Coromandel locals confront fishermen in Tairua over huge pink maomao catch

The pink maomao.

Then on Thursday, Tairua locals confronted a group of fishermen at the boat ramp, camera rolling, and discovered the exact same thing.

The video, shot by documentary filmmaker Mike Bhana, showed a large chilly bin on a boat full of pink maomao – which is also known as longfin perch, or mātā in Māori.

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“Where do you catch those?” Bhana asked the men on the boat.

The response: “Oh, I don’t know. Will have to ask the captain.”

Legally, there are no restrictions on how many pink maomao a recreational fisherman can catch.

Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) director of compliance services, Gary Orr, said in a statement that MPI had seen the video footage of pink maomao being caught at Tairua harbour.

“While there is currently no daily bag limit for this species, we’d like to remind all fishers that any recreationally caught fish cannot be sold.”

He said over the past week, MPI had fielded a number of calls from people in the community concerned about the number of pink maomao being fished in the area.

“Our fisheries officers are on the ground in the community today (Friday) conducting patrols. If MPI finds evidence that any of this fish is being sold, we would take appropriate compliance action.”

Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker said he had seen the video that had been posted online, “and on the face of it, it looks greedy”.

Mike Bhana

A large chilly bin full of pink maomao could be seen in a video shot in Tairua, Coromandel, this week.

“I learned about this earlier in the week and immediately raised it with officials. They advised me that the rules around bag limits are out of date and need fixing. I have asked for advice on how we do that.”

Parker said a related issue was that climate change was bringing different fish to New Zealand seas and the system needed to be brought up to date to reflect that.

Tairua local Brian Hart, a former honorary fisheries officer, said he first called MPI last Thursday after becoming concerned about what he was seeing in Tairua.

MPI confirmed fisheries officers were in Tairua last Thursday inspecting fishermen’s catches and more than 200 pink maomao were reported.

In Bhana’s video, Hart alleged thousands of pink maomao had been “taken out of our waters” over the past week.

“This has been going on for quite some time apparently,” he said.

About a week ago, Hart alerted Bhana to an unusual number of boats going in and out of the Tairua boat ramp. And so Bhana went down to the boat ramp on Thursday with his camera.

“It’s unusual at this time of year during the week to have multiple day boat loads of people going out, so people notice it,” Bhana told Stuff.

“The [chilly] bin that’s in that picture open, that’s a 132 litre bin. That is a s...load of fish. And that’s just one bin. That boat that is sort of yelling at us, they had six bins on board.”

Bhana said “90 to 95 per cent of those fish are pink maomao”.

“That’s what they’re targeting.”

He said the problem was, if people weren’t selling those fish, they were legally allowed to have as many as they want.

“If you wanted to go out there and catch 3 tonnes of pink maomao, currently under the law you can,” Bhana said.

He said the legislation needed to change.

“Reality check here, who needs 20 fish? The maximum we should have of fin fish on a boat per person should be 20. There should be no exemptions for that. The rule should be, if you’re going out for a fish, 20 is a lot of fish. Three hundred is just absurd.”

KELLY HODEL/STUFF

Joe Davis, a kaumātua from local iwi Ngāti Hei, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by what he saw in the video.

Hart agreed. “To be honest, it’s absolutely disheartening,” he told Stuff.

“The Ministry of Fisheries really need to close this loophole as soon as possible. Unless they do that, these people can carry on doing what they’re doing. And, really, it’s just a moral thing.”

Joe Davis, a kaumātua from local iwi Ngāti Hei, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by what he saw in the video.

“I saw a few seconds of it before I lost my handle,” he said.

“One wonders what’s going on out there. What is going on? The abuse of a species.”

Davis said “sustainability” didn’t cut it any more. The answer was protection, restoration and abundance.

“We have to think beyond sustainability,” he said.

“A lot of our species are racing towards extinction. And I’m not overplaying this or overcooking it, excuse the pun. But they’re heading towards extinction if we keep doing what we’re doing.”

Davis said the current Fisheries legislation was being abused.

He said he was “imploring” lawmakers to look at this issue and asked the public to be vigilant and keep an eye out for “the terrible skulduggery that’s going on”.

“We need to do something about it now.”

Orr said from time to time MPI received suggestions from communities about potential changes to fishing rules.

“We are looking into this in relation to the issues raised recently and considering if the current settings remain appropriate or if more controls are needed.”

He encouraged anyone who had been approached to buy pink maomao or any recreationally caught fish to contact MPI’s 0800 4 POACHER hot line.