New Zealand’s Quota Management System (QMS) has received glowing praise from the United Nations in a report looking at how well run the world’s oceans are managed.And there corporate commercial fishing interests are basking in the warm praise and say the UN report shows the QMS works extremely well. Seafood New Zealand’s chief executive Lisa Futschek told “Newsroom” the outcome was proof the quota management system was doing its jobHowever Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of NZ (CORANZ) Tony Orman said the QMS strongly favoured corporate commercial fishing companies which bought out small fine Kiwi fishers and aggregated quota and thus dominate the overall fisheries resource. The QMS was introduced in 1986.
Tony Orman said as then president of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council, he and conservation advocate the late John Henderson attended the meeting just prior to the QMS’s introduction in 1986.
“We told the ministry and other stakeholders then it would result in the fishery being monopolised by corporate companies,” he said. “Sadly we were right.”
Orange Roughy Collapse
Tony Orman said the collapse of the orange roughy fisheries where one roughy fishery was fished down to just 3% of its virgin biomass as were others heavily overfished was proof.
“The stupidity was the NZ Recreational Fishing Council publicly warned when the orange fishery was first discovered, that to manage a fishery, population characteristics as to when spawning occurred, age of fish etc were needed to implement proper management, otherwise it was fraught with disaster,” he said. “And the disaster did occur. They were killing spawning fish, the goose that laid the golden egg.”
Orange roughy are exceptionally long-lived fish, with lifespans that can extend beyond 150 years, and some individuals have been estimated to live over 250 years. They are slow growing which means if overfished it takes a long time for stocks to recover.
Since under the QMS regime, the orange fishery collapse there have been other cases of over-exploitation such as the Tasman Bay scallop beds, collapse of snapper, tarakihi, crayfish and other stocks he said.
Still Struggling
The orange roughy fishery is still struggling since the species is so long living. Just nine months ago, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones decided to cut the total catch limit for a declining orange roughy stock in the Tasman Sea by 1,221 tonnes (57%).
But the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) pointed out the modelling used to inform the Minister’s decision shows the stock is already below the level agreed to internationally (1) and none of the options put to the Minister by his officials would see any recovery in the next five years.
“The minister and ministry should be using what talents they have to bring fish in retail outlets at a price the consumer can afford. Blue cod sells for $75 a kg, snapper for up to $60 a kg, which is ridiculous. Again the corporates are smiling all the way to the bank,” he said. “Is the QMS working when that occurs?”
I don’t agree with the UN report. NZ’s fisheries are not well managed when they undergo boom and bust cycles. Recently cameras on boats issue.
It seems there’s an inept ministry and the choice of Shane Jones as fisheries minister is not apt in the light of political donations scandal several years ago. Donations from the very corporate fishing companies.
Re collaopsed fisheries, the kahawai fishery I bwould add toi the examples. It is sold for $2 kg to Auystralia for fish meal. It should be recreational only species aslong with kingfish.
J.B. Smith is dead right. The management is shonky. In Pak n Save yesterday I saw kahawai at give away prices and a whole raft of whole Vietnamese etc fish being displayed in their extensive ice bins. I love orange roughy but will happily forgo it if it saves the species. I do not see the sense in importing South East Asian species as replacements or as competitors for kahawai and other local species that we export on factory scale. I suspect that it is the rape and pillage mentality of the major companies that is the biggest problem. Local species should be sold at the the landed costs, not at the same price they fetch in affluent foreign locations.
It’s not just the Orange Roughy fishery that has collapsed as a result of shoddy science masquerading as “quota management”. Look at all the other fisheries which have collapsed under this famous QMS – Bluff Oysters, blue cod, bluenose, tarakihi, paua… the list goes on.
Have a watch of the “Oceans” movie by Sir David Attenborough – the footage of bottom trawling is enough to make you vomit, absolutely gut wrenching; wanton destruction on a scale similar to what we did to our native forests in the 19th century – environmental vandalism on an industrial scale. And yet this is sanctioned by the QMS that the UN is lauding! The seafloor being smashed over and over, where every living thing is scooped up. It’s a horror show and yet under the QMS perfectly legal. What a farce.
When the QMS was brought in it was in the statute that no one company would own more than ten percent of a stock species per area. Somewhere along the line and a healthy wee ministerial payout later I assume, that law was struck. Now we have companies owning all available quota in areas. Never again will little mom n pop boats have the quota of their own to fish and make a decent living. These small boats fished until decline was noted and then moved off to let stocks rebuild. I can say this with certainty as once I was one of those 50ft fishing boats.
Fishermen these days are at the mercy of the companies. As Toby Orman noted blue cod selling at up to 75 dollars per kilo yet the fisherman that bares all the costs to catch the fish is paid around 3 to 5 dollars. The company owns the quota so they can pay the fisherman as little as they want.
The QMS does eventually get the total available catch ( TAC ) right and balance the fishery, only after as mentioned many failures, but they have destroyed an industry in the process. Eventually we will be like Scotland where all the small boats left the industry and only the big factory boats remained. Over time the factory boats fished out resources and couldn’t make money inshore. The Scottish govt then had to pay and train people at great cost to take up ownership of the smaller inshore boats to catch for local markets as all the old boys with the vast knowledge had gone never to return