An MP is calling for “clarity” around the current state of marine life around reefs near Mōtītī Island in the Bay of Plenty, nearly two years after a controversial fishing ban.
Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller, who opposed the ban, says he wants the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to be more transparent about when the protected areas will reopen to recreational and iwi fishers.
“Are the fish stocks declining? Are they flourishing? Our community deserves clarity.”
The council says the Mōtītī Protection Area rules focused on marine biodiversity, not fish stocks or individual species, and it is still in the process of researching the biodiversity and gathering evidence about whether change is happening.
Under an Environment Court order, the ban on taking fish in the Mōtītī Protection Area came into force in August 2021 in the Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan.
The protected area is made up of three reef systems around Mōtītī Island including the Astrolabe Reef, where the MV Rena grounded in 2011.
Muller’s comments came after Parliament’s Environment Committee last month released its report into his February 2021 petition calling for an urgent review of the then-proposed ban in relation to Astrolabe Reef, for recreational fishers to be consulted and for legislation to be passed ensuring the Ministry of Fisheries had primacy over protecting coastal fish stocks.
The committee did not make any recommendations in response to the petition bar suggesting the House “take note” of its report. It said the ongoing resource management law reforms may help clarify fisheries and resource management legal matters raised in the petition.
Muller said he was disappointed by the committee’s response, saying it had been an “opportunity” to revisit the closure of the reefs and the question of consultation.
Fat Boys Charters owner Russ Hawkins, who has fished and dived on the Astrolabe Reef for the past 53 years, said he had been against the fishing ban “from day one”.
His opinion was the process and evidence for it had been poor.
He suggested opening up one of the areas to recreational fishers “as a guideline” and monitoring the marine life. He believed it would show “no difference”.
Environment Committee member and Labour list MP Angie Warren Clark said the original proposal did not go out for public consultation because it was an Environment Court process - “it wasn’t a publicly notified planned change process”.
Warren-Clark said regional council staff and Tauranga marine biologist Professor Chris Battershill spoke to members about the science behind the ban, which had been “pretty persuasive”.
“We weren’t prepared to overturn a decision in courts of law around this that had been through a series of courts to get that finding.”
On a personal note, Warren-Clark said as someone who had fished in the Bay of Plenty for many years, she had seen it degrading, with big schools of fish “disappearing”.
“We’ve had masses of changes in our natural environment.”
Warren-Clark said she had seen a “diminished” crayfish stock and areas barren of life except for kina.
“When we get a biodiversity shift like we’ve had, and the science is pretty clear about what’s going on, I think it is quite meaningful that this has been put in place.”
She said the protected area would not be “closed forever”.
“It’s also going to mean that our stocks are going to come back up, which is actually just going to set us up for the ability for future fishers to continue to fish - commercial and otherwise.”
Council regulatory services general manager Reuben Fraser said the Environment Court directed it to introduce the Mōtītī Protection Area after a “complex” five-year legal case that spanned across multiple courts.
The rules focused on marine biodiversity, not fisk stocks or individual fish species, he said.
Fraser said the council was still in the process of gathering information about the area’s marine biodiversity.
“We all have a role to play in looking after our marine resources for future generations and this is an opportunity to encourage all parties to work together.”
Fraser said its monitoring programme was focused on studying, learning about and understanding the ecosystems “that call these reefs home”.
The council was following a Department of Conservation framework to assess the fish communities and habitats of the reefs.
“It takes some time to build up enough evidence to say whether things are changing, and we look forward to sharing these results in due course.”
In response to Hawkins’ comments, Fraser said the Mōtītī Protection Area came about from the initial exclusion zone placed around the Rena wreck.
“That introduced the idea of a marine protection area to this part of the moana.”
University of Waikato research found snapper and crayfish populations soared during the five years the reef around the wreck was locked down, but when access was reopened populations plummeted.
Fraser said the Mōtītī Protection Area rules were set out in the Regional Coastal Environment Plan. The Resource Management Act required coastal plans to be reviewed every 10 years.
Review processes could take several years and involve a number of steps. The council would look to align such a review with other plan change processes and any other solutions or processes which sit outside the Resource Management Act process, he said.
As the Government had repealed the Resource Management Act and was in the process of introducing new legislation to manage the environment, it was unclear what the transition would look like in terms of planning processes.
“Regardless, any future review will invite public participation and provide for input from interested parties.”
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
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