Hāpuku in the inner Gulf?
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, fishos didn’t have to roll their guts our on a $1000/day charter boat at the Ranfurly Banks to catch a hāpuku. They could drop a line over the side at the Noises, or any of the Gulf Islands for that matter.
In 1918 the Whangarei Fisheries Inspector reported that hāpuku was one of the species caught by a small fleet of line fishing vessels inside Whangarei Harbour, or just outside the harbour entrance. A year later, the fishery had collapsed, forcing fishermen to go further afield—to Barrier, the Mokes, Mercs, Aldermans and the Bay of Plenty, with the boats carrying a supply of ice to stay out longer.
Hāpuku was not a deep water species, it used to ben common around our coasts. Auckland Libraries
In 1947 Leslie Wilfred McManaway—a keen fisho from Wellington—hooked a monster ‘puka in 360 metres of water in Cook Strait. It weighed in at 120 kilograms. He sold it for 5 pounds, according to son Basil. There were plenty around back then. During his best day’s catch, he remembers, they caught more than 250 hāpuku on a set line, most days 70–80.
A hāpuku (groper) with shed hands at Barnao’s Fish Wholesalers at Lorne Street, Wellington, in 1947. McManaway Collection
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before the fishery collapsed, with remnant populations found only in deep water and on offshore banks.
Even in the 1970s Bill Hohepa and mates were catching hāpuku at Anchorite Rock.
So what happened?
Hāpuka are slow-growing, long-lived and take more than a decade to reach sexual maturity. Compare that with snapper which are feeling the urge aged just two-and-a-half. It’s little wonder ‘puka are so vulnerable to over-fishing.
Will hāpuku ever come back to the Hauraki Gulf? Well, not if the Minister of Fisheries can help it. He must hate the poor things. A picture is worth a thousands worths:
The Total Allowable Catch is set at 2100 tonnes for commercial and 195 tonnes for rec. That’s a lot of fish, but no one has caught that for yonks, because they’re not there. Perhaps it’s time to reset the TACC so that it actually regulates the fishery a bit?
