Thread: Northland Scallop Fishery (SCA1) Full Closure (only it's not!)

Originally Posted by omark

What ever happened to 1 person that can issue permits
It must be a free for all

From what MPI officers have told me, it certainly was a free-for-all. I believe that had already been addressed to some degree prior to this closure. Got another email from Legasea assuring that there will be no customary take under the rahui. We will see. Regardless, crazy way to manage a fishery (or anything else) in my opinion.

The part tht I see being incredibly stupid is tht there are two beds left with ok numbers.gt barrier and little barrier. Those beds are going to be dragged commercially instead of using them to re build the Fishery in the Hauraki gulf.that is just fucking totally brain dead shit

Originally Posted by omark

What ever happened to 1 person that can issue permits
It must be a free for all

I'm not sure why there are so many but I do not think many people understand the system.
Under the customary permit system, the rules which regulate catch, size and harvest procedure do not apply. The person issuing the permit has the ability to specify the size, number and method of harvest if they so desire.
The holder of the permit can still take the permitted recreational harvest over and above the specified number on the permit, so if a permit is for 300 scallops, you can get the 20 per person allowed for a recreational harvest as well.
The vast majority of people who issue permits have great respect of the fishery and monitor the use of permits.
As with any system it is open to abuse and at times people take advantage of this opportunity.
8 years ago, a permit was issued for the first day of the scallop season in the Whangarei Harbour for 2500 scallops, which were allowed to be down to 90Cm. This caused a far bit of outrage and the issuer of the permit was fronted and given the message.
It is my belief that most people who have the authority to issue permits will decline to issue permits during the rahui, but we have a hardcore poaching ring here and they will continue to harvest scallops as the money will be too much for them to ignore.

Originally Posted by MB

One of my mates with vague connections got involved with a customary permit. 400 scallops per day. Not sure of the size limit, but it wasn't 100mm. He said the floor of his tinny was completely covered in scallops. I hope the people that are reportedly most concerned about the fishery do their part.

its all recorded mate wouldnt be too hard to follow that up
who needs 400 scallops? must have given a beauty of a reason, probably be good enough to get the permit book taken from the issuer

its when the permit is for a week that urks me
every day unless checked the permits are filled
so what ever the total number was multiply that by the amount of days on the permit

the responsible users of the system hate the abusers of the system as much as we do

mix a bit of preferential treatment/some kick backs to the issuer/poverty/family dynamics/drug fucked brains/cash sales to asian buyers in auckland that ask no questions and yea the fishery takes a hammering

Id say the only way the customary system will ever end is voluntary which will never happen because of its need for supplying hui and marae based events

Originally Posted by MB

In the last year, we have lost our only decent trout fishery in the whole of Northland because of unsubstantiated Iwi concerns about the environmental impact of trout; deer have finally been eradicated in Northland and now this. Just to be clear, I'm in support of the scallop fishery closing for everybody. If it continues, a move south (or maybe 2000km north) is on the cards.

Deer have been eradicated in Northland?

Originally Posted by gimp

Deer have been eradicated in Northland?

Yes, there has never been much of a population as I understand it, but there were a few stragglers in the Russell Forest.

Originally Posted by gimp

Deer have been eradicated in Northland?

Except for the farmed ones?

So not eliminated...

My smelly ass they have been eradicated

theres still two populations that I know of that have hundreds of ha to hide in.

not to mention the south head population as well

Originally Posted by Bill999

My smelly ass they have been eradicated

theres still two populations that I know of that have hundreds of ha to hide in.

not to mention the south head population as well

Don't tell NRC, they are very proud of their achievement! And South Head is in Auckland.

Hmm maybe my intel is out of date. it has been a few years but unless the packs of wild dogs about at the moment dealt to them I dont know who would have been able to drive them out
the scrub is damn near impenetrable

maybe someone got them. Im holding out hope that theres still a few floating around tho as I tried getting access to all the ones I knew about and they were all very against me hunting them

historically there was a deer farmer that would open up his gate to a large wetland when his grass supply would run out and almost all of the deer would come back when their gut was filled, a few didnt
a good mate of mine shot one with his 410 just off State highway one only for some one to pinch it before he got back with a knife(under 10min)

I was going to ask if you thought it was viable to hunt them. Doesn't sound too promising.

If you had a thermal and a helicopter/drone we may be able to find them if they exist any more, it has been over 10 years

other than that they have to get hungry and come out on farm land before they can be seen or taken
the scrub is mostly wattle that is 4m high and like a solid wall to climb thru
tryed doing it once when I was a keen teenager and its noisy and prickly the whole way thru from the public land side no way to get anywhere quiet thats for sure
amazed me that the deer could get thru it
100s of unhuntable hectares

Id think if you dargavillians wanted deer you'd just cross the harbor with a spot light

Originally Posted by Bill999

Id think if you dargavillians wanted deer you'd just cross the harbor with a spot light

I think there's a lot of that going on, even saw it first hand when I got on the ballot. Car not boat though.

yeah need a drone for those fellas too

that way you wont have to get out of bed to catch them

Im not going to lie Im looking for an excuse to get a drone