Crayfish company banks on bird expert for bulldozer clearance on beach
Tuesday, 16 January 2018
A fishing company fighting for survival on a quake-shifted seabed could get their boats back in the water if a bird expert agrees there is no risk of running over birds and their nests.
Burkhart Fisheries has been struggling to launch its boats since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake lifted the seabed and left the company's usual launch site out of action in 2016.
The commercial crayfishing company applied to form a 1.5-kilometre 'paper road' from Ward Beach to near the Chancet Rocks scientific reserve, but the Marlborough District Council turned down the resource consent application in August.
The company has appealed that decision. As a temporary solution, their fishing boats were dragged along the beach by bulldozers to the new launch site in December.
**READ MORE:
* Ward Beach bulldozers spark anger
* Cray fishers argue boat road plans a form of 'disaster relief'
* Battle of the beach on new launch site near Ward Beach
* Environmentalists and commercial fishers go head-to-head over launch site**
Forest and Bird called for the council to take action, saying the bulldozers could destroy the nests of threatened species, the banded dotterel and the variable oystercatcher.
Council biodiversity co-ordinator Mike Aviss told the Environment Court a bulldozer or trailer had caused permanent damage to the bedrock.
The machinery movements could have resulted in the loss of eggs or chicks, Aviss said.
Environment Judge Jon Jackson issued Burkhart Fisheries a cease and desist order just before Christmas.
They were to stop excavating natural materials, using vehicles to transport commercial fishing boats, and launching boats in the 'exclusion zone' between Ward Beach and Chancet Rocks.
But if council received and approved an ecological management plan that protected the banded dotterel, the order would be amended to allow the company to continue.
The birds made nests, laid eggs and nursed chicks on the beach between June and January.
Burkhart Fisheries managing director Dennis Burkhart said a bird expert was examining the beach on Tuesday to see if the breeding season had ended yet.
'If the birds have migrated, that gives everybody peace of mind.'
He pointed out that an increase in visitors after the Ward Beach boulders were discovered could disturb the birds as well.
The rounded boulders, similar to the famous Moeraki boulders, became visible after the earthquake lifted them out of the sea, and had become a tourist attraction.
“Some of those visitors may choose to [visit the boulders] on motorbikes or farm bikes, which are likely to go much faster than a bulldozer,” Burkhart said.
Once the company's ecological management plan was finalised, it would be presented to the council and reviewed by the council's in-house scientist.
If the plan was approved by the scientist, the council would then go back to the Environment Court so the order could be amended, allowing the company to continue using the beach to launch its boats.
But Burkhart warned that using the bulldozers on the beach was not enough to keep the company in the region without a more concrete solution.
“We still favour access across the paper road for which we sought resource consent last year and hope the new Government may be able to assist,” Burkhart said.
If a road to the new launching site could not be created, Burkhart Fisheries would consider moving its processing factory to a different region, he said.
Burkhart Fisheries was the single biggest employer in Ward, employing more than 40 people, mostly based in Ward.