23 August 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Unusual Stance for Minister of Conservation
For The Minister of Conservation to decline an application for a marine
reserve because it conflicted with fishing is akin to claiming that the
government shouldn't create national parks because they conflict with
the interests of mining. The application lodged by the Akaroa Harbour
Marine Protection Society in Jan 1996 was declined last week and this
outcome in 2010 is a massive blow to their vision and 14 years of hard
work. These comments came today from The New Zealand Underwater
Associations' marine biologist, Peter Crabb.
Under The Biodiversity Strategy 2000, the New Zealand government
committed to creating 10 % of New Zealand waters to be in marine
protected areas by 2010 and to decline this application in The Year of
Biological Diversity is a failure to acknowledge this commitment or
embrace the concept, Crabb Says. Further to this, The Minister of
Conservation decided to decline this application on the grounds of
recreational and customary fishing, a right of veto more appropriately
designated for The Minister of Fisheries and this sets a very worrying
precedent.
Only those areas created under The Marine Reserves Act 1972 can become
part of the conservation estate and under the control of The Department
of Conservation. While there is around 30 % of New Zealand's land area
in national parks and reserves, there is less than 1% of our marine area
in reserve. This leaves most of the sea around NZ open to threats to our
unique marine biodiversity, the main one being fishing and down the list
are: introduced species, pollution and global warming.
Crabb points out with the majority of our marine waters open to fishing;
it is always the fishers who object most strongly to any measures of
protection since they feel it affects them more than anyone else.
Fishers who feel they have a right to fish more than 99% of NZ coastal
area do not recognize the same right for others to have equal and
similar levels of protection. The few marine reserves that have been
created have all endured opposition from fishers. For a minister of the
crown entity charged with guardianship of the conservation estate to
succumb to the pressure of one extractive stake holder is odd, short
sighted and fails basic conservation principals. Without marine
reserves, the long term sustainability of any fishing let alone the
viability of New Zealand's marine biodiversity is doubtful. Marine
reserves function not only as insurance policies against overfishing,
but enhance fish populations, restore ecological balance and provide the
only sanctuaries for large old individuals which we know perform
important functions.
In nearly all of NZ's commercial fisheries, quota reductions are
necessary and many fisheries are managed on a knife edge near collapse
as fish sizes get smaller and it becomes harder to catch the numbers of
fish they used to, Crabb says. In addition it now appears from the
research of Dr Steve O'Shea that our whales, dolphins and seals are
starving and throwing themselves onto the beaches with worn teeth and
ulcerated stomachs, such is the impact of overfishing on these large
important species.
The non sustainable exploitation of our native fish stocks provides
short term gain for the few and long term environmental harm for
everyone, just like mining. That a small impoverished and long-suffering
community group recognises that bits of the marine environment needs
protection while The Minister of Conservation feels fishing takes
precedence, is yet another worrying signal from this government about
their views on the integrity of our unique biodiversity whether it's on
land or in the sea, Crabb Says.
-Ends-