Thread: New Whitebait laws anyone heard anything?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

said it before...if we REALLY wanted to give the little wigglers a fair deal....NO FISHING at all on tuesday wednesday or thursday..none at all.... the equates to what?? 40% reduction in possible take.....still allows long weekend but gives them a bigger chance to slip through on a "other day"

So with this weeks new regs, effectively come 2023 season (with the exception of coast baiters),the season has been halved in duration, i.e. more than 40% MD

so you see what I was saying then??? by changing the days of week...it kept length of season.....but reduced overall catch while NOT stopping anyone going and catching a feed...it would only effect those who took two weeks off work to catch to sell etc....
you can use same idea to stop long term freedom camping...just make areas no camping on wednesdays......LOL

As said it should be aligned with other rec caught fish and not able to be sold
And also the bull shit customary rights should be stopped on all fish too

One of the new regs is "fishing should occur only in estuaries or near rivermouths" as occurs already on the west coast. Will they define a distance upstream of the mouth of each river that is deemed fishable? or will it be a blanket distance for all rivers. Does anyone know? This could cause congestion on rivers that are fished for a considerable distance upstream from the mouth. The likes of the Taieri and Tokomairiro in the south spring to mind, a lot of fishing with set nets on these rivers occurs a fair way upstream as the wide canal-like estuaries are not so conducive to effective set netting.

Originally Posted by yerimaginaryM8

One of the new regs is "fishing should occur only in estuaries or near rivermouths" as occurs already on the west coast. Will they define a distance upstream of the mouth of each river that is deemed fishable? or will it be a blanket distance for all rivers. Does anyone know? This could cause congestion on rivers that are fished for a considerable distance upstream from the mouth. The likes of the Taieri and Tokomairiro in the south spring to mind, a lot of fishing with set nets on these rivers occurs a fair way upstream as the wide canal-like estuaries are not so conducive to effective set netting.

My read is when the tide stops affecting river height will be the up stream limit.

I imagine the upstream limit of fishable water will be defined on each water coarse,such as what is currently operating on the coast ,with back peg markers.These are located by DOC (& described with gps coordinates) & are @ the top of the tidal influence of that water coarse on both true left & true right banks.Think of highway road side markers but in pretty DOC green colour

Thanks for that guys hopefully that means fishing locations won't change too much. Another thing I don't understand is that by 2023 all gear will be reduced to a maximum length of 6M. Up until now on the east coast South Island we were allowed a total of 6M from shore to the end of the net. Now we are only allowed 3M screens, so I guess, depending on net dimensions a max of 4.5M or so fishing from the shore. Does this mean that in 2023 people with stands on the west coast will only be able to fish 6M out from the bank so they will have to scrap their stands? On the east coast if we fish off a stand can we run a 3m screen off a stand to get 6M out? No finer details on the DOC website yet on the new regs as far as I can see?

Originally Posted by rugerman

Shouldn't be able to sell it at all in my opinion. It just encourages the rape and pillage to make some cash.

Yep exactly.

In all honesty the ban on white baiting in the Able Tasman is just laughable...

No body white baits in there, maybe seen one old lady with a tiny net once in 15 years.

The largest rivers to each side of the national park. The motueka and the takaka have at minimum 10-20 sock nets in them evey day of the season. 100% guaranteed !!!

Pure publicity !!!

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DOC's preference was for approx half a dozen refuge rivers reserved in each conservancy as a result of the reveiw. In the case of the coast where there are currently some 25 rivers/ streams reserved & in addition to all of Fiordland NP reserved, I believe this example should have been replicated nationwide.The Minister has missed a critical oppurtunity.To tack on a few more Fauvoux Strait catchments adjacent to the already reserved FNP is a cynical joke along with the PR stunt of reserving Abel Tasman NP.
Where was her serious commitment to reserve some nationwide habitat of (in DOC's words) this species "on the brink of extinction" ?

Originally Posted by yerimaginaryM8

Thanks for that guys hopefully that means fishing locations won't change too much. Another thing I don't understand is that by 2023 all gear will be reduced to a maximum length of 6M. Up until now on the east coast South Island we were allowed a total of 6M from shore to the end of the net. Now we are only allowed 3M screens, so I guess, depending on net dimensions a max of 4.5M or so fishing from the shore. Does this mean that in 2023 people with stands on the west coast will only be able to fish 6M out from the bank so they will have to scrap their stands? On the east coast if we fish off a stand can we run a 3m screen off a stand to get 6M out? No finer details on the DOC website yet on the new regs as far as I can see?

I agree@yerimaginaryM8 the fine print details are still to follow re interpretation of stand configuration.My understanding is by 2023 I,ll be taking the gas axe to my coast stand giving a hair cut down to 6m o/a.this would then align all stands in NZ to the current east coast configuration.Gonna be some mighty pissed coast stand holders who now fine they can't get out to fishable water due to the reduced length.In addition the coast stand configuration of no wings beyond gear into centreline of river will apply nationwide.So east coast stand holders and pot netter's will be junking their wings.The 6m length rules applies to the entire gear setup.Doc have cherry picked the existing stand configuration details west coast vs east coast to suit their agenda with these new stand rules.Wanted to buy: one has gas axe

Can anyone tell me is the 3m screen limit just the limit per screen, and 6m is still the ok or is it actually down to 3m plus net? The doc website says in 2023 the west coast will come down to 6m to align with the rest of the country, so this made me confused because if we are at 3m does that mean we will be going back to 6m in 2023. Sorry if that’s hard to follow but so are the new regs

My take on it is that the 3m rule is for fishing from the bank with portable gear, while the 6m rule is for fishing from fixed stands.

Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

This final regs adopted by the current labour majority govt under Minister Allen is no where near as draconian as Doc,s stated preferences under previous minister Sageone of the many recommendations preferred by Sage was the outlawing of traps.So between the removal of minister Sage @ the 2020 election to this week's anouncement under Minister Allen there has been political manuvoering to arrive @ a more pragmatic set of regs.Cant help but wonder whether Allen had pressure from her Maori base to moderate Sages forest and bird base.

Thats a good observation and I think quite likely. Inspite of her political alliance it seems that at least Allen knows which side is up. And brave, too.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Thats a good observation and I think quite likely. Inspite of her political alliance it seems that at least Allen knows which side is up. And brave, too.

Shit for once I have/will agree with yi ol chap...but yes different person all together