Mr Ingram, and NZRFC Executive Officer, Margaret Wind, will be in Wellington for the presentation of the Report which will be introduced by new Minister of Fisheries, The Hon Stuart Nash.

“The Minister clearly has a strong interest in the New Zealand Initiative findings and the NZ Recreational Fishing Council regards the impending report as being a catalyst for improving fisheries management in New Zealand and further consolidating recreational fishing rights and opportunities” said Mr. Ingram today.

There are some real lessons to be learnt from how Recfishwest has developed over the last few years and the positive results they are achieving for recreational fishers in Western Australia. There is no doubt in our mind that Western Australian recreational fishers have the upper hand when compared with other stakeholders.

 The NZRFC looks forward to recreational fishers playing a more active role in fisheries management decision making in New Zealand, with the support of an adequately funded peak representative body.

The NZ Recreational Fishing Council is a confederation of amateur fishers, freshwater angling, fishing and dive clubs actively promoting responsible and sustainable management practices.  The Council remains a foundation member of the National Rock Lobster Management Group, established in 1993 to be the primary source of lobster fisheries management advice to Ministers. The Council has very strong regional linkages through both the North and South Islands and has continued to represent recreational fishers on these forum groups for a number of years.

Despite the reasonably  low public profile of the Council in recent years, demand for increased advocacy and representation of fishers has lead to the development of a new 10 year strategic plan, one that sees positive engagement with all fishing sectors to encourage ongoing sustainablilty.

3 December 2017

A comprehensive copy of the plan will be made available to members in the new year once the Board have signed off on it.

 NZRFC Board

Ted Howard, Immediate Past President of the NZRFC has had an immense workload over the past 12 months with the advent of the Kaikoura earthquake.  We would like to personally thank Ted for his continued commitment to the council.

Keith Ingram has taken on the role of acting President in the interim period – a function he is very experienced in, to take us forward.

The newly elected Board are:

• Keith Ingram – President
• Bill Cronin – Vice President
• Alain Jorion
• George Zander
• Bruce Reid
• Ross Gildon
• Mark Roden
• Sheryl Hart
• Ted Howard
• Geoff Rowling
• Margaret Wind – Executive Officer

Ted comes from Kaikoura, is in his 10th year as president of the Kaikoura Boating Club, and has a long history of involvement in both recreational and commercial fishing, conservation, marine science, local and national politics.

Ted comes to the role with a commitment to having a greater abundance in the inshore than is present for many species, to developing local management, and to management that involves whole ecosystem considerations. His experience in the Te Korowai process over the last 9 years has given him some idea of what is involved.

The situation as Ted sees it.

Creating abundance will involve changes in the way all people interact with the ocean:

• changes in behaviour by most recreational fishers, coming from new levels of understanding of the realities, and including all different groups within the sector talking and working together;
• changes in behaviour by most commercial fishers, mainly from changes to fishing practices that kill fewer fish and do less damage to the ocean floor, and in part from automated recording of more detailed information;
• changes in the way conservation groups behave towards fishers, both recreational and commercial, acknowledging the realities they face;
• changes in the way the bureaucracies interact with all sectors, including the wider public, in the speed with which they react to information, and in the scale and scope of management measures (much finer scale close to shore);
• changes in the political system to encourage and resource local management, to resource better science, and to honestly and openly work through the difficult problems.

Crayfish management in the Kaikoura region seems to be a model for fisheries management. Commercial fishers have resisted government attempts to drive abundance down to deliver short term increases in export income, and both recreational and commercial fishers enjoy reasonable abundance as a result.

Crayfish management in the Gisborne city area seems to be an example of everything that isn’t working. The situation there is extremely complex, with many difficult issues that many different sectors are unwilling to face head on. There deep issues of sovereignty, unresolved in 180 years that need to be addressed that will take time and effort to settle fairly. There are issues around displaced effort from marine reserve creation contributing to localised collapse, that no one in DOC or the conservation movement more widely want to acknowledge or address, and embedded in that are issues around commercial compensation that treasury and cabinet want to avoid acknowledging or addressing. All sectors are losers at present. It is about as ugly as it gets politically, and it needs addressing. It needed addressing 20 years ago. There are no simple answers, and there are ways back to abundance.

There is a strong need for integrity at all levels of debate.
The politicians and bureaucrats need to acknowledge that many of the fisheries laws are and always have been a fiction. That is a serious issue for many fishers, as for many it is, and always has been, impossible to work within the letter of the law, as the letter of the law has little relationship to the physical reality fishers face. Acknowledging that reality will be a good start towards creating systems that actually start to deliver what people expect of them.
Fishermen need to acknowledge that some practices really do need to change.
Conservation groups need to acknowledge that most fishermen really do want an abundant marine environment.
All of that is difficult when many people are firmly stuck in an us and them view of the world, and cannot clearly see that we are all in this together.

So it is not a simple journey we have ahead, and it does seem to be a journey worth making. There do in fact seem to be significant gains that can be delivered for all sectors, and it will take some real work to deliver them.

Acknowledging the current realities that exist seems to be step one (however ugly and unpleasant they may be).

Building trust and understanding is step two, and that is likely to involve a lot of time and effort and more than a little misunderstanding along the way. Such seems to be the nature of the process.

Getting from A to B is rarely a straight line when one is on the ocean, not many days are that calm; mostly there is a bit of wind or tide, a few rocks, other boats, etc, and a few changes of course are required. We should all be used to that.

1. To be an advocate for the sustainable utilisation of fisheries resources in New Zealand so that the non-commercial fishing public have access to abundant fisheries;
2. To actively participate in fisheries management, acting in the best interests and for the benefit of the non-commercial fishing public in New Zealand;
3. To educate and inspire the fishing public on a pathway to stewardship of the fisheries resources;
4. To foster a change process to a better future for all who fish in New Zealand for food or fun, thereby building the capacity of the fishing public to exercise stewardship of New Zealand’s fisheries resources;
5. To act in a manner consistent with the Treaty of Waitangi 1840;
6. To liaise and cooperate with like organisations when that will further the objectives of the Council.

In the late 1970′s the recreational fishing sector received a challenge from the then Minister of Fisheries Duncan McIntyre, who in his frustrations of trying to deal with a fragmented dysfunctional group of recreational interests said, “I do not have time to talk with every interest group about individual sector concerns on amateur fishing interests and regulations. Get yourselves sorted out and when you can speak with one cohesive representative voice then come and see me and I will ensure your voice is heard”.

So the building blocks of cooperation, consensus and policies were laid and this Council was formed.

Description

Since 1978, the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council has been participating in fisheries management and advocating for recreational fishing. They have been doing this work to even up the playing field that is tilted towards maximising the commercial fishing industry’s return from the fisheries resource. They have been doing this work to ensure recreational fishers can go fishing when and mostly where they like. They have been doing this work to ensure decisions made by the Minister and Ministry of Fisheries result in abundant and healthy fisheries.

There have been notable achievements with their work in influencing decisions on fisheries management. A few examples would include the establishment of recreational only areas for scallops in the Coromandel, heavy involvement in the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park establishment, restraining commercial drag netting in Tauranga Harbour and getting cray loops legitimised as a valid method of crayfishing.

In short, the NZRFC have been an informed voice speaking for recreational fishers in New Zealand for over 32 years. The Council is recognised by the Government and the Courts as a representative body and are the only national body directly offering membership to individual fishers. The Council works on all fish species, in all regions and for all fishers across New Zealand.

Constitution

As ratified at the 2011 AGM of the Council, the amended Constitution 2011w reflects the Strategic Plan 2011-2014.

Strategic Plan 2011-2014

The NZRFC envisage a future that has guaranteed access to abundant fisheries for all recreational fishers in NZ.

The NZRFC have a dual mission to help achieve this vision. The Council’s mission is:

1. To foster the establishment of an independent statutory body with decision making capabilities in recreational fisheries.

2. To provide professional advocacy and active participation in fisheries management for the benefit of recreational fishers – until such time as a statutory body is established.

Unfortunately Max Hetherington passed away the day after our 2006 Hamilton conference and I for one have not yet forgiven him for that.  For those who may not already know, Max passed away peacefully at his home on July 18th 2006 aged 60.  Max was my friend and a friend to many.  He was also an excellent recreational fishing representative and a passionate advocate of sensible environment and conservation initiatives.

Max had been secretary-manager of the NZ Recreational Fishing Council for some 17 years and his expertise and capacity for work had lulled this organisation into a false sense of security.  He left big boots to fill; something we have yet to fully achieve.  This past year has been one of constant challenges made all that more daunting without Max’s guiding hand and wise counsel.

My reasons for not yet forgiving him for leaving us so suddenly and unexpectedly are twofold.  Firstly, Max passed away before we could change the unthinking attitude of about one million recreational fishers who blindly believe that the recreational fishing right they claim as a birth-right just happens to be.  Well it doesn’t!  It has been folks like Max who have secured this right for them and for us and who have established a foundation from which we can move forward to consolidate our recreational fishing rights.

The second reason I find it hard to forgive Max for leaving so suddenly is that he was a close personal friend and as such I have difficulty in accepting his loss for fear that we may have all contributed to an untimely end. Max carried a significant burden on behalf of the Council members and was never one to shirk what he perceived to be either duty or responsibility.  Since his passing I and the other Council members have come to understand just how great that burden has been in terms of the correspondence, accounting, representation, advocacy and submissions that Max had taken responsibility for under the guidance of the Executive Committee.

I want to reflect on Max’s contribution to the recreational fishing and dive communities of New Zealand because his time with the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council traversed both the formative and productive years of our organisation.  And they have been productive years.

I first met Max over 20 years ago when he was the keeper of the cash for the Reserve Bank. He looked after and accounted for what was in the vaults; which he described as being “heaps of money”.   It was a career that demanded honesty and integrity.  Those were qualities that Max carried through all his dealings on behalf of the NZ Underwater Association and the NZ Recreational Fishing Council.

When I first met Max he was the bubble-blowing delegate for New Zealand Underwater Association on the then re-formed New Zealand Recreational Fishing.

Max was the NZUA environmental officer and fought many battles to protect our coastal waters from pollution and abuse.  He was an underwater fisherman, a spearo, and later he would become an avid angler.  So concerned was Max for his marine environment that he was instrumental in establishing Aqua Trust and remained one of its most loyal trustees until his untimely passing.

Max was the applicant for the Long Island marine reserve in the Marlborough Sounds and working for the NZUA and NZRFC he supported and promoted several others.  Ultimately Max was to become disillusioned with the selfish attitudes of a new generation of greenies; “the greedies” as he called them.  On behalf of the recreational fishing and diving communities he consistently fought against the deceit and misrepresentation that have been used to promote marine reserves which had no justification other than being politically fashionable.

Max was made a life member of the NZUA in 1987 for his services both to the diving fraternity and to the marine environment, an honour that was accorded to him by the by the NZRFC not so many years later.

Max and I were thrown together on a project that the NZUA and the NZ Marine Transport Association regarded as being of critical importance – trying to stop the Ports of Auckland dumping toxic dredgings near the Noises group of Islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

The proposed dumping grounds were the very place where the Kingfish Go Wild project released over a thousand kingfish.  Back when the dumping was proposed many fishing clubs and the NZ Recreational Fishing Council were nervous about the challenge that Max and I put up to the Ports of Auckland.  We were told by many that we didn’t have a chance and many fishing groups stood back from our endeavours for fear of costs being awarded against us when – as they assumed – we lost the challenge.

Max and I were described as two little Davids – not that either of us were that small even back in those days – taking on the corporate Goliath.  In order to fund that challenge two small family homes were on the line; if our wives had fully understood the risk at the time I am not sure if we could have continued our quest.

But where was the environment and conservation lobby of the day? Max was especially disappointed and disillusioned with the deafening silence coming from the greenies.

When we arrived at the hearing the Port Company had every expert in town lined up against us.  We relied on Max’s skills, our extensive local knowledge and anecdotal evidence from our supporters.  We battled on for ten days but in the end our challenge failed.  The judge acknowledged we had a strong case but not one backed by any science.  He said there was a stronger case to suck it and see and he gave approval with the proviso that if the mound moved, no more dumping of dredge material would ever occur within the Hauraki Gulf.

When the Port Company went for costs the good judge agreed with us and ordered that the costs rest where they lay.  Our homes were safe.

We stated that the dredging mound would disperse from the site and it did just that.  As of today, including Pine Harbour channel maintenance there has been no more approved dumping of dredged spoil in the Hauraki Gulf. While we lost the first battle, we won the war.

That was an important challenge for the recreational fishing and dive community – it demonstrated that the man in the street could act in a positive and productive way to protect what was important to both lifestyle and quality of life.

Max Hetherington was instrumental in giving me and other volunteers courage and confidence in regard to protecting the things that we thought important.  The track record of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council since those days has been a good one, given the constraints placed on us in terms of money and resources.  Many personal sacrifices have been made along the way to ensure that the recreational fishing opportunities enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, and more particularly by our affiliated members, are better respected and acknowledged.

Drawn from President’s report to AGM July 20-21st 2007

However there are three years of lots of work for the Council and its increasing membership.  The Strategic Plan sets out the Strategic Priorities and Outcomes for the Council in addition to identifying the Council’s Vision, Mission and Values.

To read the full Strategic Plan, click the following:

STRATEGIC PLAN w 2011 to 2014

Ted Howard

Acting President

Ted has been a fisherman for over half a century, 17 years as a commercial fisherman and all of it as a recreational fisherman.  He has a degree in Marine Ecology, and experience in all aspects of fisheries.   Ted has been president of the Kaikoura Boating Club since 2005, and is treasurer of Te Korowai o te Tai o Marokura.

Email: ted@fishnet.co.nz  Phone: 027 442 4281

Geoff Rowling

Immediate Past President

Email: geoff.rowling@xtra.co.nz

Mobile: 027 4593557

Sheryl Hart

Vice President

Sheryl has a practical approach to fisheries management preferring to focus on results than the processes. As she says, she would rather spend the time and money actually making a boat ramp than doing the paperwork that makes the boat ramp legal. Even so, Sheryl does a solid job on submissions for the NZRFC, bringing her comprehensive knowledge of fisheries and fishing to the task. She is a stalwart member and secretary of the Raglan Sportfishing club and brings her practical experience of administration and fundraising to the NZRFC. Sheryl knows her local harbour is healthy and improving in fisheries abundance and wants to protect this and extend that positive fishing experience across New Zealand.

Email: nzrfcsheryl@actrix.co.nz

Mobile: 021 943018

Keith Ingram

Past President

Keith is a professional mariner with some 45 years of sea-going and maritime experience operating all types of vessels from the Navy, the fishing industry, the charter boat industry to recreational boats. The name Keith Ingram is synonymous with the maritime industry with Keith undertaking roles right across the industry. He is the past president of both the NZ Marine Transport Association and NZ Recreational Fishing Council, has been awarded life memberships for both organisations and remains on both boards today. He is a member of the National Rock Lobster Management Group, is a marine assessor to the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, is a past unit commander for NZ Cadet forces and is a senior Honorary Fishery Officer and coordinator reporting to the Ministry of Fisheries. Locally Keith is a Rear Commodore of the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club and maintains a daily contact with the wider maritime industry where his services as a consultant and advisor on maritime matters are frequently sought. Keith is a competent and respected leader and a noted communicator with his writing skills. He is co-owner of VIP Publications Ltd and publisher, editor, feature writer and photographer for Professional Skipper Magazine, NZ Aquaculture Magazine and NZ Workboat Review. Keith has an abiding passion for fishing and the New Zealand fisheries resource. As a bit of an old sea dog, he continually battles on behalf of the fishing public so they can recreationally fish across all species and all parts of New Zealand.

Email: keith@skipper.co.nz

Mobile: 027 4584747

Bruce Reid

Retired teacher who taught Social Studies, Geography and more recently Computer Studies and Community Issues at Motueka High School. Currently I am President of the Motueka RSA Fishing Club and have been heavily involved with the club since its inception in 1999. I have shares in a 4.9m Stabi and when the opportunity arises (not often enough) I enjoy fishing the local waters of Tasman Bay. I also fish on charter trips especially Cook Strait, Durville Island, Clarence and Kaikoura. I’m keen to see recreational fishers gain guaranteed access to an equal share of the coastal fisheries. I support recreational only fishing areas and champion sustainable management of our precious seafood resources for future generations. I also participated in the FishinFuture conference in Nelson in February 2013 and believe strongly that the only way we can secure true sustainability is by having all recreational fishers speaking through one unified body. Full time professional advocacy of recreational fishers is the only way to have meaningful input into the management of marine resources. Funding of that advocacy will have to be confronted and so long as it is fair I will support it.

Email: NZRFC@kinect.co.nz

Phone 03 528 7511

Ross Gildon

Board member

Ross brings to the Board more than 30 years of involvement with administration and management of recreational fisheries. He has held multiple leadership roles including being a Past President of the Whakatane Sport Fishing Club, the NZ Big Game Fishing Council and the NZRFC. As an ex diver, net flounder fisher, shell fish gatherer, surfcaster and big fish fisherman, Ross is dedicated to the well being of the aquatic world not only in the Bay of Plenty but the whole country. He has been involved with fisheries research for NIWA and MFish in addition to pursuing his own kahawai research. He has actively participated in fisheries management forums such as introduction of new species into the QMS, the Rights Working Group, the Foreshore and Seabed legislation among others. Ross recognises that the average age of the current recreational representatives is getting older each year and his concerns for future representation lead him to support the direction for change.

Email: falla@ihug.co.nz

Mobile: 027 4989363

George Zander

Board member

George takes a commonsense approach to his Board member role, bringing the benefit of his extensive fishing experience and preference for informed reactions to fisheries management issues. George has been fishing for sustenance and leisure for 40 years and has undertaken most types of fishing in this time. His increasing concern with the decline in fish stocks prompted him to take up leadership roles in recreational fisheries advocacy and management. From his roots as a Ngawi Sports Fishing Club member, George has been a delegate to the NZSFC for 10 years, delegate to the NZRFC for 8 years and a RFC Board member for the last 2 years. He has actively participated in the regional recreational forums with MFish since their inception. George’s experience as a committed recreational fishing volunteer has led him to believe that the financial and time demands on volunteers make a solely volunteer-run organisation unsustainable into the future.

Email: zanderengineering@inspire.net.nz

Mobile: 027 4504455

Mark Roden

Board member

Mark’s interest in marine issues and recreational fishing has grown out of 40 years of snorkeling and spearfishing and seeing the slow degradation of the whole coastal habitat. Mark is the immediate Past President of the Nelson Underwater Club, is a recent South Island spearfishing champ, is a member of TasFish and has been a member of the MFish Top of the South fishing forum. Mark is concerned that the priceless knowledge of those with over 50 years of fishing experience hold is captured and put to use in today’s fisheries management. He believes the total marine agenda is being driven by commercial interests and that more effort needs to be made at a public awareness level with the fishing public of New Zealand to ensure recreational interests are protected and enhanced.

Email: mark@nmf.co.nz

Kevin Moratti

Board member

Kevin has been a participant in the Marine environment all his life fishing at the port in New Plymouth as a child progressing to owning a number of boats over the years.  He enjoys all aspects of fishing.   His interest in the political side has increased over the years, being Chairman of the Taranaki Rec Fishers Assn for many years and also on the New Plymouth Port liaison committee.  He is a member of the New Plymouth Sport Fishing & Underwater Club also.  He was appointed to the North Island West Coast Fin Fish plan and also the FMA8 Advisory Group.  He was an honorary fisheries officer for seven years also.  He has MC’ed many fishing competitions and more lately was elected on the Board of RFC again after a break of a number of years.

Duncan MacIver

Board member

Email: dive.nz@xtra.co.nz