Fishing rivals square off in court

Increasing rivalry between commercial fishers and recreational and Maori customary fishers came to a head in the Supreme Court.

Recreational fishing groups who initiated a landmark court case in 2005, the year after kahawai was brought into the quota management system, are seeking a declaration from the highest court which could give them a fair allocation in "shared fisheries", where they compete with commercial trawlers for the same species.

The non-commercial fishers today argued that their allocation should take into account the social, economic, and cultural well-being of recreational and Maori anglers.

Alan Galbraith, QC, representing the NZ Recreational Fishing Council, and the NZ Big Game Fishing Council, told the court that a study in South Australia showed recreational fishers valued the species they caught at 11 times the value estimated for the same species by commercial fishers.

And he noted that the national population had increased significantly since fisheries quotas started applying to species also targeted by commercial trawlers.

The Fisheries Minister should take into account social, cultural and economic aspects of the fishery, not just as factors to be considered, but as objectives after setting a total allowable catch on the basis of ecological sustainability.

Mr Galbraith told the bench of five judges, headed by Chief Justice Sian Elias, that fisheries law allowed for the minister to reduce the total allowable commercial catch to zero, but said he had to make an allowance for recreational fishers.

He also raised the question of whether the allocation to recreational fishers should be larger to compensate for the fact that their rod-and-line fishing caught a smaller proportion of the allocated fish than trawlers took as a proportion of their quotas.

Though the long-running legal row is known as the "kahawai case" the court's decision is expected to impact on all the shared fisheries, including species such as snapper, rock lobster, paua, blue cod, and kingfish.

Mr Galbraith said that in essence the non-commercial fishers want the Supreme Court to uphold the judgement of the High Court over that of the Appeal Court.

The High Court ruled in 2007 that decisions on the total allowable catch for kahawai should be re-considered, to take into account social, economic and cultural well-being of Maori and recreational anglers.

But the Appeal Court substituted a direction that the next allocations should take account of recreational bag catch limits for recreational anglers.

Then-Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton last year put off a significant review of kahawai recreational bag limits and the divvy-up of allocations between anglers and commercial fishers until after the election. It was now expected in October.

The catch limits and allowances from earlier years for kahawai – 6848 tonnes – were rolled over to the 2008-2009 fishing year.

The Government allowed 3985 tonnes to cover the combined recreational and customary catch, and 135 tonnes to cover "other mortality" such as accidental wastage during fishing. Commercial fishers were allocated 2728 tonnes.

There is not a minimum legal size limit for kahawai taken by recreational anglers, who can take up to 20 a day, except in the southern fishery, where the daily limit is 15.

- NZPA