Overview and Analysis of the Effectiveness of New Zealand Fisheries Management

Fisheries management throughout the world has been a topic of heated debate as anything is that does not have clear ownership or delineated boundaries. In the case of ocean fisheries there is an embedded psychology of resource exploitation and little to no incentives when it comes to caring for or preserving the resource if others do not. This is further exacerbated by the added lure of exploiting the resource before the next person that comes along does. This attitude is still being perpetuated in New Zealand and along with the lax quota management system that tends to favor commercial fishing , there is a questionable amount of doubt about whether fisheries management is effective for both managing human interactions with the marine environment and maintaining healthy marine ecosystems.

New Zealand’s fisheries are governed under the Fisheries Act of 1996, which establishes a framework for managing commercial, recreational and customary fishing with the purpose of providing for the use of these resources while ensuring sustainability (Ministry of Fisheries). While this piece of legislation does provide for the use of fisheries resources, it is lacking when it comes to ensuring sustainability. The Quota Management System (QMS) is the mechanism through which a quota is applied to a heavily fished stock in order to meet the objectives of use and sustainability outlined by the Fisheries Act. The QMS also sets a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the three stakeholders involved: recreational fishermen, Maori fishermen, and commercial fishermen for which a Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) is imposed. Due to the limited amount of human resources, only commercial catch is monitored under this management framework. This leaves it very susceptible to abuse, particularly in the recreational catch where “bag” or per person limits are hardly, if ever enforced. Not to mention, recreational bag limits are exceptionally high. For instance, these fishermen can catch up to 6 crayfish and 9 snapper per day. With this poorly managed system, monitoring becomes extremely difficult resulting in poor estimations of total catch.

What is even more worrisome is the commercial catch in vulnerable areas. While the Fisheries Act operates on the foundation of maintaining a maximum sustainable yield in theory, this is not always the case in reality. In the commercial fisheries sector, quotas are owned like a property right and are thus dubbed “individually transferable quotas” as they can be bought or sold. The problem with this is that these quotas, or shares of the TACC are not always set where scientific limits would tell you. Commercially valuable stocks are being depleted at rapid rates and overfishing is becoming a trend. In practice, the Fisheries Act does not account for the insurance of sustainability when it comes to placing ecologically sound limits on the TACC. An example of this would be commercial fishing being allowed to fish the large breeding stock of populations, which results in a dramatic decline in stock numbers and quickly leads to overfishing facilitated by the ignorance of fishermen and governing bodies alike.

Our time and experiences in the marine reserves in both Leigh and the Poor Knights allowed for a better understanding of the issues at hand. Marine reserves are areas where all marine life is protected and all potentially disturbing activities are prohibited. Leigh was the first established marine reserve in New Zealand and it took 12 years to achieve it. Observing the fish here was quite spectacular due to the fact that they were not at all scared of human presence. In the initial years of this marine reserve, people were allowed to feed the fish, which resulted in a completely human altered environment where fish were not naturally obtaining their food. The feeding of fish was eventually banned and nothing was put into or taken out of this marine ecosystem. 

The benefit of having marine reserves in the case of marine ecosystems that are near depletion is the ability for these vulnerable areas to regenerate and thrive again. It is clear that marine reserves are an ecological no-brainer, but having these totally protected areas benefits the fisheries in surrounding waters from overflow. In both practice and theory, marine reserves are necessary for ensuring the sustainability of both marine ecosystems and fisheries. However, the way in which the governing processes by which they administered and established leaves much to be desired with conflicts of interest abound. According to the 2000 New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, a goal was set for having 10% of New Zealand marine environments in a network of marine protected areas by 2010. This goal was not met and as of now no new reserves are being considered. With only a small percentage of New Zealand’s marine environment currently under protection, there is enormous tension between the short-term gains of fisheries and long-term sustainable practices. Since fisheries account for a large portion of New Zealand’s GDP, economic interests are consistently vying for attention over sustainable practices, leaving marine reserves to become an afterthought among most. Examples of existing reserves need to be brought to the forefront of fisheries management because without them, fishing in a sustainable way would be near to completely impossible. 

Education as well as community involvement are critical components to the insurance of sustainability as well. Without marine reserves this would prove very difficult. Based on the experiences from Leigh and the Poor Knights, human interaction with the marine environment can be managed in a sustainable way and establishing marine reserves is the most full-proof way. No resources or time is wasted in having marine reserves, while an incredible amount of work is required for the maintenance and monitoring of marine protected areas. As one of our guest lectures, Bill Ballentine, the man behind the first marine reserve in New Zealand noted, “the burden of proof [as related to marine reserves] is reversed; no evidence of damage is needed.” What is currently lacking is better management and enforcement of fisheries in areas that are not in proximity to the 34 current marine reserves in New Zealand waters. More stringent regulations on commercial fishing are essential to achieving sustainability and flaws such as not addressing the issue of by-catch within the Quota Management System need to be accounted for. Instating fishing licenses would take away some of the freedom New Zealanders hold near and dear, but it may also be the best possible solution when it comes to better enforcement and monitoring of fisheries. 

All in all, the benefits of marine reserves are insurmountable to both the marine environment and fisheries with a lot that is still yet to be discovered. Through education and research on marine reserves, much is being learned about commercial fishing stocks that have never been apparent to us before. For instance, the crayfish is being rapidly depleted due to fishing of the breeding stock. A further alarming complication is the discovery that females have only 10 days when their eggs are ready to find a suitable mate before the eggs will degenerate, causing the sterility of the female. This has the capacity to wipe out entire populations of crayfish if management does not cater to being ecologically viable. The different stakeholders involved in fisheries management is another complicated hurdle that needs to be taken into account when ensuring a sustainable practice. Although New Zealand has much to overcome in order to achieve sustainability in fisheries management, the groundbreaking work of few have put New Zealand on the map for marine conservation efforts. It was exciting experiencing marine reserves firsthand and through the continued efforts of local communities, affecting change might not be as far out of reach as suspect.

For more information about marine reserve and fisheries management in NZ visit:

http://www.marine-reserves.org.nz/
http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/default.htm

Changing Perceptions of Extractive Industry in New Zealand

Martha Mine, Waihi Gold's open pit operation.

Today we got a first hand look at the inner workings of extractive industries in New Zealand, in particular the gold and silver mining operation of the Waihi Mine and the restoration of the Tui Mine, NZ's most contaminated site. The Waihi Mine operations consists of the Martha Mine, a 260 meter deep, 640 meter wide and 860 meter long open pit (853 feet deep, 2100 feet wide, and 2820 feet long) - basically an enormous hole in the ground, and two underground mines. Currently no gold is being acquired from the open pit, but exploration efforts are underway to see if it is feasible to mine for gold underneath the open pit. The company is essentially trying to find more gold and silver to continue operations for years to come since it has been such an integral part of the town's economy for so many years. The Martha Mine was mined underground from 1882-1952 and today's open pit operations mostly consists of mining what was considered waste rock in the early mining years.

What was most interesting was learning about how Waihi Gold is dealing with historic perceptions of mining. As I stood along the fences surrounding the open pit, I was astonished that human machinery could create such a deep scar in the earth. It was incredible and scary. However, all the while I was there, I kept thinking back on my research on oil sands companies from my summer internship. I remembered reconciling my strong convictions of environmentally degrading practices by sustainable investors engaging in dialogue with companies to better their operations and encouraging best practice performance for a cleaner, more sustainable future. While many environmentalists, myself included, would love to do away with practices such as drilling for oil and mining for oil, precious metals, coal, you name it, these practices are most especially the ones that need to be focused on and assessed instead of dismissing them on the basis of their environmental damage. The same goes for precious metal mining, there are certain expectations that mining companies must meet due to a history of negative perceptions of the industry and as a result industry performance has undoubtedly improved over time.

Excavator used in mining operations of Waihi Gold. Quite the expensive piece of machinery with a single tire costing $20K.

A stark contrast from the socially responsible and environmentally conscious operation of the Waihi Mine is the Tui Mine. It was in production from 1967-1973 and mined metals including zinc, copper, lead and some silver. It was owned by a Japanese company that was liquidated in 1973 and the mine shut down in 1975. Tui closed so abruptly and without warning that mine workers showed up to find no one there. Today, remediation efforts have been ongoing and are being undertaken by Environment Waikato. The Tui Mine site currently consists of a technically unstable dam that sits above the underground mine. The toxic tailings ponds lie behind the dam. It is estimated that 40,000 tons of toxins reside in the tailings and stabilization processes are being used for their recovery. The process of stabilization consists of pumping cement and lime with the tailings in order to change their chemical composition and stabilize it. The fear surrounding this effort is the very imminent threat of dam collapse in an earthquake or washout event. Since the catchment generates a lot of water and annual rainfall totals 2 meters, dam collapse and contamination of Te Aroha, the town below is a real danger.

Tui Mine tailings pond. Grey bits on the side are the toxic tailings.

On the upside, the Tui Mine does provide operating mines such as Waihi with a classic example of what not to do as a mine operation. In conjunction with New Zealand's Resource Management Act, an incident such as Tui would never be allowed to happen again as it establishes a resource consent system. This system requires operators to plan for mine closure before the mine is even up and running. It also requires that they obtain consents from the government in order to mine and carry out different aspects of the operation such as discharging water and establishing water quality monitoring, preventing any hazardous effluent from getting into streams and rivers.

All the pressure put on mining companies by legislation and the scrutiny that they face by the public has aided in their continued improvement as well as an added expansion of environmental efforts. The Waihi Mine, for instance, funds and supports efforts to protect the dotterel in Opoutere. As one of our guest speakers put it: it is developed nations with democratic institutions, a free press and environmental regulations such as New Zealand that should be taking responsibility for having and bettering these industries rather than putting the burden on developing countries that have rampant corruption and political strife.

Opoutere

View of Wharekawa Harbor and river channel leading out to Opoutere beach.

On the east coast of the Coromandel, a short 1 1/2 hour’s drive from EcoQuest, is the small village of Opoutere where we stayed for 4 days. Opoutere is situated in such a way that the Wharekawa Harbor, a small estuary that feeds into a gorgeous, paradise-like beach with blue-green water and mountainous islands in the distance. The nicest part was the lack of visitors, which added to the feeling of being in a secluded paradise. The path to the beach is a 10-minute walk through pine forest very much different from those in New England. Pine trees in New Zealand take about half the amount of time to grow into large adult pines (with massive pine cones!) as those back home. The result: ideal conditions for logging. What saddened me about Opoutere was seeing such a majestic landscape against the backdrop of whole mountain sides completely clear cut. The battle between environment and industry is clearly being played out on the Wharekawa Harbor, an estuary that provides numerous ecosystem services such as flood control, nutrient and sediment retention, habitat, etc. The dilemma lies in the fact that it makes economic sense to clear cut these wide expanses. Trees grow at a much faster rate in NZ and are much less dense than in their native habitat, making logging an attractive and profitable venture. We spent our week learning about how stresses of human use such as forestry are impacting the harbor and the consequences of these actions (e.g. sedimentation, habitat/biodiversity loss, etc.) The struggle at hand now is managing land uses with as  ’best practice’ as possible considering the suitability of such a fragile environment.

View of clear cut from the Mountain of Two Women trail. Opoutere, NZ.

Welcome to EcoQuest!

EcoQuest's backyard. Kaiaua, New Zealand.

EcoQuest has been a crazy ride since last Wednesday (August 31st) when I was waking up at 4am to drive into Boston, delayed by two days due to Irene. After arriving at Los Angeles International, a 12-plus hour layover awaited, followed by a 13 1/2 hour plane ride to Auckland. Luckily, I slept almost all the way. I remember peering out of the window on our way down (at which point I was super excited) and seeing so much green and blue, lush rolling hills, volcanic cones and mountain ranges in the distance. I haven’t been to much of the world, but New Zealand is definitely the most beautiful of those places. As we drove out of Auckland, a city in a volcano valley, we came onto windy, narrow roads and hilly farmland. We were soon met by the coast and a breathtaking view of the Coromandel Peninsula on the opposite side. Absolutely gorgeous drive into the small, rural town of Kaiaua, where EcoQuest is located. EcoQuest is a small campus made up of the various cabins students live in, the Wharekai, where we meet for indoor class and eat our meals, Granny’s the student hangout house, and the Hub, which houses the library and computer room. EcoQuest also has its own gardens which produces veggies 9 months out of 12 and many fruit trees including tangelos, grapefruit and banana. On the outer edge of campus is a narrow, grassy path that leads to the beach which looks out at the Coromandel, a mountainous peninsula that either looks close or far depending on the lightening/cloudiness. Mornings have been sunny for the most part, which makes for a refreshing and peaceful walk on the beach. One of these days soon I’ll have to catch a sunrise from the beach with the sun rising up from the mountains of the Coromandel.