Call to ease limits on 'prolific' snapper

Fish prices are soaring.

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AN ABUNDANCE of snapper on the North Island's east coast is generating calls to increase catch limits for commercial fishing.

The calls come as the price of annual catch entitlement – effectively a fishing right for commercial fishers – hit an average of $4895 a tonne this season, 11% up on last year and the highest for at least five years.

"The abundance is not allowing the boats to target other species," said Leigh Fisheries chief executive Greg Bishop. "In places where you used to catch the tarakihis, the gurnards, it's inundated by snapper."

The commercial snapper catch is controlled by the quota management system which has set an annual commercial catch limit of 4500 tonnes a year for the main SNA1 snapper area from North Cape to Cape Runaway.

The system requires commercial fishers to own or lease annual catch entitlement (ACE) from quota owners for every kilogram of snapper they catch. Anyone catching fish in excess of their ACE holding is hit by penalties.

The bulk of ACE is traded at the beginning of the fishing season in October, with smaller quantities changing hands during the season as fishers balance their catch and try to avoid penalties.

Bishop, whose company owns or leases about 1000 tonnes of snapper ACE in area one, said the snapper catch was such that normal bycatch levels of gurnard, john dory and other species were not being reached, forcing more competition for the fixed quantity of snapper ACE available.

"They're paying a high lease and breaking even on that, hoping to catch the bycatch they'll get a return on. Some of the lease prices they're paying doesn't add up – we've heard of $6-$7/kg and the fish isn't worth that.

"It's getting to the point where the people who hold the lease have probably the most profitable part of the snapper business."

Alastair Macfarlane of the Seafood Industry Council said high ACE prices were an indicator of abundance.

"It has logic to it. It would be an economic consequence of [ACE] scarcity that the value was being driven up and companies which already own ACE would want to hang on to it."

Before calling for an increase in catch limits, however, he said it was important to discover whether the snapper boom was a short-term bubble or an ongoing increase.

There were some signs the trend was ongoing, he said, "and if science bears that out it would make a case for an amendment of the catch level".

Eric Barratt, chief executive of listed fishing company Sanford, described the surging price of snapper ACE as "market forces at play".

"Also the snapper fishery in the north is very prolific and productive. That means commercially it's easier to catch, and lower catch costs means you can bid more for ACE."

He said the industry would consider what the science showed before officially seeking a higher catch limit.

Meanwhile, the price of snapper to consumers appears to be rising – latest indicators show prices of about $50/kg, up more than 70% from 2005 – and some of that is due to higher ACE costs.

Bishop pointed to another factor.

"Our friends across the Ditch seem to have a bottomless appetite for our fish."

With continuing demand from Australia and supply fixed by the commercial catch limit, snapper prices probably won't come down any time soon.

- © Fairfax NZ News