If the balance between conservation and commercial fishing is achieved for Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf it bodes well for sustainable management of all New Zealand's ocean area, according to David Parker.
The Oceans and Fisheries Minister made the comments on TVNZ1’s Breakfast today as he defended the length of time it’s taking for a report into the Hauraki Gulf to arrive.
“I think if we can sort out the Hauraki, we can probably sort out the rest,” Parker said.
Parker said commercial fishing was not solely to blame for problems with pollution in Auckland waters.
“If you take the Hauraki Gulf, it’s a combination of the population pressures of Auckland, land-based discharges coming out of the Waihou River, a lot of sediment is carried into the Firth of Thames, there are obviously some commercial pressures as well, but sorting it out is not easy,” Parker said.
“There are an enormous amount of sediments and land-based activities that are coming into our inshore fishery which are one of the reasons why this habitat is threatened, we have to get to a more ecosystem, habitat-based management system so that we’re not just worried about fish.”
“We actually need healthy ecosystems.”
Parker said a report into the state of the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland would be with him shortly as he defended the length of time it had taken.
“That’s partly because of the complexity of the interests involved, there are recreational fishers, there are people who are interested in the marine ecosystem, there are the proper interests of the commercial fishers, there’s aquaculture, there are issues for Māoridom.”
Parker said he's also hoping to finalise the deal for the proposed Kermadec ocean sanctuary in this Parliamentary term.
"We inherited that from the prior government, they had some good ambitions there, but they sort of hadn’t landed in consultation with Māoridom.”
“If you can’t land some form of marine protected there it’s hard to think of where you could, because there are virtually no fishing interests up there.”
“It’s not really news, we’ve been saying it for three years but haven’t been able to get it over the line."
SHARE ME