Hello,
Many of you would be aware that there has been call for the complete reduction of the commercial longfin quota because of fears the species is on the downward spiral towards extinction.
I would support this approach if I thought it would be successful. But I have my doubts that it would ever be passed, even though the advocates rightly point out the fishery benefits very few people, and yet threatens an endemic and already vulnerable NZ species with extinction.
I thought an alternative approach more likely to get support would be to limit the commercial take of longfins to areas upstream of dams. These dams cause issues for the downward migration of spawning eels, and so it is questionable how many make it out to sea to spawn. So areas upstream of dams could be considered dead sinks for longfins anyway. You could stop trying to catch and transfer mature silvering eels downstream of the dams, and redirect those funds elsewhere. And just let the commercial eelers catch as many as they can upstream of dams. But only upstream of dams.
The reduced fishing pressure in the rest of the catchment should increase the net number of eels that make it to their spawning grounds. But fisherman would still get a chance to fill their quotas. And there are dams all over the country so they wouldn't need to relocate necessarily.
What do you think?
Many of you would be aware that there has been call for the complete reduction of the commercial longfin quota because of fears the species is on the downward spiral towards extinction.
I would support this approach if I thought it would be successful. But I have my doubts that it would ever be passed, even though the advocates rightly point out the fishery benefits very few people, and yet threatens an endemic and already vulnerable NZ species with extinction.
I thought an alternative approach more likely to get support would be to limit the commercial take of longfins to areas upstream of dams. These dams cause issues for the downward migration of spawning eels, and so it is questionable how many make it out to sea to spawn. So areas upstream of dams could be considered dead sinks for longfins anyway. You could stop trying to catch and transfer mature silvering eels downstream of the dams, and redirect those funds elsewhere. And just let the commercial eelers catch as many as they can upstream of dams. But only upstream of dams.
The reduced fishing pressure in the rest of the catchment should increase the net number of eels that make it to their spawning grounds. But fisherman would still get a chance to fill their quotas. And there are dams all over the country so they wouldn't need to relocate necessarily.
What do you think?
