The set net ban along the coats of Taranaki has stunned the region’s commercial fishing industry. The ban prohibits set netting between 7.4km and 12.9km off much of the North Island’s west coast. The government said that the ban will prevent any of the estimated 111 Maui’s dolphins in the area being inadvertently caught and killed in set nets. The species is not found anywhere else.
This would boost Taranaki fishermen’s morale and will almost certainly impact on the region’s $10 million fishing industry. There has been only one confirmed sighting of the world’s rarest dolphin in Taranaki waters since 1989. That was two years ago. The ban was first imposed in 2008, but a successful legal challenge to the decision by the fishing industry had fishermen allowed to set their nets within the 13km limit.
Compass Rose skipper and seasoned New Plymouth fisherman Ian McDougall said that the decision is sad news. It’s a very unfair decision because they just do not see the bloody things. If he was unable to master using expensive long lines to catch rig or find quota for another species the ban would cut his income by 20 percent.
