Blowtorch on blue cod management

Blue cod fishers on the east coast of the South Island are shaking their heads at the farcical management of their favourite eating fish.

The regulations applying to the recreational catch of blue cod are at odds with the Traffic Light System rules developed and enforced by FisheriesNZ (FNZ). And, none of those rules apply to the commercial catch of blue cod. If it’s FNZ’s intention to apply a blowtorch to the already fraught Traffic Light System, they are winning.

In good faith, recreational fishers have spent years voluntarily contributing to a raft of blue cod management initiatives. Starting with Marlborough Sounds blue cod, then the Blue Cod Strategy (2018), and the Technical Working Group during 2019-20. Throughout all the processes recreational fishers were committed to achieving a sustainable blue cod fishery and fair go for Kiwis fishing for this most prized species. What has emerged from these processes can be best described as a dog’s breakfast. A Traffic Light System applies to coastal waters out to 12 nautical miles (nm) around the South Island and the Chathams, with red, green and orange signifying different catch limits in each coloured area.

Under FNZ’s system, blue cod taken from around the Chathams and selected areas in Southland and Westland can be landed whole, gutted, or headed and gutted. Whereas the Amateur Fishing Regulations clearly specify that, “a person must not possess any blue cod in New Zealand fisheries waters unless it is in a whole or gutted state”, so they can be measured. Canterbury fishers want the rules amended so they can fish outside the 12nm line then return with blue cod whole, gutted or filleted, if they can prove the fish were caught offshore. This would minimise wastage onshore.

The daily bag limit in the Red Zone around Christchurch is two per person, per day. Recreational fishers only recently discovered that Fisheries NZ had changed the rules so Canterbury fishers can now transit through the Red Zone, between the Hurunui and Rakaia Rivers, with more than two blue cod caught outside the 12nm limit. As long as they can verify where they caught their fish. A welcome, but long-time-coming rule change by FNZ. Another bone of contention is that the same rules don’t apply to commercial fishers. Inside or outside the Red Zone bottom trawling can continue, and around 22% of blue cod taken on the east coast is classed as ‘bycatch’ from the flatfish, red cod and tarakihi fisheries.

Moreover, commercial fishers take around 5000 kilos of blue cod every year and land that as ‘recreational catch’ under section 111 of the Fisheries Act. Commercially caught fish can be landed whole, gutted or filleted. A minimum size limit of 33cm applies to both recreational and commercial blue cod catch, yet it seems FNZ is only concerned about enforcing the rules applying to recreational blue cod catch. The irregularities applying to blue cod fishing around the South Island are unacceptable. The majority of recreational fishers try to do the right thing. Having such glaring inconsistencies in how the rules are applied to commercial and recreational catch just reinforces the notion that Fisheries New Zealand is merely an agent of commercial interests, disinterested in giving all Kiwis a fair go.