MUST IMPROVE QUOTA SYSTEM BY MIRANDA O'CONNELL S
olving the challenges of fisheries management promoted at the recent World Recreational Fishing Conference in Germany are within reach of fisheries stakeholders in New Zealand because we have the quota management
system, or QMS.
This gives us a framework within which we can gather data, communicate with each other and gradually come to decisions for the sustained good of the fishers and the fisheries resource.
But – and this is a big but – the framework is not complete. It is like building a playground only really tall children can use because the steps on the original plan weren't put in. It can still be used, but it's not easily accessible or easy to use. Right now, the tall kids are the commercial seafood industry. No blame is attached to them, yet it is time to properly open up the QMS to all fisheries stakeholders. Let's fix the job begun in the mid-1980s. No-one in New Zealand doubts the importance of recreational fishing to the population. Our national psyche is attached to the lifestyle image of being able to put out a line and catch a fish. Yet the infrastructure to ensure recreational fishers can fully participate in the QMS has not been put in place. The conference, held in Berlin from August 1-4, demonstrated the challenges Kiwi recreational fishers and managers face are the same around the world. There is: • an absence of accurate data on biomass, catch and effort, economic worth, social motivations and other factors
• ineffective communication between fishers, managers and scientists
• inefficient systems for channelling revenue toward management decisions that support the fisheries and recreational fishers
• high heterogeneity of fishers, which makes data collection and decisions on appropriate management tools challenging
• low engagement of individual recreational fishers in structured bodies
• inequitable conditions between recreational and commercial
Recreational fishing is a favourite pastime
fishers that affect the ability to influence fisheries management decisions, and
• shifting baselines of recreational catch with an apparent willingness to accept a diminishing catch environment. The WRFC is the only international conference that focuses solely on recreational fisheries and offers a platform to unite and overcome disciplinary and bureaucratic divides. It has been held around the world every three years since 1996. The theme, Toward Resilient Recreational Fisheries, continued the legacy of the conference and was of interest to the full range of recreational fisheries' stakeholders, including fishers, scientists, biologists, economists, policymakers and representatives of non- government organisations. A record number of 290 delegates from 33 countries listened to 130 talks, ranging from managers explaining their jurisdictions to detailed technical talks by scientists.
Apart from myself, the only other New Zealander was from the Department of Conservation's Taupo freshwater fishery. There were no government or science delegates representing the interests of marine recreational fishing in New Zealand. In stark contrast, Australia sent a delegation of 28, including a politician representing the Fisheries Minister of Western Australia.
PHONE 09 419 1954 30 Professional Skipper November/December 2011
There was huge variability within the 33 countries' experiences, ranging from full open access with no management controls such as bag limits, through to systems that require all recreational
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