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.

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.