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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:08:51 GMT 10
Lake Onoke wave hits whitebaitersBy SEAMUS BOYER - Wairarapa Times-Age | Saturday, 01 October 2011 ALARM: Waves at Lake Onoke on the South Wairarapa
coast. Several whitebaiters were washed into the
water after a freak wave struck.A GROUP of Wairarapa whitebaiters are lucky to be alive after being swept into Lake Onoke by a freak wave.
The whitebaiters were fishing on the spit at the mouth of the lake on Wednesday when a freak wave smashed over the bar and washed several towards the water.
Lake Ferry Hotel owner Mary Tipoki said she was serving lunch and saw at least two men washed into the lake.
"The wave came right over the sand bar — it was a huge, huge wave — and just washed them into the lake," she said.
"We thought we'd better call the rescue helicopter because we've seen this before."
But she said it seemed one whitebaiter was able to pull the men from the water using a long scoop net.
"They were very lucky. It was just like watching something on TV really. It gives you that uneasy feeling," Ms Tipoki said.
The mouth of the lake had closed regularly because of sand build-up caused by high seas since the season began on August 15. It was shut yesterday. "We've had some extremely big seas over the last month and people just need to be aware that the sea is not very forgiving," she said.
Veteran whitebaiter Cathy Garrity, of Carterton, said scooping at the mouth was more hazardous than setting nets further inland along the shores of the lake.
Mrs Garrity said she had heard on the grapevine of heavy swells and rogue waves in the past few days.
People who chose to scoop at the mouth should be aware they were at risk if they felt sand being pulled out from under their feet. Despite the incident, whitebait may finally be running hot in Wairarapa.
Mrs Tipoki said she had heard reports of some giant whitebait hauls — the biggest a whopping 27kg — although she said that could not be verified.
But keen Masterton whitebaiter Noel Preston said he had been out twice with a group of mates and caught next to nothing.
"As far as we're concerned it hasn't gone very well," he said.
"The first time we didn't even put the nets out, even though it was a lovely day because the lake wasn't even moving."
"The second time we got a tiny bit, I suppose half a pound, but there wasn't enough to share so we gave it all to one of the jokers to get a couple of fritters out of."www.times-age.co.nz/news/rogue-wave-scare/1122863
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:09:00 GMT 10
Jail term for illegal whitebatingRadio New Zealand News | Thursday, 06 October 2011THE FIRST PRISON TERM has been handed down for illegal whitebaiting to an Opotiki man who also threatened Department of Conservation rangers.
Peter Warren, 57, had been remanded in custody for 10 weeks since being found guilty on six charges of taking whitebait illegally and two of threatening Department of Conservation rangers.
On Thursday, the Opotiki District Court jailed him for eight months.
Warren took about 10kg of whitebait from the Huntress Creek floodgate three times in August and September last year.
DoC's programme manager of biodiversity assets in Gisborne and Whakatane, James Holborow, says rangers found Warren fishing on three occasions within 20 metres of a floodgate, giving the whitebait very little chance.
Warren was not present in court on Thursday.www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/87600/jail-term-for-illegal-whitebating
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:09:10 GMT 10
Whitebait a bit on the light sideAshburton Guardian | Saturday, 08 October 2011 NOT MUCH: Whitebaiter Marty Houlden chasing
the elusive fish at the Rakaia River mouth.WHITEBAIT PATTIES at South Rakaia Huts are only sparsely dotted with their namesake ingredient.
While residents are pleased they are beginning to catch some of the first whitebait of the season, they wish there was more.
Resident Marty Houlden said he had caught just one dozen fish altogether up until yesterday, when he was out on the riverbank again with his nets.
Late last month Mr Houlden had promised to drive around the camp tooting if he caught so much as one.
After a prized catch of six of the miniature fish, he did this, and there has since been the odd extra angler joining him with their nets and gear.
Mr Houlden drives to the rivermouth and sits by his set nets for a good four to five hours, having a cup of tea and a bite to eat.
He put the late start to the season down to the river's temperature remaining colder than usual for this time of year.
The prized small fish are caught as they swim from the sea into the narrow river mouth.
"It's hard work for them as well," Mr Houlden said.www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/news/todays-news/5420-whitebait-a-bit-on-the-light-side.html
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:09:22 GMT 10
West Coast whitebaiters happy with catchBy MATT KERSTEN - APNZ | Tuesday, 11 October 2011 'BAIT SEASON: The whitebait are running in the Grey River.GREYMOUTH WHITEBAITERS were all smiles yesterday with a steady run on the morning tide.
Some of those scooping near the Cobden Bridge were rewarded with hauls of two or three bucketsful, while others spread along the Mawhera Quay floodwall also enjoyed some good catches of a bucket or more.
Department of Conservation Greymouth programme manager biodiversity Brad Edwards said most people fishing on the Grey River were "going home with a feed".
"We've seen the ‘Big Rock’ fishing well, they usually get good catches there when other people are getting a few."
He said there had been some confusion around the legal whitebaiting hours due to daylight saving: "The hours are now 6am to 9pm."
South Westland rivers have also seen some action, with one catch over 100kg in an "undisclosed location" south of Haast in the past couple days.
The Curly Tree Whitebait Company, based at the Waita River north of Haast, buys whitebait from throughout South Westland for freighting to buyers around New Zealand.
Owner Tony Kerr said the season was already much better than last year.
"We've been buying all season, I don't know how much longer we'll go because our freezers are almost full. Last season we didn't have enough, but this season has turned around the other way — I wouldn't say we've got too much, but we've certainly got more."
Mr Kerr said catches had been steady, and he credited the fine weather with the turnaround in fishing fortunes.
Heavy rain in the south today meant most baiters had taken the day off.
"The weather's been outstanding. We probably need the rain because the rivers are getting a bit skinny (blocked), that's how good it's been. I'd say we'll keep the fish coming for the rest of this moon."www.odt.co.nz/news/national/181749/west-coast-whitebaiters-happy-catch
In search of the perfect whitebait recipeAssociate editor Peter Bingham and fish guru
Peter Bennett try two different recipes.By PETER BINGHAM - Taranaki Daily News | Tuesday, 11 October 2011 YUM: The legendary whitebait fritter.IT'S THE SEASON for whitebait and the delicacy has been running.
Whitebaiting brings out the best No.8 wire ingenuity in Kiwis.
Catching the "white gold" requires skills that vary from river to river and at $120 a kilogram (retail) it's big business for some, particularly in the South Island.
In Taranaki it's a seasonal pastime for most and largely the domain of people at the back end of their working lives. Big catches on our more popular rivers can provide a financial return (either over or under the table) but for the majority it's just the chance of catching a few cups of the delicacy that drives them.
Some of the private stands on the Mokau and Tongaporutu rivers are works of art and some of the mechanisms used for getting nets in and out of the river deserve patenting.
The "bloody good nature" of some whitebaiters is the often the source of a feed for many of us.
The fine chaps at Egmont Seafoods (ESL) sort of fall into that category. They don't get to fish the tide but they do know someone who knows plenty of others who do. Cascade Whitebait, based on the West Coast of the South Island, is their supplier of both fresh and frozen.
"People get hung up on the price but we kept ours as low as possible," Peter Bennett said. "We only make about $20 a kilo but people like them so we get them in. Pound for pound they're still cheaper than oysters."
ESL sells 20kg to 30kg a week and you can buy them in an assortment of pack sizes.
They're interesting critters, whitebait. There are five varieties but the most common is Galaxias maculatus (inanga) which is a market favourite because of its transparency.
Everybody seems to have their personal recipe for cooking whitebait so we decided on the "battle of the Petes" this week.
Pete Bennett cooked a feed for his workers (and the bank manager who just happened to time his visit to perfection). It was a simple recipe that produced a nice thick fritter served on an english muffin. He placed a dollop of fritter mix (see recipe) in a ring on a hot plate and cooked it until the whitebait on top of the fritter turned white.
"The rings are an efficient way of making a consistent fritter and you don't have to flip them. They fit perfectly on a muffin."
He insists on using free-range eggs "because of their wholesome deep colour" and ESL gets a ready supply from the Okato business of Barry and Ruth Proffitt.
Driven by a need to try something different, I decided to sautee mine. This was new territory and proved more finicky than the "riverbank" method where you whisk a couple of eggs with enough whitebait to make a juicy fritter. But it was a novel alternative and served on a bed of fluffy potato mash, garnished with lemon zest, salt, pepper and parsley. The taste of the whitebait seemed more pronounced but it was too easy to eat them in haste. Fritters last longer.
The secret to the taste was to cook them only until they turned white. Too long and they become toothpicks.______________________________________ BING'S SAUTEED WHITEBAITIngredients:- 250gm of whitebait
- garlic butter
- flour
- parsley
- salt and pepper
Method:- These are best cooked in half-cup servings.
- For each serving thoroughly drain the whitebait and spread them out on a dry teatowel. Lightly sprinkle flour over the whitebait and lift the corners of the towel to ensure an even coating.
- After removing the excess flour, place the coated whitebait into a hot fry pan containing the melted garlic butter. Use a slice to toss the fish until they just turn white. This will only take a few seconds.
- You can serve them as you go and they are perfect on a bed of fluffy mashed potatoes and grated lemon rind.
- Garnish the finished dish with lemon juice, salt, pepper and parsley.
______________________________________ PETE'S WHITEBAIT FRITTER ON TOASTED ENGLISH MUFFINIngredients:- 250 grams of whitebait
- 1 free range egg
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 sprig finely chopped parsley — (optional)
- egg rings or similar — (approx 75mm diameter x 10mm high)
- packet of english muffins
- 1 lemon
Method:- Beat egg with vigour. Add salt, pepper and parsley and beaten egg into the whitebait and gently fold through as though you were massaging a sore shoulder.
- Cut the muffin through the middle, lightly butter and put face down into hot pan or skillet.
- Place your egg rings or whatever on the hotplate and spoon in the whitebait mixture to the desired amount. If you don't have rings, don't worry, these are only to keep the shape consistent.
- Cook until the top bait is white through — should be about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Place the fritters on top of the muffin, sprinkle some more salt and pepper to taste and squeeze a small amount of lemon juice to zing the taste buds.
- Makes six muffin-sized fritters.
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/life-style/5767220/In-search-of-the-perfect-whitebait-recipe
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:09:34 GMT 10
Charges laid over illegal netsBy SCOT MACKAY - The Southland Times | Wednesday, 12 October 2011THREE PEOPLE are facing court action in Southland after Conservation Department operations to catch illegal whitebaiters.
DOC's Murihiku compliance and law enforcement ranger, Kelwyn Osborn, led a team of four in a covert operation to the mouth of Wakapatu Stream, about 20 kilometres west of Riverton yesterday after reports of people illegally setting multiple nets in the stream.
Mr Osborn said the DOC operation had zero tolerance for non-compliance and two nets were found unattended, but the owners were not caught.
However, three people were being prosecuted for illegal whitebaiting this season after being caught with nets longer than the permitted six metres at the Mataura River. They faced a maximum fine of $5000, he said.
A further 10 people had received warnings, he said.
Small teams of about four DOC staff had patrolled Southland rivers at least once a week since the season began on August 15, and a night operation was carried out last week. No-one had been caught during that operation, he said.
DOC had a difficult time catching people because whitebaiters were often warned of DOC approaching and had time to remove their gear from the river, Mr Osborn said.
However, the operations would continue so DOC could make sure the rules were obeyed and to protect the fishery from being overfished, he said.
"We are not there to put the fear of God [into them] and threaten them. It is just good to be seen out patrolling," Mr Osborn said.
Meanwhile, DOC principal compliance officer Alan Christie said several banks built to divert whitebait, were kicked down yesterday because people were not allowed to alter the shape of the river to catch them.
"We have got to give the whitebait a fighting chance," he said.
THE RULES
The whitebait season is open between August 15 and November 30 throughout New Zealand, except the West Coast of the South Island and the Chatham Islands.
Fishing is permitted only between 5am and 8pm, or between 6am and 9pm when daylight saving is observed.
No fishing gear should exceed more than one-third of the water channel width, be used in conjunction with another person's gear to exceed more than one-third of the channel, or exceed six metres in length.
Nets must have a mouth no larger than 4.5 metres and framing material must be no wider than 120 millimetres.
No person shall set or use more than one whitebait net at a time and the whitebaiter must remain within 10 metres of the net.
Fishing gear must be removed from the water at the end of fishing or the end of the day.
Persons breaching these regulations may be fined up to $5000.www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/5770688/Charges-laid-over-illegal-nets
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:09:49 GMT 10
Whitebait as elusive as profit from TwitterBy MIKE O'DONNELL - The Dominion Post | Monday, 17 October 2011 SCARCE: Whitebait (and Twitter profit).IT IS unlikely that 2011 will be remembered as our best whitebait season. Despite early reports of catches of more than 50 kilograms in Southland, the white gold has failed to materialise in any volume in Canterbury or the lower North Island. Mind you, whitebaiters are so darn secretive you wouldn't necessarily know if they were getting chilly-bin sized catches.
I've been out three times this season to my favourite spot on the Kapiti Coast, keen to see my six-year-old have the joy of lifting her finely made Temuka scoop net and finding a percolating mass of silver inanga in the corner.
But so far it has just been ones and twos, and in line with our family rule, we put them back if there's not enough for a feed.
Like most kinds of angling, optimism and anxiety are present in equal measures when whitebaiting. However, between lifts of the net there's plenty of time to enjoy the smell of the river, the melodic roll of the waves and the company of the diverse group that converge on the riverbed in the early morning.
Beneficiaries line up with bankers, pensioners with panelbeaters, all equal beneath their oilskins and thigh waders.
Whitebaiters typically have five main pieces of kit — a net, some screens (known as gobys), a scoop, a bucket and some markers.
The markers are lengths of white plastic or metal that lie in front of your net so you are able to see the all-but- invisible bait gliding in.
The two key qualities of a marker are that they are white and dense enough to lie on the river bottom.
Some people paint warratahs for this purpose, but the most popular (although unlawful) markers are the white plastic New Zealand Transport Agency roadside markers with red rectangles on top.
Although they are nominally designed to help keep motorists on the road, they are stunningly effective as underwater whitebait indicators, providing a great background against which the sneaky inanga become immediately visible.
The dichotomy between what a product was ostensibly designed for, and what people end up using it for is one of the main challenges facing the leadership team at Twitter, as they race to make the wildly popular site a mildly profitable business.
To help meet this challenge, Twitter has brought back its original founder, Jack Dorsey, who like Apple's Steve Jobs, got the executive boot from the company he created.
Originally a courier driver, Dorsey went on to study software engineering before setting up a company in 2000 which would harness the web to dispatch ambulances, fire services, taxis and couriers.
After getting interested in instant messaging technology he developed the idea for an SMS-based social network. He then quickly moved it to being a web- based service in 2006 and called it Twitter.
After a couple of years of remarkable growth, Dorsey was deposed in a coup in 2008 by Twitter's first funder and chairman Evan Williams, who became chief executive.
Although Williams was a more comfortable face for the company, he lacked Dorsey's product experience and network understanding. As a result, Williams got the heave-ho and new chief exective Dick Costolo wasted little time in bringing Dorsey back earlier this year, nominally as executive chairman but more significantly as chief product-meister.
Dorsey and Costolo now have three huge questions to answer: What is Twitter, how do you make its millions of 140 character messages more accessible, and how do you evolve it into being a profitable business?
While supposedly a less verbose form of Facebook, the fact is that Twitter is now first and foremost an online distribution mechanism. In a flash it has become a combination news wire, sales channel and attitudinal pulse taker. It's also pretty handy if you're trying to topple an Arabic dictator. The trick is trying to tie that together into what a marketer calls a consumer proposition.
And while is does do a heck of a good job of taking the pulse of people or a country on issues of the day, much of this gets lost among the mind-numbing dross of people tweeting about the coffee they are about to drink or the toilet visit it results in. This task of improving accessibility and bubbling relevant content to the top is far from being successfully delivered.
Three years ago Twitter was able to laugh off profitability saying it wasn't important to it. A year later it seemed to have been more prepared to entertain the possibility when it entered into search syndication agreements with Bing and Google that netted them US$25 million (NZ$31m).
Subsequently it launched Twitter "promoted product" advertising last year, which according to eMarketer should deliver them US$139m this year.
But apparently that's still not enough to make Twitter profitable in the long term.
Considering its shareholders have invested nearly $1 billion into Twitter over five years, it's likely that this pressure will increase rather than decrease in future.
The trick will be delivering that monetisation without killing the wonderfully anarchic energy of the channel that makes it so addictive.
Otherwise the investors might wake up to find the tweeters have been over-harvested by the marketers. A bit like the whitebait on the Kapiti Coast.• Mike "MOD" O'Donnell is a professional director, author and eCommerce manager. His Twittter hashtag is modsta and next whitebait season he's heading to Haast.www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5795840/Whitebait-as-elusive-as-profit-from-Twitter
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:10:00 GMT 10
Whitebait exhibition a winnerBy ANDREW ASHTON - The Greymouth Star | Tuesday, 18 October 2011 WINNER: The whitebait exhibition at the Hokitika Museum.THE national whitebait exhibition at the Hokitika Museum has been credited with pulling in record numbers of visitors.
Whitebait! The Story of New Zealand’s Favourite Fish, part of the West Coast-wide Whitebait Festival, opened in early September and museum director Julia Bradshaw said just under 4000 people had visited since then.
“The museum has had record numbers of people coming to see the whitebait exhibition. This September we recorded the highest figures for the month of September since records began in 1994.”
Altogether, 2157 people went through the doors last month, whereas normally it would see no more than 700 or 800.
The exhibition closes, along with the West Coast whitebait season, on November 14.
“We are only halfway through October and already this month we have had 2000 people. It has been fantastic for us, it is great that so many people have seen the exhibition,” Ms Bradshaw said.
Whitebait Festival co-ordinator Dominic Moran said the event was proving popular.
Eighty people attended the recent Hokitika Whitebait Cook-off Challenge, and similar numbers had been noted at the other cook-off events at Haast, Reefton, Westport and Greymouth.
Although the official number of visitors had not yet been estimated, the feedback and anecdotal evidence was that some visitors were coming to the West Coast because of the whitebait festival.
“In terms of the events that we have held from others that are still ongoing we are very pleased. They have pretty much matched our expectations.”
“There have been a smattering of international visitors but what has been really pleasing for us is that the local community are really grasping the events. I have had some feedback from local businesses and tourists attending the events have been making use of the festival guide and from what I have seen travelling between the Coast and Christchurch there seems to be more and more campervans coming over.”
Mr Moran said the West Coast photography competition run in conjunction with the festival had attracted up to 70 entries, and a grand prizegiving for the winning entry would take place at Shantytown on October 26, along with the final of the Whitebait Cook-off Challenge.www.greystar.co.nz/content/whitebait-exhibition-winner
Whitebait solution not clutching at strawBy EMMA MONK - The Greymouth Star | Wednesday, 19 October 2011 WHITEBAIT GURU: Dr Mike Hickford from Canterbury University.STRAW BALES may be the trick to improving whitebait catches, West Coast fishermen were told this week.
University of Canterbury research associate in marine ecology Dr Mike Hickford, currently on a speaking tour of the Coast about the life history of whitebait, says he has proof of the effectiveness of the strange solution.
As he goes around the Coast he has been suggesting using straw bales to rehabilitate degraded spawning habitats around river and creek mouths.
“If you put these out on the banks, close enough together with about an inch between them, you get these little canyons in between the bales. It’s nice and dark, moist inside, they are protected from the sun and it is a really good habitat for the eggs to actually be laid on. They go through their whole four-week development while on the bank in the bales,” he said in Greymouth yesterday.
“They’re a way of sort of fixing an immediate problem. We’re not suggesting that you’re going to take them out and cover all the riverbanks on the West Coast with bales of straw, but it’s a way of ensuring that some fish can spawn successfully. If you can get them spawning at one site there’s a good chance that they will come back to that same site again.”
Whitebait spawning habitats on riverbanks have become degraded on the Coast by grazing livestock, floods and diggers. This becomes a problem for them in their life cycle, when the adult inanga cannot find suitable spawning habitat.
Dr Hickford said he spent a lot of time on the Coast, usually fishing on the Orowaiti River, at Westport.
“It’s nice to work on something that you really are interested in and care about,” he said.
After public meetings in Punakaiki and Hokitika, he is due to speak in the Whataroa Community Hall tonight at 7 o’clock.www.greystar.co.nz/content/whitebait-solution-not-clutching-straw
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:10:11 GMT 10
Whitebaiter jumps the ‘Big Rock’The Greymouth Star | Friday, 21 October 2011THE OLD ADAGE the early bird catches the worm proved true for one enterprising whitebaiter, who claimed the fabled ‘Big Rock’ on the Grey River yesterday morning while a quartet of men who previously laid claim to the rock were sleeping in a van.
When threats failed to remove the interloper the sleepy fishermen enlisted the aid of police.
However, the constable who attended was happy with the situation when he was informed of the unwritten rule that anyone can jump on an unattended rock.
Eventually, the warring factions came to an amicable agreement whereby the ‘poacher’ agreed to vacate the rock for 5kg of fresh bait.www.greystar.co.nz/content/whitebaiter-jumps-big-rock
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:10:23 GMT 10
Bug targets southern riversBy LOIS CAIRNS - Sunday Star-Times | Sunday, 23 October 2011 UNKNOWN FACTOR: Aeromonas can affect a range of fish, including lamprey, trout, eel, salmon,
whitebait and kokopu and has so far been detected in three lower South Island waterways.A LITTLE-KNOWN bacteria infecting fish in lower South Island rivers could potentially spread to other waterways around the country.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) admits it knows little about the bacteria Aeromonas, which is causing illness and death in lamprey in Southland and has also been detected in a trout hatchery in Otago's Taieri River.
The bug can affect a range of fish including lamprey, trout, eel, salmon, whitebait and kokopu. It does not pose a direct risk to human health, but Maf is recommending people do not eat any fish that appear unusual or unhealthy.
Fish with the bacterial illness are likely to have red or swollen fins and red or swollen marks that look like bruises or blood clots.
MAF biosecurity response manager Glen Neal said the ministry was still working to determine the exact strain of the bacteria that was causing the illness and results were expected to take some time.
"It is notoriously difficult to culture the bacteria," Neal said. "At this point we do not know how it entered New Zealand, or indeed, if it has been here for some time. We have now had positive detections in fish ... from three waterways. As knowledge of this incident grows in the wider community, we expect to receive more reports of fish illness."
Asked whether there was a risk of the bacteria spreading to other parts of the country, Neal said the ministry would have a greater understanding of how it was spread once it had established the exact strain involved.
"Because we still know so little about this bacteria and its effects on fish, we cannot speculate on whether it will spread around the country."
Based on overseas experience, it was possible the bug was already quite widespread in lower South Island rivers.
Neal said that despite the presence of the bacteria, MAF was not considering a ban on recreational fishing as this time.
"We are working closely with recreational fishing bodies and the wider public to encourage people to report sightings of sick fish to the MAF freephone 080080-99-66. As well, we're reminding waterway users of the importance of checking, cleaning and drying their equipment and clothing when moving between waterways," Neal said.www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/5835302/Bug-targets-southern-rivers
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:10:54 GMT 10
Silt chokes Christchurch riversBy PAUL GORMAN - The Press | Tuesday, 25 October 2011 PRECIOUS RESOURCE: Jon Harding, from Canterbury University,
in a stream next to Banks Avenue, one of the waterways
that have been affected by Canterbury's earthquakes.
— DAVID HALLETT/Fairfax NZ.CHRISTCHURCH's rivers and streams are dying, choked with tens of thousands of tonnes of earthquake silt that is killing native wildlife.
Canterbury University freshwater biologist Jon Harding says the rivers could take decades to recover unless streams at the top of their catchments are urgently cleared of silt.
Clean-up efforts in the lower reaches of the Avon and Heathcote will be of limited use if more sediment is flushed down the rivers.
Harding, who has been studying the state of the rivers after the February 22 and June 13 quakes, said huge amounts of silt and sand from liquefaction were killing native fish and insects in the worst-affected parts of the rivers.
In those spots he had observed one or no fish in 50m stretches compared with pre-quake levels of 10 or more.
An estimated 21,500 tonnes of sediment had either bubbled up within the rivers or drained into them, raising the river beds and cloaking valuable habitat and spawning sites.
About 25km of the Avon's 99km long course had either medium (17km) or heavy (8km) silt concentrations, while 34km of the 62km-long Heathcote was found to have medium (28km) or heavy (6km) quake sediment volumes.
Medium sediment was defined as about two cubic metres of silt and sand in a 10m stretch of the river, and heavy 4 cubic metres per 10m.
The Avon was most clogged in tributary streams in its higher reaches while the Heathcote was worst in its lower reaches closer to the Avon-Heathcote estuary, he said. The quakes had caused massive changes to the ecology of the rivers, changes that were only now beginning to be appreciated.
There had been a lot of talk in the draft central city plan about the Avon as a centrepiece for the new Christchurch but it was in trouble.
In the past there had not been the opportunity to study how major quakes affected urban rivers, Harding said.
"Initially I was quite naive about this, thought they might have had a bit of a shake-up, especially in the lower part of the rivers, but that it wouldn't be much more than that."
"It didn't quite occur to me, as I'm sure it probably hasn't to a lot of people, that all that liquefaction has ended up in streams and rivers. It doesn't just disappear."
In some places, silt and sand from liquefaction had surged down rivers, leaving grey "tide" marks across banks and vegetation.
Whitebait had lost spawning grounds along river banks and larger fish were also affected.
"A number of fish use the bed of the river to lay their eggs on. They like finer-grained gravel, well-oxygenated. Now we've got beds completely covered with sand and silt it means there's no spawning habitat left, nowhere for them to lay their eggs, and oxygen levels are very low."
Insects, which sustained fish numbers and were a measure of how healthy a river was, had been "wiped out" by the silt, Harding said.
"They [insects] can come back, but it is going to take a very, very long time I think. There's going to be real problems unless something is done about this silt."
"The rivers could take decades to recover without human intervention. The bottom line is doing some serious silt removal."www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/5843613/Silt-chokes-Christchurch-rivers
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:11:05 GMT 10
Mini-glut leaves many whitebait freezers fullThe New Zealand Herald | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: There is a mini-glut of whitebait at Haast.A MINI-GLUT of whitebait catches around Haast has left some whitebaiters with more fish than freezer space.
Many freezers are already full, with three weeks to go to the end of the West Coast season.
Curly Tree Whitebait Company owner Tony Kerr said this year was shaping up to be better than previous seasons, and whitebaiters in South Westland were making the most of the good run.www.nzherald.co.nz/food/news/article.cfm?c_id=206&objectid=10761710
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:11:14 GMT 10
Haast whitebait glutBy TUI BROMLEY - The Greymouth Star | Thursday, 27 October 2011 BOUNTIFUL TIMES: There is currently a glut of whitebait at Haast in South Westland.SOUTH WESTLAND whitebaiters who were last year bemoaning the worst season in living memory, are hauling in such bountiful catches this season that one buyer stopped buying fresh bait for 10 days.
Curly Tree Whitebaiting co-owner Moana Kerr, based at the Waita River just north of Haast, said heavy rain had put a halt to things over the past couple of days but hopes were high that the swollen rivers would clear today to coincide with the new moon and again bring bumper catches.
With the freezers full, they stopped buying bait for a while but had now resumed. Catches had been especially plentiful on the Haast River.
Haast policeman, constable Rob Manera said the river was a hive of activity yesterday as whitebaiters rebuilt stands damaged by the recent flooding. He also expected the good catches to resume today.
“The Haast has been fishing pretty well, but I think it’s fair to say that all South Westland rivers have been doing just about as good.”
A little further south at Hannahs Clearing, the Cascade Whitebait Company’s Cessna 185 has been flying bait out from the Cascade River every second day since the season started on September 01.
Owner Neville Cain credited the absence of the north-westerly storms that blighted 2010, for the good catches this season.
It has been rumoured that whitebait was selling for as little at $30 a kilo (about $15 a pound) around Haast, but Mr Cain said that despite the glut, whitebait still commanded a good price on the riverbank.
His company could not drop the price much because of the high cost of transport, storage and packaging. Cascade Whitebait supplied customers throughout New Zealand, and as far as Australia, all year round.
Veteran fisherman Wallace Adamson said the Karangarua River had provided “two or three good hits”, but he thought the best was yet to come.
“The season has been steady, certainly better than last year. Any time you go down you will catch whitebait. I went down this morning for a look after that flood and the signs were promising, the bait were already coming up so I’m expecting a good finish to the season.”
Meanwhile, the bumper catches this season have not been enough to lure 91-year-old Betty Eggeling back to the Turnbull River, at Haast. Mrs Eggeling fished all last season but after 70 years on the riverbank she said she had decided to call time on her whitebaiting career.www.greystar.co.nz/content/haast-whitebait-glut
The simple joys of whitebaitingBy SIMON BLOOMBERG - The Nelson Mail | Thursday, 27 October 2011 ALL QUIET: Wayne Robinson of Mapua whitebaiting on the lower reaches of the Waimea River
near Rabbit Island last week. — SIMON BLOOMBERG/The Nelson Mail.THE WHITEBAIT may not have been running in the Waimea River last week but Mapua's Wayne Robinson reckons spending a few days trying to catch the elusive galaxids was better than working for a living.
The retired joiner has only netted "about three cups" of whitebait since the season opened but he is still a happy man.
"It's only my second season whitebaiting and I'm really enjoying it," Wayne said.
"I'm not having much luck but it's better than working. There's no dust and noise out here."
Wayne also plays golf at the nearby Greenacres Club.
"I'll walk along by the creek and people think I'm looking for golf balls but I'm looking for whitebait."
Department of Conservation Motueka office area compliance officer Dirk de Vries said whitebait runs were notoriously fickle.
"Last year was exceptional, this year may not be."
Most whitebaiters were sticking by the rules but the main issues were set nets blocking more than one third of a waterway and people fishing within 20 metres of a culvert.
"Whitebaiters have to adjust their nets with the tides to make sure they always leave two-thirds of the water way clear," he said.
Guyton's Fisheries general manager Andy Leonard said plenty of South Westland whitebait caught in Cascade Bay and flown and couriered to Nelson was being sold at $120 a kilo.
"It's fresh, clean, consistent and really nice," said Andy. The season closes on November 30.www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/communities/5863952/The-simple-joys-of-whitebaiting
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:11:26 GMT 10
Is whitebait overrated?THE OMNIVOREBy JEREMY TAYLOR - Stuff Lifestyle Blogs | Wednesday, 02 November 2011HONEST TO GOD, if I hear the story about how the much maligned Stephen Donald was yanked from the banks of the Waikato River, where he was whitebaiting, to take his place in the All Blacks squad as Colin Slade's replacement, and, ultimately kick the Cup-winning penalty, I think I will scream.
It's a classic "rags to riches", "fickle wheel of fortune" sort of tale, and I think the "whitebaiting" part of the equation only serves to emphasise the very "New Zealand-ness" of it all, how we see ourselves as a nation of "little battlers". It makes us feel good, because it is analogous to our struggle; to be noticed, to be heard above the rabble. What is curious, really, is how the act itself of whitebaiting is an earthy, grass roots sort of pursuit, whereas the act of eating whitebait has become a distinctly highbrow one.
For starters — it is gobsmackingly expensive. One hundred grams just cost me $15 — I usually eat it only about once a year as a consequence. The second thing I am now wondering is - is it actually ridiculously overrated, even compared to other expensive fish and seafood?
Take oysters, for instance. Once a year, I get myself a punnet of a dozen fresh Bluff oysters and go nuts. I have them with a variety of seasonings — lime and black pepper, Huffman's hot sauce, a little aged balsamic vinegar — sometimes I even crumb and fry a few. They are expensive, sure, but they are also utterly luxurious, and they never disappoint.
So, I am writing this, having purchased said whitebait delicacy, but before cooking them. Nerves? Am I... choking?!
With expensive kit like this, there is no room for error. I consult the oracle — Al Brown's Go Fish. It is an excellent book — the recipes are straightforward, and totally geared toward showing off the quality of the seafood, rather than suggesting fancy techniques and complicated, long-winded methods. He moots, as I had hoped, a very simple recipe for whitebait fritters: drain the whitebait, and add a tablespoon of flour, one egg, plus one yolk. Easy.
I have also roasted some delicious, fresh seasonal asparagus, and boiled some tiny Agria potatoes. This should be good — shouldn't it?  LEFT: Whitebait fritters with asparagus and potatoes. | RIGHT: Apple, raddish and cucumber salad.FIRST, I make a salad, a little appetiser, or palate-cleanser, if you will — mandolin-slices of apple, radish and cucumber, in a light limey dressing, with some crumbled feta and torn mint leaves. It looks pretty; it tastes — like summer on a plate. I am stalling — I am concerned that I will be underwhelmed by my expensive whitebait.
I finish boiling the tiny taters, drain them, add olive oil, chopped mint and salt and pepper and give them a quick blast over the heat. The asparagus is perfectly roasted — still holding together, but with a pleasing daub of colour. I fry the whitebait fritters in vegetable oil in a pan on a medium heat, three little fritters each, until they are lightly coloured and look and feel cooked.
I warm the plates, lay the potatoes on the base, gently lift the fritters on top, drape the roasted asparagus over the top, add a grind of black pepper, a little more chopped mint, a splash of olive oil and a couple of wedges of lime.
The moment of truth. The seasonal veges taste fresh and, well, of themselves. And the whitebait fritters are light and crispy, with the batter having well and truly insulated the delicate little fish against the heat of the pan. The squeeze of lime juice really complements the whitebait's subtly fishy flavour.
Is it overrated? No, thankfully, I don't think so. A little has just gone a fair way, and it has had the desired effect of seeming luxurious. I think that the key to such top-drawer ingredients is to eat them rarely, to use them efficiently, and to serve them with other seasonal ingredients that reinforce their "special-ness", and celebrate the narrow window of time that whitebait is available for.
Do you like whitebait? How do you prepare it? Do you think it is overrated? What's the best you've ever had.• Join The Omnivore on Facebook.www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/the-omnivore/5884328/Is-whitebait-overrated
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:11:38 GMT 10
$1600 fine for whitebaiting offencesMedia Release - Department of Conservation | Thursday, 10 November 2011A NELSON MAN has been fined $1600 for eight whitebaiting offences committed all at once.
Ben Heinrich Jurgensen, 41, was fined $200 on each of eight charges of breaching the Whitebait Fishing Regulations 1994 to which he pleaded guilty.
He was also ordered by the Nelson District Court to pay court costs of $132.89.
Department of Conservation Golden Bay Area Manager John Mason said two DOC rangers found Jurgensen whitebaiting on Golden Bay's Aorere River on 05 November last year with three nets, when only one is allowed, two of which were oversized.
"One sock net had a mouth perimeter of 14.4 metres, more than three times the permitted size of 4.5 metres. Another had a mouth perimeter of 11.4 metres."
"Also, one of the nets covered the entire 4.2-metre width of a tributary stream when nets must cover no more than one-third of waterways."
"Jurgensen told the rangers he couldn't claim ignorance as he had with him a tide table book that contained the regulations."
"The Whitebait Fishing Regulations are in place to enable sufficient whitebait to make it upstream to sustain populations of these native fish and the fishery."
"Breaking the rules to try to catch more whitebait is not playing fair. It gives whitebait less chance to escape the nets and it can disadvantage other whitebaiters fishing further up waterways."
"Jurgensen's actions were reported to us by a concerned member of the public and we are very grateful for the call. We encourage others who see people breaching the whitebaiting regulations to let us know by calling our emergency number 0800 DOCHOT/0800 36 24 68."
The charges Jurgensen was convicted of were:- One charge of using more than one whitebait net at a time.
- Two charges of setting whitebait nets with a mouth in excess of 4.5 metres.
- Two charges of fishing for whitebait within 20 metres of a confluence.
- One charge of not remaining within 10 metres of a whitebait net.
- One charge of using fishing gear that exceeded more than one-third of the width of the waterway.
- One charge of setting a whitebait net with an overall length exceeding 3.5 metres (the net was 5 metres long).
www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/media-releases/1600-fine-for-whitebaiting-offences
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:11:51 GMT 10
Tide’s out on 2011 seasonThe Greymouth Star | Monday, 14 November 2011 LAST CHANCE: The end of the West Coast 2011 whitebaiting season.BRIAN CORNISH was among whitebaiters lining the Grey River at Blaketown this morning, hoping that the last rising tide of the 2011 season will bring a late run.
However, with about two hours to go to the top of the tide when this photograph was taken, the day had brought slim pickings.
It was a similar situation in South Westland, where rivers that had supplied bountiful catches for most of the season were this morning almost barren of 'bait.
DOC Haast spokesman Carl Baker said some loyal fishermen remained on the river today but most of the visitors had packed up and left, despite an exceptional season which at one stage forced a whitebait buyer to shut up shop for 10 days because the freezers were full of 'bait.
“I went for a patrol yesterday and it was noticeable that a number of people had already gone home.”
Mr Baker said compliance with the regulations had been good so far, but rangers would be patrolling the rivers for the rest of the week in case people were tempted to try a bit of post-season fishing.
“We have a roster and will be keeping an eye on that situation.”
Generally rivers throughout the West Coast have, at some stage, yielded bumper catches, making the past season markedly better than 2010, which was only saved from obscurity by some large hauls very late in the piece.www.greystar.co.nz/content/tide%E2%80%99s-out-2011-season
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:12:02 GMT 10
Book whisked up from whitebait nightBy JOHN MASLIN - Wanganui Chronicle | Wednesday, 23 November 2011 GREAT CATCH: Lesley Stead, owner of Paige's
Book Gallery (left) and Jigsaw Whanganui
fundraiser Jonette Hiroti, sneak a look at
the book. — Photo: BEVAN CONLEY.THEY COOKED UP A STORM for a good local cause and now the fruits of their labours have been reproduced in book form just in time for Christmas.
The Great Whanganui Whitebait Cook-Off book will go on sale today and features 14 recipes created on the night of the great cook-off in August.
The event was a fundraiser for Jigsaw Whanganui and involved two-person teams whisking up their best recipes using 250g of whitebait and anything else that they thought would make for their individual taste sensations.
Some of the ingredients were memorable, running from pikopiko fronds to huhu grubs. And the titles for these creative dishes was just as wide ranging, from whitebait roulade to whitebait dim sim and dipping sauces.
Tim Metcalfe, executive director of Jigsaw Whanganui, said the book would sell for $15 and an initial print of run of 300 copies had come off the H&A Print presses.
"We were truly overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and creativity those teams showed on the night," Mr Metcalfe said.
"It was after that that we decided the recipes were too good to ignore so we have put them in book form."
He said a reprint would be necessary because he was optimistic the first batch would sell out very soon after going on sale.
The book is on sale at Paige's Book Gallery in Guyton Street; The Edge Beauty Studio, 49 Victoria Avenue; Wanganui Veterinary Services, 35 Somme Parade; and Jigsaw Whanganui's office, Suite 10, 236 Victoria Avenue.www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/book-whisked-up-from-whitebait-night/1183417
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:12:24 GMT 10
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:12:47 GMT 10
Camaraderie and lots of liesMarlborough Saturday Express | Saturday, 27 November 2011 READY: Norm Gilmore is one of the regulars at the Wairau
Bar river mouth during the whitebaiting season.
— SCOTT HAMMOND/The Marlborough Express.CAMARADERIE and lots of lies: those are two of the whitebaiting attractions that entice Norm Gilmore to return to the river each season.
The season ends on Wednesday and has been "terrible", says Norm.
But later he recounts taking his Queensland nephew, Col Gilmore, whitebaiting this month and they each caught about 500 grams of whitebait. The next day the younger man went back to the river and caught another 500g.
Norm might be embellishing the truth. Comradeship and telling tall stories are two of the things he likes most about whitebaiting.
"We tell a few lies to each other ... some days jokers say they have got a gallon (4.5 litres) and [all] they have is about 10 whitebait."
The 87-year-old says he was in Ward when he first waded into the waterways with a whitebaiting net. Formerly from Seddon, he had started working for the Awatere County Council and the Flaxbourne River was a popular recreation spot.
"We used to get good catches down there years ago. And the ladies used to go out.
"They would drop the kids off at school, go down to the river, then come away at 2.45pm to pick them up again."
Norm's wife, Ruby, was one of those whitebaiting ladies but she gave her net to a niece when the couple moved to Blenheim.
These days the Wairau Bar is Norm's fishing spot and he always heads to the river mouth. There, he and other men who make that their regular possie, take it in turn to walk their nets through the incoming currents. The best time is between low and half-high tide, he explains.
"You start with the current going out and the river pushes the whitebait to the edges under the banks — in theory, anyway."
"Blind-dipping" is how whitebait are caught at the river mouth, where the moving water makes it impossible to see whether whitebait are present or not.
Asked if there is any hostility among whitebaiters when one takes another's favourite spot, Norm says there is the occasional spoiler and the police will respond to any complaints.
"But they never come near us, we are the old fellas."
Old fellas take their catches home to cook up or give away, he says.
"The people who look after us during the year, I make sure they get a feed. I only want three or four good feeds a year and I'm happy."
Other whitebaiters sell their catches and those on the West Coast habitually do so.
"It's a different story over there," Norm says, with Coasters typically working from their own little riverside wharves.
"Where I fish, once we get a feed, we are happy. And we stick to our own backyard, we don't shift around."
Asked what he does if a newcomer arrives on his spot, he says he doesn't mind and he especially likes encouraging young people to try whitebaiting.
Wetsuits should be worn under other clothes for emergency flotation, he advises.
"Now and again there's a rogue wave and then you go under."______________________________________ WHITEBAITING REGULATIONS- The whitebait season is open between August 15 and November 30 (inclusive) in all areas of New Zealand except the West Coast of the South Island and the Chatham Islands.
- Whitebaiting is permitted only between 5am and 8pm, or during New Zealand Daylight Saving hours, between 6am and 9pm.
- Whitebait nets must have a 4.5 metre or narrower mouth with framing material no wider than 120 millimetres.
- Drag nets must be shorter than 1m in height and be flat when laid on a flat surface.
- Neither whitebait nets nor dragnets can be more than 3.5m in length.
- Fishing gear must not exceed more than one-third of the water channel's width and must not be used in conjunction with another person's gear to exceed more than one-third of the channel width.
- No person shall set or use more than one whitebait net at a time.
- He or she must remain within 10m of the net.
- Fishing gear must be removed from the water at the end of fishing or the end of the day.
- Unlawfully-taken fish must be immediately returned to the water.
- No person shall discard or dump on shore any fish taken when fishing for whitebait.
- Fishing for whitebait is prohibited within 20m of a tide gate, floodgate, confluence or culvert.
- No one can fish from a bridge or vessel.
- Whitebaiters must not interfere with, alter or modify the natural bed or banks of any river, stream, estuary or channel.
— Department of Conservation.www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/community-papers/6027431/Camaraderie-and-lots-of-lies
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:12:58 GMT 10
Haast seeks special whitebait statusBy MIKE CREAN - The Press | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 RECORD BID: South Westland pub manager Simon Jackson
in the giant whitebait frying pan. — MIKE CREAN/The Press.RAIN beating on the roof sounds the death knell for a million whitebait.
It wakes me in my Haast pub bed. When the din subsides, I haul my clothes on, jump in the car and dash to the Okuru River for a glimpse of that rare species, the whitebaiter.
It is barely dawn but the silhouettes of whitebaiters on their stands, staring into the river for a sight of the tiny fish, stand out against a lightening sky. I stumble through dripping bush to talk to three old stagers from the river bank.
This has been the best West Coast season — it ended on November 14 — for years, they say. Rich reward for driving from South Canterbury and Southland and setting up camp at a local caravan park. Well worth rising before six to catch the tide.
So I step onto the long metal stand that protrudes 10 metres out over the river, and stare into the water. And here they come, a shoal of the beauties, flicking their slender bodies upstream, till they meet the net. There they stop and seem to hold a conference about what to do next. They turn and swim back a short distance. But primordial instinct sinks in and they turn upstream again, answering the call of the spawning grounds — straight into the net.
This shoal will go down as another catch. Another breakfast for the chaps hauling in the net.
Later, the contented whitebaiters will gather with their mates to spin fishy yarns at the "long table" in the bar of the Haast pub.
What they call the Haast pub is the Heartland World Heritage Hotel, so named to celebrate the World Heritage status of the South Westland-Fiordland region.
The "long table" comprises four bar tables pushed together in the large public bar, where a log fire blazes and windows frame views of wetland plains, mountain and bush wilderness.
Hotel manager Simon Jackson says whitebaiters have insisted on this spot in the bar for many years. He has been here only a year, but his predecessor advised him the whitebaiters would demand it.
Jackson is happy with that. If the long table brings such a cheerful bunch of fellows in every evening of the two-month whitebaiting season, he will gladly provide it.
Hundreds of regulars descend every September on the rivers that spill into the sea by Haast. Many stay until the season closes in November. They come from all over the South Island. To them, whitebaiting is more than a hobby, more than a hunting-and-gathering exercise to feed hungry bellies, or a reunion with old mates. It is a traditional religious ritual.
Their reverent devotion to the great god Whitebait has given Jackson an idea. Let's launch Haast as the whitebait capital of the world, he says.
Haast needs something like this, he adds. Streams of traffic pass on the Haast Highway each day. Few people stop and most of those that do take a quick look around and move on. Jackson wants a way to hold people here, for a night, two nights, or more.
There are plenty of adventure activities, but Haast needs something different. Which is where whitebait swim into his ken. Haast has always been famous for whitebait. The Nolan family made an industry of it early last century, canning the delicacy and flying it out to the nation's markets.
A decade ago, Haast tried to get its name in the Guinness Book of Records for cooking the world's biggest whitebait pattie. Jackson guides me to an overgrown bank behind the hotel and there, in the sodden grass, lies a huge, round, steel dish. It is nearly five metres in diameter, with a five-centimetre rim around it. This is the frying pan that was used in the record attempt.
Members of the community brought whitebait for the pattie. Jackson says the amount used would have been worth $10,000 then. They propped the pan up and assembled gas burners under it. They lit the burners, heated the pan and poured the whitebait mix in.
Did it work? Sadly, no. The wind kept blowing the flames out. The pan could not be heated evenly, so the pattie did not cook properly. The attempt was abandoned. Jackson is not sure what became of the pattie — perhaps it was broken up and fed to the dogs.
The Haast community held a whitebait ball last month. Locals and visitors alike attended in their roughest whitebait clothes at the Okuru Hall. Jackson hopes the ball will become an annual event. It should be a regular part of the celebrations for the whitebait capital of the world, he says.• Mike Crean was a guest at Heartland World Heritage Hotel, Haast.www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/lifestyle/travel/6051142/Haast-seeks-special-whitebait-status
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:13:06 GMT 10
What a beauty it's been on the riverWhitebait flows freely for fishermanBy SCOT MACKAY - The Southland Times | Tuesday, 30 November 2011 ALMOST OVER: Whitebaiters Bill Craig, left, and Noel Hartstonge, both of Gore, put out a net on
the Mataura River yesterday for the second to last day of the season. — ROBYN EDIE/Fairfax NZ.THE WHITEBAIT SEASON in Southland officially ends today with fishermen boasting it was the best season for 20 years.
Southland Recreational Whitebaiters Association president Brett Pearce said it had been a record season with whitebaiters reporting good catch rates throughout the region.
"It is going to be hard to match up another season with this one — there has been nothing like it — the Mataura (River) was the best in 20 years," he said.
He had spoken to people who had taken away full buckets each time, but no-one knew why it was so good, he said.
The rivers had been high and dirty for part of the season, which usually meant the whitebait were not running, but that was not the case this season, he said.
"It went against all the theories this year."
While most whitebaiters on the Mataura and Titiroa rivers had packed up for the season yesterday, those who remained agreed they had not seen a similar season in many years.
Most people did not want to say how much they had caught for fear of someone else fishing near their spot, but 70-year veteran Bill Craig said he was happy with the season after spending about 20 days at the Mataura.
While he did not catch as much as people closer to the mouth of the river, he did get one haul of about 2.5 kilograms, Mr Craig said.
Meanwhile, three people are being prosecuted for illegal whitebaiting after being caught with nets longer than the permitted six metres at the Mataura River. They face a maximum fine of $5000.www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/6058620/What-a-beauty-its-been-on-the-river
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:13:18 GMT 10
Whitebaiters revel in bountiful seasonThe Timaru Herald | Thursday, 01 December 2011 TOP 'BAIT SEASON: The last tide of the last day of
a “boomer” whitebait season at Smithfield beach.WHITEBAITERS at the Smithfield beach, north of Timaru fished the last tide yesterday afternoon as the whitebait season came to a close.
The season which began in mid-August has been one of the best for years with whitebaiters at Smithfield, the Opihi River and Waihao River all getting good catches.www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/6066006/Whitebaiters-revel-in-bountiful-season
Boom ends Wairarapa whitebait runBy GERALD FORD - Wairarapa Times-Age | Thursday, 01 December 2011 PACKING THEM IN: Diane Laing puts away her nets
for another year after a top whitebait season.
— LYNDA FERINGA/Wairarapa Times-Age.RECORD whitebait catches of up to 45kg were being recounted as a bumper season in Wairarapa drew to a close yesterday.
Tony Roseingrave, owner of outdoors store King and Henry, said fishermen had reported high catches this year, especially in October.
"I've heard of a couple of 40lb and 60lb [18kg and 27kg] stories," Mr Roseingrave said.
"The best I've heard is 100lb [45kg]."
Mr Roseingrave admitted you can never quite be sure with second-hand fishing stories, but he had checked out the 45kg story for himself.
"He said he didn't think it was that much, but it was a lot," Mr Roseingrave said.
That particularly high catch had not been weighed, but the season as a whole had been productive.
"Overall, I'd say it's been a good season, with some quite spectacular catches," he said.
The season began on August 15 with some big seas and was a bit slow to start off, Mr Roseingrave said, but it picked up in late September and October.
Masterton whitebaiter Paul Greenlees said he had made a couple of whitebaiting excursions to Western Lake.
Both trips had been productive, but one was especially so.
"We had 24lb on Saturday and 16lb on the Sunday, so 40lb [27kg] in total. It was one of our best catches ever," Mr Greenlees said.
"I heard of a 60lb in one day, but they must have been just lucky."
Veteran whitebaiter Diane Laing said she had not been out as often as usual this year, but they had clearly been running.
"I've had a few nice days, had a few meals and given some away," Mrs Laing said.
"I like to give some away to older people who can't go out themselves."
Mrs Laing said the best catches had been in the middle of the season and success sometimes depended on whether the mouth of the lake was open or not, whether the spillway gates were open. "I have heard people are getting some nice catches," she said.www.times-age.co.nz/news/boom-whitebait-run-ends/1193711
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:13:34 GMT 10
Marmite shortage hurts biologistsBy ANNABELLE TUKIA - TV3 News | Saturday, 24 March 2012 FISH LURE: The marmite shortage has a group
of biologists worried.A GROUP of Christchurch biologists say they have more reason than most to be panicked by the marmite shortage gripping the country.
That is because the Sanitarium-produced spread plays an important role in their whitebait research and they have learnt the hard way, that vegemite does not work.
Copious amounts of black gold are being spread onto whitebait traps and tossed into the Heathcote River, which in the midst of a marmite shortage seems a little foolhardy, but for these Canterbury University biologists there is method in their madness.
“It’s pretty aromatic, it’s got a good strong smell [and] once it gets into the water it starts dissolving away,” says biologist Mike Hickford. “I imagine it’s got a pretty strong taste in the water for fish.”
Mr Hickford is researching whitebait spawning patterns in Christchurch's waterways and to do this he needs to catch them and tag them.
He says the humble household spread is an effective tool to do just that.
“This is the substance of choice to pit into traps — fish seem to like it, they’re drawn to it. It dissolves slowly in the water and sort of wisps out and the fish are drawn to it just like a magnet,” says Mr Hickford.
And Mr Hickford says unlike some humans, whitebait can actually tell the difference between marmite and vegemite.
“We’ve tried vegemite and it just doesn’t work as well. It’s interesting, this is a species that occurs in Australia as well, so maybe you have to give vegemite to the Australian populations but certainly for the New Zealand ones it’s only marmite,” he says.
So not surprisingly news of a marmite shortage hitting the country earlier this week was met with panic by Mr Hickford and his team.
“We had so many problems trying to track it down — we had dairy owners laughing at us when we asked if we could have some because they’d sold out before,” says team member Jenny Schiel."
Luckily though, a local supermarket stepped in and the team have enough marmite to last them until July — a stockpile that is sure to make many a marmite lover just a little jealous.www.3news.co.nz/Marmite-shortage-hurts-biologists/tabid/1160/articleID/247938/Default.aspx
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:13:45 GMT 10
Whitebait Creek ParticipationCommunity participation invited as part
of restoration work on Whitebait Creek.News Release - NZ Landcare Trust | Monday, 02 April 2012 Dune Lake and Whitebait Creek.AS PART OF the work to increase the overall health of the Manawatu River, a group of organisations including NZ Landcare Trust, Horizons Regional Council and the Manawatu Estuary Trust have been busy engaging with landowners, iwi and community groups to identify community support for a project to improve native fish populations along Whitebait Creek, which flows through the township of Foxton Beach.
Horizons Regional Council have provided $30,000 of initial funding for this project in their last annual plan. NZ Landcare Trust is applying for additional funding to extend the reach of the project, further up the Whitebait Creek catchment.
“Whitebait Creek has stood out for its potential for a project like this, as it has been prized by locals for generations for its migrating whitebait” explains Alastair Cole, the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Coordinator from NZ Landcare Trust. “Unfortunately, this whitebait population is under threat regionally and locally due to habitat loss, overfishing of whitebait, illegal white baiting practices and degrading water quality. This project will address some of these issues.”
The Whitebait Creek catchment is made up of approximately 2000 hectares of pastoral farming and forestry and is located to the immediate north of Foxton Beach township. Its furthest tributary extends approximately 10.5 kilometres from the RAMSAR notified Manawatu Estuary, with the catchment area being a network of naturalised drains plus 5 large dune lakes and bordering wetlands which have an area in excess of 41 hectares.
The first work on this project is to begin during the week beginning on the 23rd April 2012, with overseas volunteers working with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand undertaking some site preparation work on land alongside the creek within Foxton Beach township.- If you would like further information on the project or are interested in becoming involved in the
project, please contact Alastair Cole from NZ Landcare Trust at the Manawatu/Whanganui office
on 0800 526 322 or email .
www.landcare.org.nz/News-Features/News/Whitebait-Creek-Participation
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2012 19:13:58 GMT 10
Whitebaiters fined for ignoring rulesThe Rotorua Daily Post | Wednesday, 04 April 2012 BUSTED: Five whitebaiters have been fined after
they were caught flouting regulations by illegally
fishing within 20m of a canal or floodgates.FIVE whitebaiters have been fined after they were caught flouting regulations by illegally fishing within 20m of a canal or floodgates.
Travis Tane, 22, Tawhai Te Ariki, 20, Aiden Ohlson, 22, Peter Ford, 18, and Tawhai Tarau, 24, all from Whakatane, pleaded guilty to illegally fishing within 20m of either the Awatapu or Orini Canal floodgates. The group appeared in the Whakatane District Court.
Gisborne/Whakatane Department of Conservation area manager Andy Bassett said the department would prosecute people who flaunted the rules.
The floodgates had numerous signs informing the public whitebaiting was not permitted within 20m of the structure.
"Meaning there is no excuse for ignoring the rules," he said.
All six were fined $1000 with $132 court costs plus forfeiture of their nets.
A sixth man, Mark Hohua, 37 , of Whakatane, was fined $200 with $132 court costs and forfeiture of his net for fishing outside the permitted 5am to 8pm whitebait fishing hours. Hohua was arrested for whitebaiting after midnight from the Whakatane boat ramp.
"We have informed the public of the regulations with yearly media campaigns and on-site signage, this leaves us no alternative but to prosecute those who have scant disregard for the sustainability of the whitebait fishery," Mr Bassett said. "With the ongoing efforts of DoC compliance staff, assisted by the police, the outcome from the court was a pertinent reminder to those who illegally whitebait fish that it could end up being a costly exercise."www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz/news/whitebaiters-fined-for-ignoring-rules/1329723
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