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Fears that a ban on commercial scallop dredging off the Coromandel Coast will cause operators to switch to waters closer to Mahurangi are already being realised, according to a local dive shop owner.
Warkworth-based New Zealand Diving owner Neil Bennett says divers report favoured fishing spots around Kawau Bay and Little Barrier Island have been trashed by dredgers since the scallop season started on September 1.
“Omaha Bay is not too bad, but a lot of people are saying if you go slightly outside of Omaha Bay, where the big beds are, you can see the dredging marks going through where they are gathering everything up. It’s not good,” he says.
Mr Bennett says it does not take long for dredgers to have a big impact with typically three or four large boats working the same area, eight hours at a stretch.
Dredging for scallops involves dragging a net across the sea floor. Conservationists oppose it because in addition to the scallops, it scoops up seaweed, crabs, crustaceans and invertebrates – much of it food for larger fish. The net result is a barren seabed and a dearth of fish.
Mr Bennett says recreational fishers can play their part by refusing to use dredges themselves and NZ Diving does not sell them as a matter of principle.
He says a woman was in his shop recently complaining about commercial operators using large dredges, but she was using a dredge herself – albeit a small one. But Mr Bennett says small dredges are still a problem for marine life, and he tried to point this out.
“She kind of switched off and wanted to go,” he says.
Warkworth Gamefishing Club spokesperson Terry Creagh says more than a dozen local and national fishing clubs and environmental organisations plan to send a letter to Fisheries Minister David Parker complaining about the dredging, seeing it as a further threat to declining scallop numbers around Kawau Bay, Little Barrier Island and Omaha.
Mr Bennett fears if dredging continues to go unchecked, then tourism businesses such as his own, which depend on recreational fishing, will be devastated.
He says his business is already suffering under Covid restrictions, which mean it is unable to run diving courses or organise diving fishing charters.
Meanwhile, he says now that the season has started, divers thinking of heading out and hand-picking scallops in a sustainable way should have their equipment checked and serviced first.
He says a disrupted scallop season last year due to Covid has meant a lot of equipment has languished on a boat or sat in a cupboard for the best part of two years.
“Some of the equipment we are seeing is in a horrendous condition – really messed up and needing servicing.
Better to check it out before you jump in the water,” he says.
Individual divers are permitted to take 20 scallops in a single day.
