It has been a huge week with the near-simultaneous launches of the Fisheries Industry Transformation Plan (ITP), the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan, and detail on new marine protected areas.
While seemingly separate events, the relationship between these is important to understand.
With the commercial seafood sector ready to leap into the ITP, it is the vehicle for transformation that will fast-track the development of new, innovative and more sustainable fishing methods. The success of the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan (HGFP) will rely on this work.
Let’s keep this moving
After more than a decade of discussion, we are pleased to see action to improve the health of the Gulf, but important details remain unknown. With large tracts of the Gulf already closed to trawling, how much of our small but important fishing grounds will be saved? Will the consultation around this be adequate for a key industry that provides healthy food, good jobs and economic benefits, for a rapidly expanding Auckland?
And what of the other well-known threats to the health of the Gulf: sedimentation, sewage, pollution, the effects of climate change, and invasive pests. The pace being taken to address these is agonisingly slow when you know how fast invasive seaweeds like Caulerpa spread, and how little time it takes for toxic sediment to sink and smother fragile shellfish beds.
The policy landscape is also a boggy one, slowing things down. The HGFP collates a laundry list of strategies, standards and policies relevant to Gulf fisheries management – 10 of these in one chapter alone, excluding national inshore finfish and other specific fishery plans.
Some say that the urgency for the Gulf has been lost, but to that we would remind people that the ITP holds great promise.
With the focus all on fishing, has the bigger picture been forgotten?
It is good to hear the growing levels of concern about invasive seaweeds and sediment run-off. Our fishers see the impacts of these things close-up as they grapple with slash and muck-filled nets.
For keystone strategies like Revitalising the Gulf to be successful, of which the HGFP is only one component, management measures are needed to mitigate all stressors. Without firmer details about a wider range of interventions we cannot say whether we believe the Government’s plan will work.
The actions towards non-fishing damage to the Gulf are couched in terms of ‘actively encouraging’ and ‘supporting’ approaches to reduce sedimentation, toxic pollution and biosecurity threats.
While people start to wade through the big news this week, they will be questioning the light touch on actions assigned to these threats, and for climate change mitigation needed to address the impacts of warming water on kelp forests, reef systems and sponges.
The boundaries of marine protected areas can be breached
While marine protected areas may have benefits, they are not the solution people may be pinning their hopes on.
They will certainly have the effect of moving the activity of recreational and commercial fishing to other areas, but there is no border to an MPA. The rolling maul of non-fishing related threats do not stop where MPAs begin; they don’t protect anything from sediment, warming waters, or invasive pests.
A paper published in June in the environmental change journal ‘Global Change Biology’ by scientists at the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis shows that MPAs have limited ability to mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves.
Nor will MPAs necessarily result in the assumed ‘spill over’ effects. For example, the available science show that egg production is not the sole factor for ‘recruitment’ to snapper fisheries (when fish transition from juvenile to adult life stages).
While we wait, we innovate
We look forward to continuing to work with tangata whenua, conservation groups, recreational fishers and Government to improve the health of the Gulf and to hold ourselves to account – continuously improving our practices while ensuring we can still provide fresh fish, and good jobs, for the people of Auckland and beyond.
Our lives and livelihoods are tied to the health of the Gulf. The Ministers behind the announcements this week acknowledge its importance as a food source. Protecting the health of the Gulf is vital and we care deeply about it. We look forward to learning more about next steps.
