NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers

It is spring. The days lengthen. The rain is less frequent and lighter. Warmth returns to the sunshine. Plants burst forth from winter’s dormancy into bud, green leaf and flowers. Down on the river the willows branches have suddenly changed from orange to green as they burst into leaf. The flows have fallen and stabilised, no longer does the rivers winter rages balloon out of control, ripping and tearing at the banks in muddy torrents. The water flows clear over clean beds, washed of last summers excesses. In those flows the trout feed freely on increasing insect life. The urgency and the trials of winters spawning are forgotten. It is a time of recovery, reconditioning, and renewal.

A new fishing season is beginning. There are licences to buy, rods to inspect, reels to lubricate, lines to dress and recondition, and flies to tie. In the spring sunshine, boots and packs are again prepared for the fray. Nylon tested – check. Hooks sharpened – check. Sunscreen and insect repellent – check. Didymo spray – check.

How many times have you arrived at a favourite stretch of river after a winter’s break, only to find that it has changed beyond all recognition? Favourite pools and runs have disappeared. The river may have changed course completely. That is part of the frustration and the attraction of fishing. For each pool or run lost will have been replaced by another elsewhere. It is up to you to go and find them!

However, these days there are likely to be other, more permanent and less desirable changes to contend with. Like a new dairy conversion running stock on both sides of the river, with no bridge between. Like summer flows in spring, as extraction has been hopelessly underestimated. Like those brown mats of didymo, or black mats of toxic cyanobacter, which you were sure would have disappeared with the winter floods – but which haven’t. Like the notice advising that the water is unsuitable for contact recreation. Like the sudden appearance of ‘No Trespass’ notices where previously there has never been an issue. Like the thick coating of sediment covering the bed, where previously there was clean fine gravel. Or what is increasingly likely, and guaranteed to kill a fishery faster and more completely than anything else, that the river has been dammed (both literally and figuratively!)

The new National-Act-Maori coalition government has wasted little time in allowing power companies (most of which are multinationals – so their profits disappear offshore) free rein over some of New Zealand’s finest freshwater fisheries. Rivers such as the Waiau, the Clutha, the Kawarau, the Mokihinui, the Arnold and the Nevis are just some of the proposals going through at present. Lots more are currently being investigated as our seemingly insatiable appetite for electricity continues to grow. It is of course touted as cheap, clean, green generation. It isn’t. Fisheries scientists tell us that the greatest threat to freshwater fisheries still today, is the damming of waterways. Does that sound cheap to you? How many wild, unfettered rivers do we still have left, and how many do we have to sacrifice? Remember too, that dams have a finite lifespan. The sediment that builds up behind them produces a surprisingly large carbon footprint. You won’t find many people (particularly power generators) acknowledging that.

An even more worrying recent trend is for those government ministries and statutory agencies charged with protecting our fisheries to cut deals with power generators rather than to oppose them in the environment courts. DOC who are required to “preserve as far as is practical all indigenous and recreational freshwater fisheries and habitats”, and Fish & Game who are required to both “protect and enhance” recreational freshwater fisheries have both recently refused to oppose dam proposals in exchange for other concessions and trade-off’s with power generators.

In the face of such gross abdication of responsibility, what can you the angler do? Let’s turn that around. What is going fishing worth to you? Each of us will have our own answer to that, but to some it means a great deal. To Johnny Groome, fisherman, hunter, artist and photographer on the South Island’s west coast, it meant standing up and saying “Not on my river, and not to this fishery”. That river is the Arnold, which Trustpower want to dam. After DOC and Fish & Game had ‘come to an arrangement’ with Trustpower and declined to oppose their dam proposal, Johnny stuck up his hand and said “I do”. He has succeeded in forcing Trustpower to the Environment Court, where such proposals are supposed to be judged. In the process he has been vilified in the press, and by Trustpower and the Local Authority as “one frivolous objector holding the region to ransom”. He has been subject to threats and intimidation and runs the risk of severe financial penalties if he is unsuccessful. But that is of less consequence to him than the potential loss of the Arnold as a free river and a freshwater fishery. As he says, “once it is gone we will never get it back”. It takes a huge amount of courage and resolve to stand up to the continuous and concerted attacks of local authorities and multinational businesses. Those qualities have to be admired.

No one is suggesting that we are all capable of such measures, or that they are always necessary. But every little bit each of us does counts, and is important. And if we do it in concert, its effects are magnified. Get angry. Get organised. Get effective. There is strength in numbers. Numbers of anglers make clubs strong. Numbers of clubs (and individual anglers) makes the NZFFA strong. We also belong to organizations such as the Council of Outdoor Recreation Organisations of NZ (CORANZ) to advocate common issues such as access, pollution, commercialisation, governance, etc. with eight other outdoor recreational organizations. We are involved in the Wild Rivers Coalition advocating for Wild Rivers in conjunction with Forest and Bird, and some nine other non-government organizations. This makes us more effective as your advocates. Governments and governance agencies can and do listen to individuals. But they listen harder when they know that significant numbers of organised voters are involved. So come and join us.

There is plenty to be done, and the more of us there are involved, the easier that gets. Contact one of your local executive members (they are on this website). Let them know that you want to be involved. It’s easy. Get to know the issues that are affecting you. Get to know the other parties that are involved. Discuss it in your clubs. Write some letters. (There is plenty of experience and assistance available amongst the Federation executive. They don’t have to be particularly formal – but they do have to be polite!) Write to MP’s, write to newspapers, and write to commercial and industrial agencies about your concerns. Something that easy can be very effective. Talk to your local MP’s. It may sound a little daunting but they are just people like you, and they really are interested in issues affecting their constituents.

The issues before us are too big and demanding to get sidetracked by competing for attention. We are all in this together. Lets tackle it together. Then perhaps we can all get back to going fishing!

Ken Sims

New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers (Inc)

Co-Chairman Council of Outdoor recreation Associations of New Zealand (CORANZ)