Well this comes as a bit of a surprise , apparently long finned eels are endangered and someone is all frothy because you can buy them in down town Auckland. Well if DOC wants to take a look at a healthy and thriving population then they should have a look see in our backyard.
(Good looking eel huh ... shame about the chick!)
The river is swarming with them We speared one and caught approx 15 more in the fyke net on New Years eve. . We kept four in total.
Now this might sound a lot but its not. We get a feed of eels about three times a year. And thats the way its going to stay. While we think the river is pretty healthy - we reckon its too small to sustain a commercial harvest. however we would be interested to find out if indeed it is fished commercially.
Some were large as witnessed by this picture but there are also many many small ones.
We just want to know how DOC has come to the conclusion that they are endangered?
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I agree Busted, it's fatuous twaddle.
Besides, the Ministry of Fisheries has long finned eels in the QMS, and manages the sustainability of the population via that proven mechanism.
According to MFish the population isn't under any mortal threat - and you've proved that your local patch is healthy. I can't think what DoC and the usual moaners are on about.
One problem though - the moaners seem to have the ear of one T Turia. Let's hope she gets a briefing from MFish soon.
Ahha, was it called Helen? Must try the horseradish - sounds divine.
I don't know about the North Island population but Long Fin eel have been heavily overfished in the south and with several of the principal river habitats affected by dams, recruitment of eel back into the rivers has been affected.
Given that eel breed only once, that long fins are not sexually mature until 40+ years, it is not hard to see that overfishing might not show up for sometime and then not be reversed easily.
As for MFish 'managing the fishery' through the QMS - don't make me laugh.
I am delighted that you still have a source of good sized tuna and applaud your conservative take. Would that all had your attitude.
BTW I am old enough to remember the bad old days of Acclimatisation Society 'culls' where the Mataura River (and others) were lined with the rotting corpses of breeding stock tuna.
For a good dvd on the lifecycle of Long Fin I recommend LongFin
http://www.longfinfilm.com/
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