'Never seen it on such a scale': Spat harvesters on Ninety Mile Beach concern locals

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

A video of heavy duty vehicles collecting mussel spat on 90 mile beach has fired up locals and is making waves on social media.

Northland locals are worried about heavy equipment being used to collect mussel spats on Ninety Mile Beach, but they are completely legal.

Rawhiti Waiti, from Ahipara, has been trying to find out what exactly the regulations are for the collectors.

'I'd never seen it on such a scale, it makes us wonder what's happening further up the beach where we're not so local to it,' he said in the clip shared on his Facebook page.

Spat are mussel larvae that attach to seaweed. Most of the industry's supply is sourced from Ninety Mile Beach.

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Northland locals were concerned by the volume of spat collectors operating on Ninety Mile Beach, but the works were completely legal.

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His video showed front end loaders 'pumping through the waves', as he put it, and trucks on the beach collecting the spat.

'This is the worst I've seen it though. It's just trucks, trucks, trucks galore,' he said.

But Dan Bolger, the head of Fisheries New Zealand, told Te Ao in a statement the trucks were 'licensed commercial fishers operating under the Quota Management System'.

'The activity they're engaged in is lawful.'

'Our Fishery Officers are monitoring spat collection activities to ensure they are being undertaken legally,' Te Ao reported.

The Quota Management System (QMS) was developed to enforce sustainable fishing practices. Financial penalties would be enforced for commercial fishers that caught more than the legal limit, according to the Fishers New Zealand website.

The Ministry for Primary Industries confirmed to Te Ao the current spat to seaweed ratio was limited to 720 tonnes.

Waiti admitted in the clip he didn't know much about what was going on, but said 'it can't be good for the environment and I know it's not good for us'.

He accused the collectors of 'stealing all our spat, making big money off it, and we don't see any of it down here'.

'I don't know if any of our iwi .. see any benefit from this,' Waiti said.

Bolger explained the department had 'met with iwi representatives through the Te Hiku o te Ika Iwi Fisheries Forum to discuss this fishery and their concerns and will continue to discuss the issue'.

Waiti told Te Ao if the Ministry of Primary Industries didn't step in to stop such practices, locals would take it into their own hands.

'If they don't listen it might be setting up a blockade on the beach, stopping them coming into our territory especially,' Te Ao reported.