Tension rising on NZ rivers between wealthy tourists and Southlanders over competition for fishing spots

Tuesday, 24 December 2019

Len Prentice worries about the future of the river he has spent his lifetime fishing.

Sitting on the deck of his quintessential Kiwi bach, he surveys the upper Mataura River, watching as a lone angler stalks trout from the riverbank.

He's been fishing this stretch of river in Southland's Nokomai Gorge for more than 60 years, catching his first trout on a worm as his grandfather and father watched on.

'In those days you could camp just about anywhere on the river. I sort of grew up fishing up here and this has been my favourite river of all.'

**READ MORE:

* Anglers booking system proposed for two Fiordland rivers

* Bad weather results in drop in trout fishing numbers throughout Southland

* Pressure on rivers create angst among anglers**

But those days are long gone. 

'Once you could walk all day without seeing another angler and now if you get five or six hundred metres without seeing another angler you're very lucky,' says Prentice.

Southland's great fishing rivers like the Mataura, Oreti, Aparima and Waikaia, and the lakes and rivers of Fiordland, are like an El Dorado for anglers visiting from overseas.

The often gin-clear waters, the number and size of trout and the 'untamed wilderness' reputation put fishing in Southland at the top of many fly-anglers to-do lists.

Anglers come to the province in their droves from all over the world during the fishing season between October and April, in pursuit of the ultimate selfie with a trophy trout.

Walk into any pub in northern Southland during the fishing season and you're likely to hear Europeans, Americans and Australians discussing their day on the river over a quiet beer.

Overseas anglers and guides have been buying up houses in towns like Athol and Lumsden, and more than 34 per cent of non-resident anglers visiting New Zealand fished in Southland, the most popular region in New Zealand.

In 2016 it was reported that some international fly fishing enthusiasts spent up to $50,000 a week on guides and accommodation while seeking the ultimate angling experience.

It's thought the industry is worth about $2 million each year to the province, although some in the industry say that's a conservative estimate. 

Guides charge hundreds of dollars to take anglers out to the best spots. It could cost up to $900 for a full guided day, and one offers a guided week package that ranges up to $4000.

But the hype isn't always living up to the reality.

Angling is a gentleman's sport but its not uncommon to hear of punch-ups, bullying and bad behaviour on the riverbanks, and there's a lot of finger-pointing between locals and organised groups.

Those spoken to were reluctant to divulge details. Fishing provides a huge boost to the local economy, and nobody wants to make waves.

A recent decision to approve a commercial rafting venture on the Mataura River run by local businessman Phil Joostens has provoked a wave of upset.

A handful of fisherman, some of whom are guides, have formed the NZ Southern Rivers Society and have filed papers in the High Court seeking a judicial review of the Gore and Southland district council's decisions to issue a non-notified resource consent.

They say the rafting venture has the potential to cause 'significant adverse impacts on these rivers and their angling amenity due to the disturbances the rafting activity will cause to fish and their feeding behaviours.'

Joostens said he spent a year getting resource consent for his operation, and under consultation with Southland Fish & Game he modified his venture to keep other river users happy. He'll only operate on the upper Mataura River when it's flowing too high to fish.

'I don't want to get offside with the anglers, but we're not all treated the same by the councils. I've had to jump through a lot of hoops to get up and running, yet these guides are making money off the river without even having resource consent.'

The case has brought to the surface an ongoing debate about whether one group should have use of the rivers over another, who needs resource consent to operate a business from a natural resource, and whether there should be more regulation of the guiding industry.

It's also raised a bigger question - who is making money out of New Zealand's natural resources, and how can authorities ensure fairness? 

Some Kiwi anglers think that guides shouldn't be putting pressure on fishing resources by charging to show someone where and how to fish.

Apart from needing the same fishing licence as any angler on the river, guiding is an unregulated industry, and anyone can set themselves up to ply their trade on the riverbank. 

There's no consensus from local councils on whether commercial guides require resource consent, and if they do, councils say they do not have the regulatory capacity to enforce laws.

Prentice is a pioneer of the guiding industry and is a life member of the New Zealand Professional Fishing Guides Association (NZPFGA), as well as a Fish and Game ranger.

He said when he started more than 30 years ago, you could count the number of guides in Southland on one hand.

'Now as more and more clients have arrived on the scene there's been more guides that think it's a great way of life, which it is, and they get up on the bandwagon and market themselves.'

There's also a lot of pressure on guides - they work at the whim of the weather, river conditions, and accessing water across private land, all while facing pressure from their clients to land a fish.

'Guiding has changed. Some guides can be a bit unethical and will fish the same stretch of water day after day with different clients. That's putting undue pressure on the river when it's totally unnecessary.'

​NZPFGA president Serge Bonnafoux said the association has 32 guides in Queenstown and Otago, and 16 in Fiordland and Southland.

The criteria to become a member of the association is stringent and members have to sign up to a code of ethics, but Bonnafoux is concerned that some New Zealand and foreign anglers are using the term 'hosting' to disguise what he calls an 'illegal' guiding practice.

'They have no safety plan, no liability insurance, no first aid certification and many of them are operating illegally on Department of Conservation estate. They're not paying any tax or submitting GST returns either.'

WorkSafe said it was wrong to suggest the freshwater fishing guide industry was unregulated.

A spokesperson said guides were bound by the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Risk analysis and controls were required, and the guide was lawfully obligated to keep their clients safe. 

'Depending on the circumstances of a particular guided fishing trip, the Adventure Activity Regulations may come into play, which require the business to pass a safety audit and gain registration as an Adventure Activity Operator.

'WorkSafe's understanding is that most guided fly-fishing does not include that kind of risk, but this is not a categorical exclusion.'

The NZPFGA supported the introduction of a guides' licence, as a way to 'tidy up' an industry that has seen rapid and uncontrolled growth over the last 10 years, Bonnafoux said.

'We believe guided anglers have the right to expect their guide to have excellent knowledge of the fishery and conduct themselves safely and legally in all respects. Introducing a guides' licence is an important step to ensure that expectation will be met.'

Southland Fish and Game also supports that move, but is a little less reluctant to blame guides for overcrowding.

'Guiding certainly contributes to the use of our rivers and there is no doubt there is a lot of guiding on some of our rivers, but generally it's the un-guided non-resident anglers that we have concerns about,' manager Zane Moss said.

On the prized upper Oreti River, guides accounted for about 10 per cent of the use last summer and 85 per cent of river users after Christmas were from overseas.

Non-resident anglers have to apply for a special licence, which includes a levy to contribute to fisheries management and habitat protection.

There's been a 60 per cent increase in sales in Southland in the last five years, and they now account for 25 per cent of all licences sold in the province, Moss said.

'Rivers like the Mataura are under a lot of pressure from Australians that fly into Queenstown.

'It's a fairly cheap flight for them and spectacular fishing less than an hour down the road from Queenstown.'

While overseas anglers may be used to crowded fisheries, Kiwi anglers are feeling displaced, Moss said.

'Kiwis have grown up with good access to our fisheries, bumping into people on busy weekends but by and large having great access without lots of competition for that access, and what they're seeing is a change in preferences around when and where they can fish.

'We are going to have to look more and more at the management of the numbers of people fishing these fisheries, and we are starting to have discussions around a more equitable balance between resident angler access to these fisheries and non-resident.'

On some overseas fisheries, locals-only weekends are used, but Moss was hesitant to suggest that could work here.

'We have to embark on this thing relatively sensibly and carefully. We don't want to displace all non-resident anglers but we want an evening of access opportunities so that Kiwis don't get too disadvantaged'

He also believes social media is adding to the pressure on the waterways. 

'Historically, anglers used to use word of mouth of a few publications to figure out where to go, but now with tourists they can look at blog sites and various other places online and find out all the information they need about our fisheries.'

The good news is that while the anglers may not be happy, the trout seem to be.

Fish and Game conduct drift dives in the rivers to count the number of fish and there is no decline in numbers.

'The fisheries themselves can handle it in terms of the numbers of fish,' Moss said

That at least is good news for Prentice, who has given up guiding, but still enjoys casting a fly out on his favourite river.

'I just wish people would realise what it's all about - it's not about catching the biggest fish, its about enjoying a day out on the river.'