State of Hauraki Gulf Marine Park

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Report paints grim picture of Hauraki Gulf Marine Park

"Twenty-two percent of all the gulf's seabirds are threatened, compared to four percent 20 years ago.

Tāiko/black petrels are dying at an unsustainable rate because of commercial fishing; kōura/crayfish are now functionally extinct; and mass mortalities of fish and shellfish have become common."

Report paints grim picture of Hauraki Gulf Marine Park https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/410 ... arine-park

[zarkov]

Parts of that report seem at odds with the recreational catch, which by all accounts was very good this year, same as last..

My personal observations kayaking the Gulf is that floating plastic waste etc is the lowest I can recall and it's a far cry from the days of floating beer cans and bait wrappers of a few years back, it's a generational change imo. Obviously, some species are at particular risk from floating plastic, but bags will be a rarity soon.

Crayfish have been functionally extinct in the inner Gulf for 50 years, and bearing in mind that the Gulf is part of a 1.5 million city now, that's to be expected. You don't need to go far from Auckland to dive in some pretty good marine environment. I guess it's one of those cases of comparing things as they were 50 years ago to what we have now, when we don't have personal experience of the environment 100 years ago. Some bird species are doing very well and others now so much, Gannets look to be doing ok, as well as Oyster Catchers Dots as well, and they'd all be doing much better if we could just keep dogs off the beaches.

[Steps]

Parts of that report seem at odds with the recreational catch, which by all accounts was very good this year, same as last..

I disagree.
FISH
I have been fishing the HG for the last 10yrs, all yr round 25 to 35 trips per yr.
Yes never failed to bring home a feed.
There is an old rec fishing saying " 5% of rec fishermen catch 95% of the rec catch.
Yes in the last 4yrs in particular there have been more snapper and larger, but at the same time.. unscientific a lot more at the ramp with no or bad catches...
Mark Twain said " Luck is directly proportional to the effort put in"
I and other fishermen who consistently do well keep records of times, day , month, the tides, location , water temps and few other things. We have a historical record so we can drop onto a few spots that may start to be 'working on the way to the targeted spot. Again recording these.
The general rec fisherman may have 3 to 5 trips per yr over summer.. not the best fishing season...and reason for goi8ng .."oh nice day, lets go for a fish (at 10am, back by 3pm) with no idea of the tides, currents, or even if a weather bomb expected later in the day.

Throw into this mix a social media that ppl boast their exceptional catch and no mention of the failures.

So we catch, and to all appearances there seems more fish when there is not.


60s , the huge, acres of fish working bait fish.. Trevelly, KY, kingfish, even snapper , the gurnard and other species under that.. right inside the harbour to way out into the HG.

Thu the fishing is still far better now than in the 70s and 80s pre QMS and 12 mile economic zone.. it was decimated back then, except for shell fish.
I have rec fished the HG from the late 50s , the 60s .. sold my boat mid 70s cause no fish, and began again around 10yrs ago.


BIRDS":
I have posted here on several occasions over the yrs about significant dropping in numbers of flocks of terns and gannets. Big drops in the number of shags and other species that used to sit off the stern of the boat.
How we can now feed these , often my hand , or nearly by hand because they are hungry
The Now MT roosting, breading spots that used to have every ledge full, off the bottom end of Waiheke, Pakatoa, Down to Ponui and the seaward side of shag rock.
And how the bait fish used to cause the sounder to complete white out.. now even the bait fish balls are few and far between and far smaller.

The issue for birds and fish is not rec fishing or commercial fishing or a QMS system at fault.
It is the people who have been administer the laws and regulations that the above work within.
The limits on bait fish.. none.. no bait fish no birds
Industry self regulation and voluntary practices... Political BS to put off the inevitable decisions
We have sen this on supermarket bags and packaging...making a financial killing while doing so. The technology, the systems had been in place yrs ago, the professional politicians just don't have the balls to do the right thing.
Same goes for climate change..and its been going and governments doing it on for centuries... it proven that it works and is profitable... for politicians and industry... world wide.

[zarkov]

Parts of that report seem at odds with the recreational catch, which by all accounts was very good this year, same as last..

I disagree.
BIRDS":
I have posted here on several occasions over the yrs about significant dropping in numbers of flocks of terns and gannets. Big drops in the number of shags and other species that used to sit off the stern of the boat.
How we can now feed these , often my hand , or nearly by hand because they are hungry
The Now MT roosting, breading spots that used to have every ledge full, off the bottom end of Waiheke, Pakatoa, Down to Ponui and the seaward side of shag rock.
And how the bait fish used to cause the sounder to complete white out.. now even the bait fish balls are few and far between and far smaller.
.

A lot of fishermen report shags coming to feed at the back of boats in recent years, however ascribing this to lack of food is probably not the full story. Back in the day, shags were actively persecuted, and kept their distance [the same still applies to Harriers] but the change almost certainly reflect learned behaviour, feeding on under size snapper returned to the water, rather food shortages. I can paddle quite close to rookeries and individuals in the Hauraki Gulf, but at Taupo, which has huge shag numbers, they're still very gun shy, with good reason.

Despite a paucity of recent surveys, this report has a lot of historical data.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/do ... -final.pdf

It draws some similar conclusions to yours, but it appears to me that the situation as regards Gannets and Shags doesn't appear as dire as other species.

[Steps]

I have spent many yrs breeding birds.. one get to know body language, hungry..alert, prepared to take a chance. Latter a big part of training parrots and other animals.
This body language of older birds prepare to mostly , nearly take fish from the hand, espec shags and petrels is not learnt.
Also As far as i know Im the only rec fisher who doesnt mind birds sitting off the stern.
They are and traditionally been the surge of fishermen dropping baits...everything from drastic measures to water guns.
I found many yrs ago, drop the bait hook, and let it drop.. they may go after it but wil ignore like a king fish. What causes issues is ppl see the bird dive then pull the bait back. Ends up being like a kitten and a bit of paper on a string, bird get excited and grabs it.
The jamb packed nesting colonies on the clifts back of shag rock, and just nth of Anita bay , and in hooks bay have all gone.