Whitebaiting season begins next week, but this time there are new regulations in place to better protect low fish stocks.
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Four of New Zealand's six whitebait species are currently threatened or at risk of extinction.
Department of Conservation whitebait fishery manager Nick Moody tells Afternoons he expects the new rules to protect the species and help numbers recover to sustainable levels and the DoC rangers will be out and about making sure rules are respected.
"This year there's a shortened season that's consistent between both the North and the South Islands now – from 1 September to 30 October," Moody says.
The season used to run from 16 August to 30 November for most of the country, except on the West Coast where it was from 1 September to 14 November.
The move follows new rules introduced last year relating to the physical length of fishing gear and spacing along the river for those catching whitebait.
Fishing gear must be removed from the water at the end of fishing or the end of the day.
Gear cannot be more than one-quarter of the width across the waterway, either separately or together with someone else’s gear across the waterway, or more than 6m in total length. The length restriction does not apply to the West Coast during the 2022 seasons.
Drag nets must be flat when laid on a flat surface, cannot be taller than 1 m in height, cannot be more than 3.5 m in length, and cannot be used on the West Coast.
Fishing is not allowed within 20m of any tide gate, floodgate, confluence, culvert, weir, groyne, outfall structure, or unlawful diversion. Fishers are also not allowed to whitebait from any bridge or vessel.
He said the changes were being rolled out across three seasons to give white-baiters time to adjust.
Spacing people in out more was a rule designed to give people more equitable access to the fishery, “so everyone could have a fair go,” he says.
The DoC website gives illustrations on the new rules, including a diagram on who spacing between fishers is expected to be adhered to, he adds.
The new rules have been received well in general, as everybody wanted the whitebait populations to bounce back, Moody says.
“We did two years of consultation around New Zealand and had over 12,000 people contribute to that process. Many of them of course, whitebaiters.
“So overall, these changes do have broad support, because they're aimed at ensuring that the fishery sustainable so that we can continue white baiting into the future. Ultimately, that's what everybody wants, including senior citizens, and we all don't want to see whitebait go extinct.”
Moody says the new rules will help the whitebait numbers recover and the threat hanging over the species recede.
“We believe that with these new regulations, we can ensure a healthy and restored whitebait population and provide equitable access to a sustainable and thriving fishery,” he says.
However, determining the success of the initiative will depend on enforcement and surveying by the department, which has been struggling with funding over the past decade.
“We're doing extra work in that space,” Moody says. “This season our rangers are really going the extra mile. You'll see people out on riverbanks, counting the number of whitebaiters and the kind of nets that they're using.
“Also, we’re doing some aerial surveys, flying a plane very high to count the number of fishers.
“You can't see anyone's personal details, but you can see how many fishes there are, and also on the ground our rangers will be giving out survey questionnaires to fishers to seek their feedback on how they're experiencing these regulations and changes.
“So, we're gathering that data as we roll out these changes over the three seasons to ensure that they're having the desire to things.
Measure whitebait population levels will be more difficult, he says. But Moody he’s there’s a logical correlation between the number of whitebaiters and the number of whitebait that survive the season.
“We do know that when there's more whitebaiters on a waterway, then there's more fish harvested. The same goes for the amount of time [the season runs]. So just by restricting the size of the screens and the number of days that people are fishing, we know there will be a reduced harvest. And we also do surveys on the adult fish upstream, which are what they grow into. And we have that data long-term to track the populations.”
He said it was too soon to measure if any progress on whitebait population numbers had been achieved since the changes last year.
“A lot of our native fish, that's the white they grew up to become, are quite long-lived. You're not going to have a shorter lifespan of just a year, so we might get data on them sooner. But it's too soon to say at the moment after just one season of changes.”
