Fishing survey gives assistance and challenges

Marlborough Sounds fishing tales are more likely to come from middle-aged white Marlburian men with comfortable incomes who are staying on a boat or in a bach, according to new survey results.

The Ministry of Fisheries-funded Why We Fish survey was carried out by the Cawthron Institute through online and in-person surveys last summer.

The study, the first of its type in New Zealand, profiled people who fish in the Sounds, where they stayed, the methods they used, the fish they tried to catch and how successful they were.

It also established estimates of how many people fished in the Sounds annually – 9112 – and how many fish they were catching – 138,870, or about 104 tonnes (15.24 fish per person).

Ministry inshore fisheries manager Leigh Mitchell said the study gave useful figures and information on recreational fishermen that the ministry had not had before.

The results would help inform long-term management of the Sounds' fisheries, she said.

Blue Cod Management Group member Eric Jorgensen said it assisted in understanding fishermen's attitudes toward potential management options and those options' likely effectiveness.

The group, which is co-ordinated by the ministry, is charged with developing a long-term management plan for blue cod in the enclosed Sounds.

Owing to pressure on blue cod stocks, the last government banned recreational fishing for the species in the area for four years from October 2008.

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley, who will consider and possibly adopt the group's final plan, has since said the fishery could reopen fully or partially next summer.

The survey results, Mr Jorgensen said, also provided challenges as they showed more than 90 per cent of fishermen did not belong to a fishing club or organisation.

"We need to find ways of connecting and engaging with these people and ways to get information like the Marlborough Sounds' Blue Cod Fishing Code of Practice to them."

The survey report is available on the Cawthron Institute's website: www.cawthron.org.nz.

- The Marlborough Express

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