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New research sent to the Department of Conservation (DOC) showed that already healthy rivers were the best candidates for closure, because they could support a greater amount of whitebait.
That made some coasters worry that another natural asset was about to be taken from them.
Des McEnaney has fished whitebait off the West Coast for the past 68 years.
“When we were kids, we used to roam a local stream and look to catch them with a can on the end of a stick and some nail holes in the bottom of the can. And you could get them by going up in the shallows.
McEnaney, who was included in a task force looking at the kinds of changes that could help boost trash numbers, said that compared to the rest of the country, stocks in his region have been relatively stable throughout the years.
That was why the news that their rivers may be at the top of the closure list was so difficult to accept.
“The dying west coast has been grappling for years and years with stricter regulations that have never been introduced elsewhere and suddenly they become the scapegoat for the rest of the nation with the assumption that this can help. It’s not looking good. “
After consulting with the dying and environmentalists this year, the DOC began drafting recommendations for its minister.
While doing this, the University of Canterbury published new research that found that closing degraded rivers with limited capacity to support increased numbers of whitebait was a waste of time.
Ecologist Mike Hickford, who led the study, explained why this was the case.
“Without some habitat restoration, improving water quality, improving food availability and possibly even reducing the number of predators, chances are that many of those bell peppers that cross a river closure will not grow very well. They will eat them for something else or simply starve. “
Healthy rivers on the west coast had the best chance of supporting the largest populations of whitebait resulting from the closures, and should be at the top of the minister’s list for closure, he said.
He relayed his findings to the Commerce Department officials who crafted the changes and was hopeful they would listen to the science when deciding which rivers should be closed.
“Healthy rivers that still have reasonably intact catchments, good forest cover, and riparian margins, my expectation is that a lot of those rivers make the list. But when you get to some of the particularly eastern areas, your Canterbury and Hawke’s Bays, it’s We may be struggling to find rivers to list that meet those criteria. “
It is estimated that between 20% and 30% of the whitebait, the juveniles of six species of native fish, are caught in rivers each season.
Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate Tom Kay said the minister should also consider other measures to help reduce the impact.
“In fact, we think there should be a catch limit like there would be in any other fishery, a licensing system, and some way to collect data so that we know where these fish are caught and which places should be managed more intensively than others.”
In a statement, the Commerce Department said the whitebait review was still under “active consideration.”
When asked about Dr. Hickford’s research, he said the DOC considered “all available academic research on whitebait” when developing recommendations for changes in the management of whitebait.
