to 143.9 tonnes.
The increases were worth an estimated $11.5 million a year to commercial rock lobster fishers, Mr Anderton said.
Malcolm Lawson, chief executive of the CRA8 management committee, which represents the commercial rock lobster industry in the southern area of New Zealand encompassing South Westland, Fiordland, Stewart Island and Foveaux Strait, said the increased quota would provide the opportunity for more cray fishermen to come into the industry. He expected about 70 boats out fishing for crays in the southern area this season, up from 63 last season.
The increased quotas were a vindication for cray fishermen that had stuck with the industry in the hard times, he said.
Bluff cray fisherman of the past 22 years, Robert White, said his quota would increase by about two tonnes per year, which would increase his profit.
He said about 75 percent of crayfish quota owners, including himself, believed the 211-tonne increase in Southland was sustainable, but about 25 percent believed it was too much in one hit.
Mr Lawson said the increased quota was the result of the cray fishery rebuilding spectacularly in southern waters in recent years, due to a combination of several good spawning years and improved cray handling techniques by fishermen.
%26quot;Years ago there was never the thought that we could over-fish the ocean but now theres a realisation we have to get the ones we dont want back into the water straight away because thats next years catch.%26quot; With 95 percent of the cray catch going to the Asian market, there would not be cheaper crayfish on southern shelves this year, but there could possibly be more crayfish on the local market, he said.
Mr Anderton also increased catch limits of southern blue whiting, from 3500 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes, in an area south east of the South Island known as Bounty Platform.
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