Listening to Radio New Zealand ‘The Panel’ members muse on the Hauraki Gulf, I noticed how the Gulf tends to be alluded to as a treasure, a jewel, and Auckland’s ‘big blue backyard’.
 
The Hauraki Gulf is more than a beautiful view from prime waterfront real estate, or a great place to spend the day swimming or out on a private boat, ferry, or charter tour.
 
It feeds people who cannot go out and catch fish for themselves (the majority of New Zealanders who regular enjoy eating New Zealand seafood).  It certainly is a treasure, a taonga – as an important source of affordable seafood for Aucklanders and others.
 
People might be surprised to know that we only need to fish a small part of the Gulf to maintain a supply of fish for Aucklanders who are not able to catch it for themselves.
This seemed to surprise The Panel members – from our written contribution to The Panel, the statistics were read aloud, resoundingly.

  • 84% of the Inner Gulf, inside the line from Colville in the southeast to Takata Point in the northwest, is closed to trawling.
  • 27% of the entire Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is closed to trawling and Danish seining; of the remaining 73% we fish about half of this (53% in 2021/22).
  • It is safe to assume that those who signed the Hauraki Gulf Alliance petition against bottom trawling were not informed of these facts.

Everyone has the right to have a view on the Hauraki Gulf’s future, but the limited focus of the petitioners is unhelpful to the shared vision of a healthy Hauraki Gulf.

To really make positive improvements in the Gulf, there needs to be a generational change and a Ki uta ki tai – mountains-to-sea approach. This was picked up on by The Panel, who raised the issue of how intensified land use and Auckland’s rapid expansion is affecting its harbours, seafloors – and the Hauraki Gulf.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has said the main threats to the Gulf are a multitude of things – population growth, development and intensification of land use, land-use practices that result in significant sediment loads, nutrients, pathogens, marine debris and other contaminants, aging infrastructure, increasing ship and boat numbers, commercial and recreational fishing, and marine pests.

So yes, commercial fishing is one of the pressures on the Gulf. But unlike most of the other threats, the pressure of fishing is highly monitored, regulated, and mitigated.

Fisheries New Zealand knows, at 10-minute intervals, the position of all commercial vessels in the Gulf. Each fishing event must be recorded, and all catch reported within eight hours.

Commercial fishers have significantly changed how they fish since the mid-1980s, when inshore finfish stocks, including those in the Gulf, were in a perilous state. The number of fishing vessels has reduced, with some Gulf fleets in 2022 half of what they were in 2005 – lightening our footprint.

Technology and fishing gear has improved, and the increase in healthy fish stocks, thanks to the Quota Management System and management targets, mean fishers can catch their quota from the same fishing grounds each season.

Inshore trawlers and Danish seiners fish with light nets over soft seabed sediments in the Gulf – sand, gravel, mud, shell. They don’t fish on rocky ground or reefs for two main reasons; these areas are not home to target fish, and rocks and reefs can damage expensive nets. And because reefs are typically higher in biodiversity, this means that fishing grounds and areas of high biodiversity are kept separate.

In the comparatively small area of the Gulf where fishers do trawl, the scale of change to the environment can be less than the natural fluctuations caused by storms. It is significantly less than the impacts seen recently from the cyclones that result in vast quantities of sediment and contaminants into near-shore ecosystems.

My point is that the seafood industry has never stood still, and will never stand still, on our journey of improvement – a journey we’re undertaking on behalf of the millions of Kiwis who regularly eat fish for dinner and want to feel confident it is caught sustainably.

An estimated 50% of fish commercially caught in the Gulf is sold to Aucklanders – in restaurants, fish shops, take-away shops. We provide fish to those who do not have the resources to catch it for themselves.

The seafood industry is acutely aware of its responsibilities to protect treasured food sources such as the Hauraki Gulf. But unless effective action also takes place on the land, all the other actions will have little effect. 

This is what we encourage New Zealanders to ask the Government and regional councils for an ecosystem-based approach that addresses all stressors on the Gulf, in proportion to the risk each poses. I would like to see everyone who impacts the Gulf working better together with focus, urgency and commitment so we can make long lasting improvements to its health.