Recreational whitebaiting is an iconic pastime and should be shored up, writes Mark Story. Photo / File
OPINION
Mixed messaging from government departments over lockdown fishing rules is being welcomed by whitebait.
The threatened native delicacy celebrated a rare upside of Covid with the welcome spectre of their annual sprint from salt to fresh water unimpeded by nets.
The start of the 2021 season (which began three days before lockdown) saw unprecedented confusion, where most believed the pastime wasn't permitted during levels 3 or 4.
It sparked a chance rahui.
Aptly, it came just weeks after conservationist and Ngāti Pāhauwera leader Toro Waaka called for one.
Disturbed at witnessing the decline of the fishery for more than 60 years, and citing a time when his whanau would feed inanga by the bucket to the chooks, Waaka said a five-year whitebaiting rahui is warranted.
As an avid whitebaiter myself, and given four of the five species caught are on the threatened list, I'd be sadly happy to.
But our primary beef should be with commercial harvesters and those selling it. Compared with recreational dabblers, these are big players who talk in kilograms, not fritters.
Too, why does the Government protect introduced trout more than these native fish? Unlike whitebait, you won't see trout on a restaurant menu anywhere in this country and you need to pay to fish trout recreationally.
Why is that?
Here's an old idea that I'll present as a new one: Let's ban the commercial harvesting and sale of whitebait.
If you see it on a menu, ignore it. Even better, do as I do and tell the waiter why. That is, you're not into trading in endangered species (nicely, of course, waiters don't select the fare).
By choosing it from a menu, you're shoring up its decline. By choosing something else you've just afforded it the status and sanctity the New Zealand Government prefers to bestow on North American trout.
The power of Facebook - and help from a lasso - saved a dog from a stink situation.