Southland whitebaiting season one of worst in memory, experienced fishers say - Stuff
Robyn Edie/Stuff
Bluff man Terry Osborne, who stays in his whitebaiting hut overlooking the Mataura River while fishing for the delicacy, says the 2022 season "hasn't been good at all".
Longtime whitebaiters in Southland say the 2022 season has been one of the worst they can remember.
"It hasn't been good at all this year, well down on what I normally would have caught," said Bluff man Terry Osborne on Tuesday, nearly one month into the shortened two-month season.
He has been whitebaiting on the Mataura river for 15 years, and one month into the shortened two-month season said he was having one of his worst years.
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Roger McNaughton has been whitebaiting for more than 60 years and said the 2022 season was the quietest he had experienced.
"Whitebaiting always has its ups and downs and this is definitely one of the down seasons. But there's still another month to go and things could change."
McNaughton, the Southland Recreational Whitebaiters Association chairman, catches the delicacy on the Titiroa River, which had been fishing as well as ever in recent years.
But not this season, he said.
"A lot of the days we are only getting a dozen or 15 whitebait."
He normally gives some of his catch to friends.
"Our friends have been starving so far this year."
He understood catch rates on all Southland rivers had been quite poor this season.
Southland's Department of Conservation operations supervisor Alan Christie, agreed: "Anecdotally we have heard it is a very poor season so far, particularly on the larger rivers."
The reason? "We know that whitebait catches have always been subject to yearly variations due to sea conditions, migrations and other lifecycle factors," Christie said.
"We also know that pressures such as habitat loss and degradation have a major impact on whitebait populations. Whitebait fishing is another pressure."
DOUG FIELD/STUFF
Whitebait enthusiast Bill Begg cooks whitebait patties in his housebus. (Video first published in October 2017)
However, there was very little long-term data on whitebait fishing, such as where whitebaiters operated and how much they caught. As such, DOC was conducting surveys throughout this whitebaiting season to ensure it had better data on the whitebait fishery, including catch data.
Osborne, when whitebaiting on the Mataura River on Tuesday, was unimpressed this season's length had been reduced by six weeks, to two months.
Christie said the purpose of the shorter season was to help take pressure off whitebait for a more sustainable fishery that future generations could enjoy, and to ensure the whitebaiting season was consistent throughout New Zealand.
"The shorter season is in force from this year onwards and is part of a wider package of regulations to make the fishery more sustainable, including changes to fishing gear, that DOC began rolling out last year."
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