No-go areas for taking shellfish rise threefold

The number of beaches closed for shellfish gathering has trebled in the past seven years.

The National Party says the figures show there are not enough fisheries officers to police coastal areas.

However, the Government says many areas are only temporarily closed to allow fish and shellfish stocks to recover.

There are 12 beaches and stretches of coast temporarily closed to recreational fishing and shellfish gathering from the North Shore to Stewart Island.

That is almost double the seven closed in 2002 and a threefold increase on 1997, when four stretches of coastline were closed.

Cheltenham, Karekare and Eastern Beaches in the Auckland area are closed due to depletion of shellfish, as is Paterson Inlet on Stewart Island.

Other areas are closed at the request of local iwi to rebuild stocks needed for customary use.

In the North Island these are Hicks Bay, Ohiwa Harbour, Mt Maunganui, Pukerua Bay and Wilsons Bay to Ngarimu Bay on Coromandel Peninsula.

In the South Island, Rapaki Bay, Koukourarata and part of Kaikoura Peninsula are closed.

National's fisheries spokesman, Phil Heatley, said yesterday that a decreased number of honorary fishery officers and fluctuating numbers of paid officers had left coastal areas open to overuse, resulting in the increase in the number of closed coastal areas.

"Increasing plundering of our shellfish and resulting beach closures are clear proof that the ministry's compliance unit is poorly resourced and inefficient. The resource will be depleted for future generations, and we don't want that."

Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope said the ministry had added 20 compliance staff to the 160-strong force for the 2005-2006 year, a 15 per cent increase. Close to $2 million was also being allocated over three years to build up a serious offences unit.

He said beach closures, which typically apply for two years, were usually requested by local communities or iwi and were not necessarily a sign of mismanagement.

"Closures don't mean that the resource is in a worse state. The quota management system can't work unless some areas have time to replenish."

The minister conceded that there were problems with ensuring the safety of honorary fishery officers and finding volunteers with the time to devote to the job.

He said that with a coastline the length of New Zealand's, the job of policing fishing was everyone's.

"We have been appealing to the whole community to do the deed."

The fisheries officers' union, however, said the ministry was not doing enough to boost compliance.

National Union of Public Employees secretary Nadine Marshall said the union had asked for an additional 100 officers at the last bargaining round.