Ngai Tahu imposes fishing fee

DON SCOTT/The Press

SLIPPERY SITUATION: Lake Ellesmere eelers Clem Smith, Logan Bowis, and Mike Pullan are unhappy with an 8 per cent levy Ngai Tahu is imposing on fishery earnings.

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Ngai Tahu is charging commercial eel fishermen for the use of Lake Ellesmere a decade after the Canterbury lakebed was returned to the tribe as part of its treaty settlement.

Fisherman Clem Smith said he and four other commercial eelerswere being forced to agree to pay 8 per cent of their earnings to Ngai Tahu about $29,000 a year for the use of the lake (Te Waihora).

The tribe says the money will be used for environmental projects, including planting and research, to improve the quality of the shallow lake, the country's fifth largest.

Smith said the fishermen accepted some payment for restoration work was fair but objected to parts of the contract and the process which had left them unable to fish from the start of the eel season last month until they had signed.

He warned that fishermen and boaties living in other parts of the country such as Taupo, Rotorua, Hamilton and on the North Island's East Coast should prepare themselves for similar iwi charges. Ngai Tahu's Te Waihora Management Board approached the fishermen shortly before Christmas with a contract asking for 15 per cent of all their income to go towards a restoration fund.

Smith said the fishermen had negotiated the fee down to 8 per cent, but were still unhappy with some terms, including having to report to Ngai Tahu on monies earned.

"We said we would pay them, but didn't like the contract so we asked for an extension with back pay to February 1, but they said we couldn't put the nets into the bottom of the lake until the contract was signed," he said.

"It's a terrible thing to do to people who have been there 30 to 40 years on the lake.

"It's a shocking way to behave."

Smith said the fishermen were poised to sign the deal, under "extreme duress". "Ngai Tahu and politicians said at the time the lakebed was given back to them (Ngai Tahu) that other people wouldn't be impacted by it and we believed it and now a few years down the track, of course, the rules have changed."

However, Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon said a fee permit system was signalled in a 2004 management plan.

He said after negotiations on the original proposal of a 15 per cent fee, he had signed off on the 8 per cent charge yesterday, and believed it had been accepted by the fishermen.

He said the iwi was entitled to prevent eel fishing until the contract had been signed.

"It's a commercial operation and it's on our land," he said. "It's the same principle as the concessions charged by the Department of Conservation which we pay for use of their land."

There were no payments or restrictions on the recreational use of the lake and he did not believe the fees set a precedent.

He said the tribe also had an agreement between the North Canterbury Fish and Game and DOC which meant half of the gamebird hunting licence fee paid by lake users was directed into a joint fund for enhancement projects.

- © Fairfax NZ News