Submission: Crayfish management measures for urchin barrens in northeastern New Zealand
Fisheries New Zealand is consulting on proposals to close crayfish fisheries along the east coast of Northland and the Hauraki Gulf, to allow recovery of crayfish populations and ecosystems. As our legal cases have shown, spatial closures (closing areas to fishing) are needed to achieve this and to address the kina barren crisis widely affecting coastal ecosystems.
Our full submission is available by clicking on the button below. If you wish to make a submission the following are some points you may want to include:
The evidence tells us to fix this issue we need to implement spatial closures.
The closure for commercial and recreational fishing needs to be in place for as long as it takes for crayfish populations to begin flourishing again. We therefore need to make sure that the closure is tightly monitored to know how crayfish populations are fairing.
Existing literature tell us that crayfish populations are likely to start recovering and returning after approximately 10 years of a closure or marine protected area. On this basis, it makes sense to seek a closure for an indefinite period of time, that can be reviewed with the monitoring data.
A closure of this nature is absolutely what is needed to remedy the loss of our kelp forests.
Consultation is open until Monday 29th September - click here to go to the Fisheries NZ consultation page.
Photo of NZ crayfish koura by Nick Grobler, from iStock