Editorial: Threat to whitebait is worry for all

Whitebait have a high threat ranking.

Massey University freshwater scientist Dr Mike Joy seriously (albeit temporarily) curbed my enthusiasm for whitebaiting last year.

My brief email exchange with him happened to come on the eve of joining my brother to scoop whitebait fritter's crucial ingredient from a gentle stream on the Kapiti Coast.

The good doctor was dogmatic about the serious decline of four of the five fish species that make up whitebait. Their threatened numbers apparently due to lack of habitat and degradation of waterways by intensive agriculture.

It's enough to spark a crisis of conscience in the hungriest, most ardent fisher.

Another threat is introduced fish, such as trout, which compete for habitat and in fact prey on whitebait. That's the question he's raising. Trout (ie, the species we pay a licence to catch and are illegal to sell) has more protection than our threatened endemic species. It's an anomaly of the unfair sort.

In an interview in 2012 he said whitebait were as threatened as wood pigeons. "No-one would eat a wood pigeon [kereru] fritter but whitebait have the same threat ranking". Recent headlines surrounding the appetite for kereru might have him ruing that line. But his point stands.

Just a week into the 2015 season he's calling for an end to all commercial sales of whitebait.

So, rather than misinterpreting his stance as an attempt to collapse the tradition, the reality is he's endeavouring to shore it up. A threat to these species is a threat to the custom.

For anyone who respects the heritage (and taste) of this much-loved pastime, this should be food for thought.