Hooked Up 20

HOOKED

up ISSUE 20 2019

nzsportfishing.co.nz

New Zealand Sport Fishing Council is one of the longest serving incorporated organisations representing recreational anglers.

The NZSFC was formed around the IGFA fishing rules and ethics so that a consistent standard could be set when comparing catches. The NZSFC offers additional records classes for New Zealand records beyond what IGFA offer for juniors and small-fry anglers. We have refined some of the IGFA rules to make them more suitable for our contests.

Our New Zealand based IGFA representatives keep a close liaison between IGFA and (NZSFC) and have regular input into issues that could affect New Zealand anglers. We have promoted valuable marine research that is internationally respected. This includes the game fish tagging programs for marlin, sharks, tuna and kingfish which now has a history of 17 years of information.

The Council created and continues to support the NZ Marine Research Foundation (NZMRF) for the primary purpose of conducting research on fish species benefiting our membership that could not, or will not be financed by government agencies.

Information from research carried out by the NZMRF has been very valuable when justifying our position in species management. All they have to do is remind themselves, that the majority of what the NZSFC does is for the benefit of individual members rather than equal benefits for each club.

More fish in the sea, better access, water quality, individual legal protection, record recognition, research, advocacy, fishing data collection and dissemination are all individual benefits of belonging to the NZSFC.

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CONTENTS 4 5 6 8 12 16 18 20 22

President's Report EDITOR

From the Office End of an Era

Helen Pastor CONTENT ENQUIRIES Helen Pastor 027 485 3600

Tauranga Club Three Marlin Solo

secretary@nzsportfishing.org.nz ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Dean Andrew 021 862 579

LegaSea Update Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club

sales@nzfishingnews.co.nz www.nzsportfishing.co.nz

Hiwi the Kiwi Fish Care

Cover Shots Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club Sam Yendell & Friends

End of an Era Auckland Sportfishing Club Albany Sportfishing Club

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT

WELCOME TO THE JUNE EDITION Despite Autumn being well and truly here, and winter just around the corner, there’s still a lot of fishing left to this season and the burning questions are, will the bluefin swing close again this year and will we see another marlin in July this year?

In April, we held a gathering of the board members and the retiring executive of the Auckland Sportfishing Club which officially wound up, after 58 years of operation.

The remaining executive wanted to divide up the remaining funds between Hauraki Gulf Sport Fishing Club, Clevedon Sportfishing Club, Warkworth Sportfishing Club, Whakatakataka Bay Sportfishing Club and the NZ Sportfishing Council. In recognition of their generous contributions, we put on an evening of celebration with the retiring club executive, the NZSFC board and representatives of the beneficiary clubs. It was a great night retelling stories and remembering names and contributions of those past and current personalities.

On a more positive note, congratulations go to the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club for running their 50th International Yellowtail Tournament, from the 9th to the 15th of June. It’s quite something to have a club let alone a tournament running for 50 years – here’s to the next 50!

It is the IGFA’s 80th anniversary on June 7th, and they plan to mark it with an inaugural world IGFA day.

The focus of this year’s world IGFA will be youth education and the IGFA’s objective to teach 100,000 kids to fish. The IGFA has distributed 20 ‘passports to fishing’ kits to 14 countries including two for New Zealand, to be used to execute fishing clinics around IGFA day. There will also be online learning modules available. Visit www.igfa.org for more details.

The replacement of the Nationals database is progressing steadily with two phases completed by the time you read this. We have completed a thorough deconstruction of the existing database and gained an understanding of how it works and what parts haven’t been working as they should have. At the time of writing, we are going through 28 pages of requirements for the database to make sure it’s going to do everything it’s supposed to.

We have been promoting the 2020 Nationals through Bluewater magazine and this year’s IGFA book will also carry a full-page advertisement. We’re hoping to bring the Nationals back to being the international tournament that it used to be. We believe that achieving this will be good for both us and NZ tourism.

Unfortunately, we’ve made little progress on the Junior and Youth Fishing initiative. However, it has been great to see the number of successful junior comps being run by clubs. A number of clubs have some great initiatives in place for getting funding to send juniors on charter trips and to other club’s tournaments. It was also great to see some of the tackle OEMs promoting junior fishing at this month’s Hutchwilco NZ Boat Show. Our challenge and opportunity will be to find a way of providing funding and resources to connect kids from the wider communities to our fishing clubs.

We have this year’s Conference, Training Seminar and AGM now fully confirmed for September 20th and 21st.

You should have received all the information you need for registering and booking accommodation – please contact Helen if you haven’t. You’ll notice the name of the event has changed a bit for this year. We are looking to build on the conference theme with a wider range of guest speakers and subjects as well as workshop-style breakout sessions to cover the finer points of subjects such as fishing rules, weigh master booklets etc. As it is a training seminar, some funding bodies will contribute to funding your club’s attendance.

Sport NZ funding application is still progressing albeit it slowly due to Sport NZ slipping their timeline.

Applications were to be due by May/June this year but as at the time of writing Sport NZ have advised that they‘re running behind schedule and have not confirmed the new timeline.

Bob Gutsell

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PRESIDENT

FROM THE OFFICE Since my last report in Hooked Up things have been very busy in the office.

The Nationals tournament is all wrapped up and most of you will have received the certificates and plaques you achieved during the competition. If you have a trophy from last year that needs to be passed on to the winning club, just contact the club concerned to liaise with them with regard to the delivery of the cup – please do so as soon as possible. Organising the certificates and plaques is quite a laborious process as the software does not list the prizes per club easily, but next year with our new software, I am hopeful that this will be a much easier and faster process. I have been receiving a few emails with regard to the dates for next year. I have posted them on the webpage but just in case you missed it the dates are the 22nd to the 29th of February 2020, so book your leave now!

With regard to the Nationals software, as Bob has mentioned in his report, we have been working on the development of the programme and had a couple of big days going through what our requirements are with regard to the software and database, so that information will be correct and much easier to access going forward. This is quite a process; it was not until we started drilling down into exactly what the old programme does and how it works that it became apparent that a few of the stages of the old programme were not working and we have the opportunity to make the software much more user-friendly. As I am the only one who uses the programme on a regular basis it was very exciting for me to have input in the new development.

Watch this space and hopefully, we will have a preview to show you all at the AGM. This year’s conference, Training Seminar and Annual General Meeting are set down for the 20th and 21st of September, at the Mana Cruising Club on the Kapiti Coast in Wellington. I have sent out registration forms and information with regard to the accommodation in the area.

The Mana Cruising Club has a few motels nearby and there are a lot more within 5-6km of the clubrooms. As I write this report, I have been advised that the Marina Motel, a motel that was closed for refurbishment and within walking distance of Mana Club, has now been finished and has 26 rooms available for bookings. Therefore, I suggest you get your accommodation booked as soon as you can. Please make sure when you complete your registration forms, that you include your flight arrival times in Wellington, as the Club is about half an hour away from the airport and the Club members are arranging pick up and drop offs for delegates attending. I know it sounds a long way away but please get your registrations to me as soon as you can so the club can start planning with regard to numbers.

We are, at present, sorting the partners’ programme as there are a number of great things to do and see around the Kapiti Coast. As soon as this is formalised, I will send the information to the clubs and delegates.

I was able to go to see a Hiwi the Kiwi show at Findlayson Park School in Weymouth, Auckland recently (feature later in this edition). It was great to see the fish care, sustainability and water safety messages getting out there to children in such a fun and engaging way.

Till next edition,

Helen Pastor 5  www.nzsportfishing.co.nz

d n e a r e n of a

B U L C G IN H IS F T R O P S GOODBYE TO ALBADNSYPORT FISHING CLUB AND AUCKLAN

who found s b lu c r u o f o o e had tw Sadly, this year w as a result, , d n a e u n ti n o c r o longe that they could n mberships. e m ir e th p u d n u have wo

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ey had come and that th d ha e tim e th at ed that the in November th Club advised us from the ASC stat g on in ls sh ho tfi ic or N r Sp te y Alban ort Fishing dissolved. Pe d New Zealand Sp to have the club ke on an si th ci d de an e ip th e sh ad m iend older, eat fishing and fr any were getting gr m of as s d, ar ye de ci 25 de d club has ha e committee t viable erefore it was no t and guidance. Th th or s, pp st su re r te ei in th r r he fo Council family and ot be shared around to ed ed ne e tim that d participant to carry on. ime supporter an -t ng lo a to e by ncil says good heart that the Cou It is with a heavy tireless support. ks them for their an inue. th d an l ci un t possible to cont of the co no as w it at th , but the cided this year ing Club also de Z Yacht Squadron sh N tfi al or oy R Sp e d th an kl ith The Auc association w d hard to form an ke or w d ha am te The hip dwindled. k, and members or w t s and voted to no d di an pl n of having fund tio si po e at un rt don fo Club was in the shing Club, Cleve g Fi in f sh ul G tfi or ki ra Sp au d H The Aucklan Club. kland Clubs: orth Sportfishing n four other Auc kw ee ar tw W d be an em b lu th C e distribut ort Fishing Bay Sportfishing tion, to the NZ Sp Whakatakataka da b, un lu Fo C h g rc in ea sh es tfi Spor aland Marine R ent to the New Ze w so al ns io at on D ncil itself. d one to the Cou Council AGM an

the clubs bers of each of em m re he w il d stories and the 12th of Apr ght filled with ol ni ght was held on t ni ea n io gr at a br as le w ce be It A they wished to e Council board. at th th ith es w hi g op on tr al e , m got together igby had so s who well and Ross D each of the club ck to la B em r te th d Pe te s. en memorie ubs and pres ut the council cl ho ug ro th ed ut distrib n. we know that received a donatio lub. As a Council, C il nc ou C ng di kland region. f to a longstan e clubs in the Auc fabulous send of a th of as w th it l, ow al gr in d ll A the continue ntinue lp greatly toward the funds will he I’m sure we will co t bu rs be em m s sad to lose pective, it is alway rs pe il’s nc ou C e r support.

From th benefit from thei d an rs be em m to hear from the Haere ra,

Helen Pastor

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OMOKOROA ITM BILLFISH 9 1 0 2 a Bonanz

TAURANGA SPORT FISHING CLUB It was fantastic this year to have what looked like a brand-new naming sponsor for this year’s Billfish Bonanza with Omokoroa ITM coming aboard. In fact, it’s the same Oregon ITM group that incorporates the Mount ITM that leant their support to last year’s event, so again we have been privileged to receive such wonderful backing for what is our last blue water event for the summer.

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TAURANGA SPORT FISHING CLUB

This year the forecast looked outstanding and although it didn’t live up to its promise, the weather didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the 139 anglers that turned up this year.

About 10 boats decided to take the starboard turn out of the entrance and make the long trip towards the eastern BOP, while the rest of the teams seemed to concentrate their efforts on the High Duty Plastics, Port of Tauranga and Tarpaulin Makers grids that had all been producing very large striped marlin prior to the tournament.

Thanks to Shimano NZ the prize stage was looking packed with a wide range of high-end Shimano rods and reels including five Talica 25 combos for the tag and release billfish prizes, again encouraging those on the water to be tagging their fish.

Over the three days, six striped marlin were tagged, with many more lost, and seven marlin weighed in at the Club. For a couple of anglers, this was their first marlin and a bucket-list moment! A special mention to Tony and Aidan Brown for realising the dream of a first marlin for Lee Lawson after 10 years on his boat Monaco!

The day one action really belonged to one angler, Karl Boielle off the trailer boat Happy Hour.

On the day, Karl couldn’t convince any of his mates to take a day off work and determined not to miss a day on the water, ended up fishing solo. By mid-morning across the radio came “Happy Hour hooked up”. Not long after the message that Karl had just tagged a striped marlin. We didn’t need to wait much longer before we heard “Happy Hour hooked up” again.

The result was another tagged striped marlin. In the last few hours of daylight, Karl was trolling home reflecting on a great day when “bang” a strike on the short corner, this time a blue marlin – what an amazing day!

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The winning fish this year came off the trailer boat Night Mair with Wilson Crocker being one of the first-time anglers, taking grand honours and ‘first place heaviest billfish’ with a mighty 250.4kg blue marlin. The team on Night Mair had spent the night before swordfishing all night and were a bit sleep deprived in the morning. It only took them five minutes of trolling before this big blue marlin helped them shake off the morning fuzz. A stubborn fish, the fight lasted almost four hours!

The next biggest fish was another special blue marlin weighing 233.9kg for Alana Duncan off the boat Riba. Alana’s fish had died during the fight and she spent a gruelling three-and-a-half hours getting the fish back to the surface in stand-up equipment – one heck of an effort that gained her the prize for heaviest fish for a lady angler and second heaviest billfish. In third place was Mikey Lee’s 181.3kg on board Fascination 2, a beautiful looking fish and a great way for the team to round of a very successful tournament season.

Some nice mahimahi were caught this year in the 11-12kg range, with the largest going to Louise Stewart off Ocean Monarch with a 12.26kg hen taken from the Stoney Creek grid.

Another incredible highlight for the tournament was the absolute beast of a shortbilled spearfish weighing 34.5kg on 24kg, by junior angler Ezra Keenan claiming first place in this shortbilled section. This fish is a pending Club, New Zealand and World Record!

Thanks to all our anglers, the lucky ones and not so lucky for fishing this wonderful event, also a big thank you to Omokoroa ITM, Hool Marine, Petroleum Logistics, Glass Art and NZ Bayfisher!

Roly Bagshaw MANAGER

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TAURANGA SPORT FISHING CLUB

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THE DAY OF THREE MARLIN, SOLO

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I had been eagerly awaiting the Omokoroa ITM Billfish Bonanza Tournament for a couple of weeks prior. Part of planning a trip is always making sure I have a good crew. As the comp grew closer it became clear that one of the three days would need to be a solo mission. I’ve been fishing for marlin off my boat for about five years now and was quite excited about having a crack on my own. As I look back, I had no idea of what was about to unravel.

Thursday night briefing came along. The weather looked great for the weekend, and as soon as the briefing was over I headed to Mayor island for a good sleep. Honeymoon Bay was the pick, and it was flat as. I must have been keen because the next morning I woke up early. 5:30 am to be precise, sunrise was not until seven. Plenty of time for a coffee, good breakfast.

I had been trolling live baits the previous two weekends and getting a bit sick of being sharked. I did spend a little time catching a couple of skippies for the tubes, however, as the sea state deteriorated the decision was made to put the lures out. I had a hunch where to go, following the SST charts helped. I went with my gut and hardly saw a boat all day.

Settling into the day, the lures were out and working mint. Another cup of coffee, some good tunes, great scenery and boom, off went the Talica 50. I had prepared for this – gaff, tag pole, and anything else I needed was close at hand. My mate Auto as I call him (Autopilot) had the boat heading nicely, and so the fight began. Apart from a bit of drama with the line around the trim tab, it was relatively plain sailing. The fish was a stripey, not too big, about 70kg. It took two shots to land the tag, and it was awesome to see him swim off strongly. No time for mucking around – lures out, gear tidied, carry on, head out wide. Taking time to reflect on what had just happened, I felt pretty stoked, she was shaping up to be a good day.

A couple of hours later, a number of miles away from the first Stripy, again, time to enjoy the ocean. What! The Talica 50 is screaming again. Disbelief followed, however, no time to waste, time to get stuck in. The gear was cleared, my mate Auto was behaving himself, and again, a short time later the tag was in, not so easy this time though, but tag in, none the least. After the clean-up, a bit of shock, and time to settle, I was done! Time to crack a cold one, turn up the tunes, and head back to Mayor, some 20 nautical miles back inshore. How little did I know what was to follow...

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A blue from the blue.

A beautiful afternoon was unfolding, a well-earned rest due. The sea was awesome, music was awesome, the last thing I was doing was paying attention to the lures. Fish on! My brain had to catch up for a second – there it was, a blue marlin fishtailing past the port window, an amazing sight, one I’ll never forget. I didn’t hear a thing, disbelief quickly followed on turning around to see line peeling out for the third time. This was different, there was no stopping this one. I was worried.

Ok, so perhaps I wasn’t as quick as usual at clearing gear, I own up to that, but to hit the mono backing as I’m picking up Mr Talica was scary. Managing to settle into the fight for a bit, my mate Auto was on task, and all was well. Line was steadily gained, however, not that easy, a short time later, we were at a and I didn’t know what to do. Still attached, it was time phone a friend. We had a bit of a chat, as I stood there, the spool slowly emptying. If anything, it was a good talk and I felt a bit better.

Time for a couple of calls on the radio and a bit of fresh perspective, 16kg of drag and low gear it was. After another hour of this, I was stuffed. It was clear the fish had died, now it was just about getting the fish aboard and calling it a day. Planing the fish was not an option, as who was going to drive the boat? It was decision time. Rod in the holder, I decided to see if I could use the rocking of the boat to slowly gain line. Knowing that this decision disqualified this fish from the comp made no difference at this point, the light was fading, I was still a long way offshore. Well, wouldn’t you know it, an hour or so later, the fish was next to the boat, unfortunately, I was right, this beautiful creature had died midway through the battle.

Using my anchor winch previously to boat big fish, I did not think getting him on board would be too difficult. That thought was short-lived when yet another problem emerged.

Due to some recent hatch modifications, it quickly became apparent that this was no longer going to work. Help! was my call out on the radio. Looking back this was perhaps a call I should have made earlier in the day. Nevertheless, it was Keith and Glen off Stars and Stripes, to the rescue. I can’t thank these guys enough. I swear Glen damn near pulled the fish into the boat himself – I don’t know what my problem was!

A two hour run back to the Mount was to follow, where Deryk from Tauranga Sports Fishing Club kindly greeted me to help put the fish in the chiller for weighing the next day.

It was well dark by now. I had a crew for tomorrow, so that was sorted, however, the boat was a mess, I was a mess, refuelling needed, and so the list went on. I think it was about 1:00 am when I finally settled into bed, on the boat, in the carpark, outside the club - I slept like a baby.

That’s definitely a day I’m never going to forget.

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LEGASEA UPDATE

BEST EVER BOAT SHOW “One of the best ever” is how Sam Woolford, LegaSea Project Leader, describes the recent Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show in Auckland.

Thanks to the generosity and support of show organisers LegaSea was at the 4-day event in May signing up new LegaSea Legends, acknowledging existing supporters, and spending time with our much-valued Partners.

“Given the level of support from across the board it’s really important for LegaSea to showcase our achievements over the past year and offer people a range of ways to get onboard with the message of more fish in the water and a healthy marine environment”, said Sam. The focus this year was signing up LegaSea Legends for a minimum of $20 per month and showcasing the range of Barkers X LegaSea gear. New Legends were given a free Barkers tee and cap in appreciation of their support and this proved to be a successful promotion over the course of the show.

LegaSea’s Corporate Relations and Fundraising Manager, Si Yates, was pleased with the progress made over the weekend.

“All the team felt this event was the most positive so far, with people offering encouragement, buying gear, and new Legends signing up. It’s also the best opportunity for us to get around and talk with our Partners and supporters who are all under the same roof. They are, after all, the lifeblood of what we do.”

Another expression of the ‘bigger and better’ event was the success of the ITM Sea Wall. This feature is popular with kids and adults because it gives everyone a sense of what it may be like to rebuild our fisheries to abundant levels. For every gold coin donation, people can select a fish, write a message and stick it on the wall.

“By the end of the show there was fish upon fish and few spaces left on the Sea Wall for any more”, enthused Si. While the focus was clearly on public engagement, it was also an opportunity to spend time with keen volunteers and the latest team recruits. Angela Janse van Rensburg and Benn Winlove have recently joined the team. Ange in a fundraising capacity and Benn as digital support.

“Ange and Benn were able to directly relate to people who wanted to know more because they both have the advantage of being newbies to the message and what LegaSea is all about. It was great to have them working alongside the more experienced crew of Si and Piet Battaerd”, added Sam. There is a raft of follow-up actions that need to be completed and a list of people to contact.

LegaSea will work through these to ensure maximum benefit is achieved from the show attendance and subsequent opportunities.

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LegaSea Partner Club Marine on the ITM Sea Wall 2019

LegaSea Legends Sign up to be a LegaSea Legend here

A keen family adding to the Sea Wall

Barkers clothing Get your Barkers X LegaSea gear here

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young fishermen doing well Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club The Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club (WDSAC) has a group of young fisherman, who have been taking advantage of some great weather of late, pushing out wide to tangle with swordfish.

BY HELEN PASTOR

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Recently a fleet of mates from this group decided to head out for some fishing on five different trailer boats.

Sam Yendell (17) organised his 5.6 metre Ramco trailer boat with a 90hp engine and got together his crew of Dylan Pilcher (22) and Brad Batterton (18). They were keen to go out and see what they could find, and also to compete with Sam’s older brother who was on another boat.

The fleet of five boats headed out from Tutukaka at 5:30 am. The weather was fine, a lovely day and no wind was expected.

Dylan hooked up at 9:30 am, on his Shimano 80W, spooled with 60kg line. He fought his fish for three hours, with the fish doing thirteen full jumps out of the water during the fight. Finally, they got the fish to the boat, albeit with a broken rod. The three of them tried to bring it on board themselves but soon realised that they could not get it onto the boat without help.

Sam called his brother, who was fishing next to them, to drop off his crew to help pull the fish in. It wasn’t until the swordfish was actually in the boat that they realised just how big it was.

The 30 mile journey back to Tutukaka weigh station was looking like it would take hours and the motor seemed very close to going under the water, but the boys managed to get as much weight as they could up the front and got the boat on the plane, making the trip home much faster than they initially expected.

There was lots of excitement and interest back at the weigh station where the fish weighed in at 272.2kg. Unfortunately, as the rod broke right at the boat, the fish had to be disqualified. However, the team felt it was still an awesome achievement under the circumstances.

Well done to these boys - their passion shows that future of the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club is in good hands!

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hiwi the kiwi EXPERIENCE

BY HELEN PASTOR

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On Thursday the 16th of May I had the opportunity to go to watch, and participate in, a Hiwi the Kiwi performance at Findlayson Park School in Manurewa, in South Auckland. This being the first time I have been to a Hiwi the Kiwi show I was interested to see what it was all about.

Findlayson Park School is not your usual primary school, being the largest in New Zealand. In fact, it is an Elementary School.

It has a role of 1200 students and has its own Early Childhood Centre, budgeting service and has children from 5 to 12 years old with its own intermediate section. The school has emersion classes in Maori, Samoan and Tongan and is starting one in Kiribati.

One surprising thing about the school is that it has a marine environment programme within the senior school, which focusses on water safety, sustainability and confidence in the water. The children are encouraged to make and row their own rafts on the Manukau Harbour, have a fishing competition with their own trophies and the students are taken to Goat Island to snorkel.

This programme fits in very well with our Hiwi the Kiwi experience.

Mark and Christine

When I arrived at the school, Mark (the Minstrel) and Christine had already started playing music and engaging the children as they arrived in the hall.

The school is so large that the programme had to be split into two sessions, with approximately 600 children at each session.

The engagement of the children was fabulous with the entire hall participating in the action songs and the responses from the children was great. Mark and Christine, using their musical and dancing talents, made the programme an entertaining experience. It is a funny and entertaining show with great messages and the important points to get across are all done with music – the children loved it.

We had funding this year for 13 low-decile schools from Water Safety New Zealand, as the Hiwi the Kiwi programme strongly promotes the water safety rules and the use of life jackets. In these schools, the life jacket issue is paramount as the children are exposed to the water with fishing and food gathering and often they don’t have this key piece of lifesaving equipment. In fact, many of them have stories about problems on the water and some of them have lost parents or grandparents to drowning.

This year I have again applied for funding from Water Safety and hopefully, we will be able to deliver our programme to more schools in the Auckland and Waikato districts next year.

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HUMANS, WHALES, DOLPHINS AND SEALS HOW ALL SPECIES CAN SAFELY INTERACT It’s usually a highpoint in any fisher’s day when a pod of dolphins erupt off the boat’s bow wave or a whale spout shoots high in the air in the distance.

The uncommon Bryde’s whale is encountered around workups in the Hauraki Gulf. Humpbacks and numerous other species purposefully swim in our waters and can cross a fisher’s path at any time. Encountering fellow mammals on the hunt or just passing by often adds to the awe of being immersed in Mother Nature.

There are rules in place to help protect these creatures and people. Abiding by these rules is important because when there are calves present the usually docile cetacean behaviour may turn protective and defensive if a human gets too close. Please observe these rules for everyone’s safety and enjoyment. > Don’t swim with whales or orca, and don’t swim with dolphins when juveniles are present. > When boating, keep 50 metres away from whales and orca and 200 m away from baleen/ sperm whales with a calf. > Don’t travel faster than idling speed within 300 m of whales or dolphins, and do not obstruct the path of whales or dolphins.

When is it not ok to swim with dolphins?

IMAGE: DIGITAL FISH

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FISH CARE - CETACEANS & PINNIPEDS

It may seem difficult to travel slowly near dolphins when they are attracted to the boat however, being careful with the craft’s direction and speed is paramount. Dolphins, although highly intelligent, still haven’t developed the ability to read the minds of the people operating the boat. Fast turns and abrupt changes in speed may catch a dolphin unaware and cause harm.

Seals and sea lions (known as pinnipeds) are fun to watch, but they also carry diseases.

Common sense and an awareness of how to operate in the same vicinity is important. > Where practicable stay at least 20m away from seals. On land do not drive vehicles closer than 50m of a marine mammal where practicable. > Avoid coming between fur seals and the sea, and keep dogs on a leash and well away. > Where possible, never attempt to touch seals or sea lions – they can be aggressive and often carry diseases. > Do not feed or throw objects at seals or sea lions.

By following the rules you will be able to safely observe and enjoy the presence of other mammals such as dolphins, whales, seals and sea lions. www.fishcare.co.nz

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happy fishing & goodluck with the season