As a result, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is reviewing the kingfish quota.
Port Chalmers Fishermen’s Co-op president Ant Smith said global warming was heating the waters off the Otago coastline, which was attracting kingfish to the South.
“Commercially, we’ve had quite a kingfish problem because there’s no quota for them.
“Fisherman struggle to not catch the fish because there’s more there now than there was two years ago when the quotas were set.”
He said it was a particular problem for set-net fishermen because unlike trawlers, they were not allowed to return live kingfish to the sea.
Set netters were a “big chunk” of the Port Chalmers fishing community.
For catching kingfish, commercial fishermen are charged a deemed value fee of up to $10 per kg, on a sliding scale, depending on how many they catch.
Mr Smith said Dunedin fish shops would buy them, but only at the market price, which was about $2 per kg.
He said one local fisherman lost $40,000 last year because he caught so many kingfish.
“It’s costing the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars a year down here.”
An MPI spokesman agreed it was becoming a major issue for commercial fishermen, and the ministry was reviewing the quota for kingfish at present.
When it was introduced to the quota management system in 2002, there were very few recreational or commercial kingfish catches on the Otago coast.
The quota was set at “nominal levels” because it was not a stock that featured in the area.
“For the last eight or nine years, we’ve seen an increasing abundance of kingfish coming down south.
“We’re getting more and more occurring down this coast — in fact, all the way down to Stewart Island and out on the Chatham Islands, they are showing up.
“The problem that you have with kingfish now, especially in set-netting, is they are an unavoidable bycatch.”
He said the ministry was also investigating whether the rules for set-netters around returning live kingfish to the sea could be changed.
“We don’t have any information on the survivability of kingfish if you return them from a set net.
“MPI is looking at whether live kingfish caught accidentally in set nets can be returned.”
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Comments
What a wonderful example of bureaucratic laws, presumably made with the best of intentions, having unintended consequences.
What happens to this bycatch once it is returned to shore?
If the law says it can't be sold as food when it is perfectable edible, that is total wastage.
Not only does the catch cost the fishermen in terms of time, hold space, fuel, wages and capital costs, they get fined on top.
The really goring aspect of all this, is that it has been happening for nearly a decade with no response from the bureaucrats nor lawmakers.
This is exactly the kind of law management that tears the heart out of our economy.
By catch is one of my personal bugbears. The rate at which our fisheries are declining yet the extent of off shore fishing to satisfy the public's appetite for fish is extreme. A real shame there is no avenue for the fishermen to offload for public consumption.
I'm not a huge fan of the whole Quota Management System or commercial fishing as a whole, but to see this happen and the wastage is a real shame. For one fishermen to mention he's lost 40k in earnings or sales it shows you of the damage he is doing day in day out. The only winner in the commercial fishing game is the fishermen and quota owners.
The ones who were gifted it based on historic assumptions are the big winners, and the fishermen the ones who get the crumbs. The public paying thru the nose for a feed of their favorite sea fare are the ones who are paying.