A recreational diver reaches for a scallop in Whangarei Harbour. Photo / Crispin Middleton, Niwa
Scallops are a favourite seafood for many in the North but over the years their numbers have plummeted, resulting in a ban on commercial and recreational fishing. Karina Cooper takes an in-depth look at what this means for iwi, conservationists and commercial fishers.
The approaching summer is set to be a strange one for Northlanders as missing from the season's staples will be the coastal trips to gather a fresh feed of scallops.
The favourite kaimoana has been off the menu since the region's fishery was closed in April to prevent their permanent disappearance from our plates.
Marine conservationists and iwi applauded the move by David Parker, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, but commercial fishermen had their livelihoods capsized without warning.
Between the groups is Niwa fisheries scientist Dr James Williams, who has researched the state of our scallops.
Parker said back in April that scallops faced a "serious decline" and the closure was needed to allow them to recover.
The southern end of Ninety Mile Beach in Ahipara, around North Cape and southwards to Cape Rodney - near Leigh on the east coast became off-limits.
A survey diving into the state of Northland's scallops conducted last year - and compared to others dating back to 1990 - painted a dire picture.
"Basically we're left with the situation where we have got some patches of scallop beds left but those higher density beds are pretty rare," Williams said.
Most of Northland had experienced a decline in scallop numbers and most importantly, he said, in key recreational scallop beds as well.
Williams reported Bay of Island scallop numbers were the lowest on record.
And anyone who finds a scallop in the Whangaroa Harbour "is lucky", Kaitiaki of Whangaroa and hapū member Nyze Manuel said.
Gone are the days of Manuel's childhood when you could swim a metre out to discover on average 90 scallops.
Hapū imposed a rāhui on taking scallops from the entire Whangaroa Harbour in 2021 and included Whangaihe Bay, Ririwha (Mahinepua/Stephenson Island), Taupō Bay and Tauranga Bay.
The rahui also prohibits customary fishing, which the government did not ban when it closed the fishery.
Parker's closure still permits customary fishers to take an allowance of 7.5 tonnes meatweight.
Meatweights is measured without the scallop shell, skirt and gut.
Allen Frazer, acting director Fisheries Management, said customary fishers were carefully managed by kaitiaki (guardians) appointed by tangata whenua, "confirmed" by Parker, and monitored by MPI.
Further south, scallops had especially taken a hit in the Whangārei Harbour.
Urquharts Bay in Whangārei Heads, once a hidden gem for gathering kaimoana, this year had a high amount of scallops under the 100mm legal size limit.
"That was incredible to see," Williams said.
"But people know about it so everybody is going there so the legal size limits soon get depleted."
Then it is a three year wait for juvenile scallops to reach the legal size.
Northland's commercial scallop fishery focused on Spirits Bay, Takapaukura/Tom Bowling Bay, Rangaunu Bay, and Bream Bay at the region's southern gateway.
Williams said the scallops ability to replenish itself - called "recruitment" - had been really low in Spirits Bay.
"[...] and abundance is very low there now."
Rangaunu Bay was similar but not quite as bad, he said.
Recruitment relied on a scallop's ability to release their eggs and sperm into the water at the same time so the two can meet.
Williams said they therefore needed to be close together in high densities which helps ensure the production of larvae that then settles as baby scallops on the sea bed.
Commercial scallop fisherman Patrick Chaplin said Spirits Bay hasn't had a scallop for more than 30 years.
"When you're scallop fishing you have a good idea of what's going on because when you count every scallop that comes onboard so you know if the catch is dropping off or increasing."
Chaplin, who was the region's second permit holder and has been in the industry since its 1970s beginning, said Bream Bay had been looking "pretty good" before the closure.
His conclusion came from surveys he carried out, as his livelihood depended on the survival of scallops.
"We've really gone out of our way to not overfish it and instead to look after it and it was paying off in dividends."
The Northland Scallop Enhancement Company director said the three commercial fishing boats only fished two to three months a year despite the seven month season.
They fought "hammer and nail" to keep the legal size limit at 100mm when other fisheries dropped down to 90mm.
"We could've taken 20 tonnes every year for the last five or six years but we're not about that, we're trying to get back it to how it was before."
And he felt the currents were changing in their favour, so it was a shock when the fishery closed.
Chaplin had just bought a bigger boat worth around $400,000 as had another one of the three commercial scallop fishermen. The third had just installed a new engine.
"I'm 62, if I'd known this was coming there's no way I would've borrowed all this money," he said.
Chaplin had since sold his boat to avoid having to sell his home as the family business - handed down from his father - was "destroyed".
He described a "bonanza" in 2007 that made last year's survey look even worse than the situation was.
Williams said 2007 the last time Northland's scallop stock had been surveyed before last year.
"At that time scallop biomass was relatively low in the key commercial fishery areas compared with previous levels [...]"
But the amount of scallops in the surveyed area at the time suggested fishing within the 40t Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) was sustainable, Dr Williams said.
"However, advances in scallop stock assessment since then have improved our understanding of what is considered sustainable."
So, how did the situation get this bad?
Fisheries New Zealand director of fisheries management Emma Taylor said scallop populations are highly variable with "boom and bust" cycles.
They had been affected by dredging, the use of new technology to locate scallop beds, sedimentation, climate change and water quality, she said.
Marine conservation organisation LegaSea has feverishly advocated for a ban on all scallop dredging – calling the move an "obvious place to start".
But Williams said while it's well known dredging or trawling certainly has an impact on marine populations and their habit, they're not entirely at fault.
"The effects of dredging aren't uniform [...] they'd be more impacting in certain environments than others."
Some of the more consistent scallop beds that have been commercially dredged for years are still some of the best that remain, he said.
They tended to be more exposed to swell and natural lighting with sandy substrates. Whereas, habitats in more sheltered areas are more prone to degradation from dredging.
Chaplin said they dredge over sand for roughly 20m and for 15 minutes at a time.
Despite this, Williams said alternative ways of harvesting scallops or ways to ensure vulnerable areas weren't dredged still needed to be explored.
"The effects of dredging are real. They're not helping but they're not so bad they're driving the population to collapse."
Instead that badge of dishonour belonged to a combination of overfishing, habitat degradation, and recruitment limitation.
"We need to try to better manage how many scallops are taken overall because we can't continue fishing at the level we have," Williams said.
Illegal hauls weren't helping, of which figures released under the Official Information Act showed 270 had been detected in Northland since 2017.
Williams said land runoff, the effects of sedimentation and water quality had damaged scallops' habitats.
People needed to understand and manage the effects of land runoff, he said.
In terms of the Whangaroa Harbour, Manuel said humans had pushed Tai Tokerau's scallops to the brink of collapse and extinction.
"Everyone - commercial, recreational, I mean everyone - has been going in for the past 20 years and taking more than what they can even eat."
Flooding events, excessive dredging, coastal erosion caused by forestry and population increase and too many boats in the harbour had all played a part, she said.
Manuel believed understanding the balance and purpose of "all things on this earth" was essential for scallops' survival.
"It's critical as everything works together and relies on one another to thrive in order to survive," she said.
"We need to get the balance right and stop being greedy. It's of a greater benefit for all of us to have scallops there than have them disappear."
Williams believed the potential for a rebuild of scallop beds was greater in Bream Bay than in the Far North as he had last year seen a "good recruitment" of baby scallops.
Various efforts had been made to reduce the risk to scallops nationwide, Taylor noted.
In 2020 there had been a 75 per cent reduction to the commercial catch in Northland's fishery.
"The full closure of the Northland scallop fishery and closing most of the Coromandel scallop fishery will help support these stock rebuilds."
But Chaplin felt the closure was fruitless.
"Shutting the fishery down won't change this. We take seven per cent of the biomass which can't hurt it."
Williams said closures were one way of addressing overfishing by allowing scallop populations to rebuild naturally without the influence of fishing.
"But closures might not work everywhere. It depends on the numbers of new baby scallops being produced and the suitability of the habitat."
You need both, Williams says.
"In some areas the habitat might still be OK, it's just we've lost the spawning densities [...] until a time we get the number of breeding scallops back up we won't see a rebuild.
“Under closure, all being well, the habitat in those areas still seems suitable for those scallops so hopefully we will see it happen.”
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