New net gives small fry a chance

CATCHING ON: Ngahiwi Tomoana (left), Ngati Kahungunu chairman, explains to Napier Mayor Bill Dalton how the new nets work. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

Hawke's Bay Seafoods and Ngati Kahungunu have embarked on a unique conservation-driven partnership to help preserve the Bay's fish resources for generations to come.

As Ngati Kahungunu chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana put it - "this is a turning point because it is going to leave a lot more fish in the sea".

It is a New Zealand first - where a major fisheries company has linked in with local iwi to ensure smaller fish which became trapped in traditional nets are now able to escape, and survive, rather than become a wasted by-catch.

The idea is as ingenious as it is simple, and has been trialled over the past year by several fishermen throughout the country - including one of the Bay's most experienced skippers, Rick Burch.

But Hawke's Bay is the only region to take a unified approach to using them.

Another trawling veteran of the seas, Mike Terry, has also been one of the first to get it aboard his trawler, the Atlantic Dawn.

The innovative nets use elements first trialled three years ago in Denmark and Mr Burch found that by changing the net from the traditional diamond shape and moving it 90 degrees to a more square shape meant the smaller round-profiled species, such as gurnard, red cod, kahawai and rig, could escape more easily through the wider open mesh.

Some independent research has shown that about 80 per cent of smaller unwanted fish can escape the nets.

Mr Tomoana said Ngati Kahungunu were committed to conservation, and provided funding to help support Mr Burch's project.

The link to adopt the more conservation-focused nets was then made with Hawke's Bay Seafood, which leases the inshore fishing quota from the iwi.

Dave Wakefield, the vessel manager for the company, was keen to embrace the idea, as was company director Nino D'Esposito.

"The family started fishing here in 1920 and I'm third generation, and we want to preserve it (the fishery)," Mr D'Esposito said.

"We want to keep it sustainable and we also want to work in with recreational fishermen."

The company had converted five of its eight trawlers to long-liners which he said was also "eco-friendly" and the adoption of the new nets complemented that.

The eight trawlers, and others contracted to Hawke's Bay Seafoods, will all use the new nets.

"And our company will pay for the boats that are contracted to us to get the nets."

That cost was estimated to be around $50,000.

Mr Tomoana said he hoped the initiative would be a trend-setter for the whole fishing industry across the country.

"I've been out there in the bay and seen the small fish packed into the ends of the nets - this gives them the opportunity to get out."

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said he recently attended a meeting of recreational fishers who believed the fisheries were "raping the resources".

"But clearly, through initiatives like this, you are being responsible."

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule also applauded the move, while Napier MP Stuart Nash said it was now vital to convince everyone else who fished the waters to use the new nets.

"We are leading the way here and we need to get them to follow suit."

Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Meka Whaititi agreed.

"Good ideas and good initiatives like this come from places like Hawke's Bay."