Sign In / Register
Local fishing and sailing clubs have joined calls for the government to reverse its plans to allow commercial gillnetting in Kawau Bay as part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Bill.
The bill will create 19 new marine high protected areas around the gulf, but in October last year a proposal was added to allow gillnetting in two of them – Kawau Bay and the Noises and Motutapu Islands (MM, Oct 31).
Now Warkworth Gamefish Club’s NZ Sport Fishing Council delegate and NZ Marine Research Foundation chair Terry Creagh has written to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka, urging him to reconsider.
He says the move is strongly opposed not only by the fishing club’s 300-plus members, but also by Sandspit Yacht Club, the Hibiscus Coast Boating Club and Rodney Local Board chair Brent Bailey, among many others.
“Allowing commercial gillnetting in areas supposed to be ‘Highly Protected’ is contradictory and undermines the Bill’s purpose to ‘contribute to the restoration and mauri of the Hauraki Gulf’,” Creagh wrote.
“It is offensive that locals will be banned from fishing in these safe, sheltered areas while some commercial and Māori customary fishing can continue. It is inequitable, and undermines the decades-long collaborative efforts by our club, our council and LegaSea.”
Potaka said only a small number of gillnet fishers would be able to operate and he’d been advised that such fishing had little impact on the environment. He added that the gillnet fishing would have to be reviewed after three years and “careful monitoring” of new protection areas would be introduced.
