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The founder of New Zealand’s first aquaculture school Paul Decker, of Warkworth, is joining the call for greater regulation of the whitebait fishery.
Mr Decker says some whitebait species will become extinct without regulations to protect them and commercial fishing of whitebait should be banned to let stocks recover.
“It’s the only fish in NZ that hasn’t got quota management. We can’t keep harvesting them without controls,” Mr Decker says.
While the main threat to whitebait is habitat loss, fishing is pushing the species to the brink.
“It’s going to get worse. The price will go up as they become rare and populations will collapse.”
Three of the five common whitebait species are listed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) as declining while one is listed as threatened. Two of the species also appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species.
Auckland Council senior fresh water biodiversity advisor Matt Bloxham agrees things are looking dire.
“We are very concerned about the increasing threat to our whitebait species,” Mr Bloxham says.
“There’s a big black market and the species are vulnerable to over exploitation. We’ve recently revisited 25 known populations of giant kokopu in the Auckland region and we only found them at two of the sites.”
The IUCN lists the giant kokopu as vulnerable to extinction – one category above endangered – and the shortjaw kokopu as endangered. This puts the fish in the same category as the kiwi and tuatara, and at a greater risk than the NZ wood pigeon, which is listed as near threatened.
“You can’t eat kiwi so why can you eat whitebait?” Mr Bloxham says.
The whitebait fishery is managed by DOC. Freshwater technical advisor Jane Goodman says the department isn’t planning any management changes.
“DOC administers regulations regarding fishing methods, timing, location and net size to ensure that enough young fish get upstream to mature,” she says.
Mr Bloxam says education is an important part of improving whitebait numbers.
“People don’t really understand what whitebait become. They turn into incredible looking fish that will live for many years if they can reach their habitat.”
“A lot of the streams have been lost to culvert pipes. We are working to increase and improve their spawning habitat.”
Council is planning to remove a weir on the Mahurangi River, near Mahurangi College, which prevents whitebait migration. A weir under the Elizabeth Street bridge is also being reviewed to make it more fish-friendly.
The conservation effort also involves educating landowners to protect riverbanks where fish are spawning. Council staff are surveying spawning sites of inanga, the most common whitebait species, to protect their spawning grounds.
“Waicare has been working with landowners on the Hoteo River, as well. One landowner has found spawning nests and has fenced off the areas. The whitebait runs in the Hoteo are now fantastic.”
Council is working with Mahurangi Technical Institute, which has a whitebait breeding programme, to repopulate Auckland streams.
