Stock assessment
Stock assessment involves monitoring all sorts of things that indicate the health of the fishery eg. how many of each species is present, their age, size, growth rate or reproductive performance. These indicators can help the AMT managers set sensible bylaws when and where necessary, because their values can reflect fishing pressure or the health of the environment. The trend in the stock assessment indicators is just as important as the current value itself - its rather like a doctor taking the pulse of a patient - extreme low pulse rate is a danger sign, but so too is a falling pulse rate even if the current pulse is not yet critical.
Regular stock assessment is called 'ecological monitoring'. It is not the same thing as research itself, although some science is often involved in checking and improving the monitoring methods, detection of trends and especially the choice of 'treatment' and 'non-treatment' (sometimes called 'control' or 'reference') sites. In Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai's case, there will often be a need to compare trends in stock within a temporary closure, taiāpure or mātaitai (the 'treatment') with the trend in a similar area nearby that is outside the AMT (the 'non-treatment' area). That way the AMT managers can learn whether their bylaws are working or not, and whether they need adjusting. That whole process of careful regulation, followed by monitoring to see if things improve, is often called 'Adaptive Management' or 'learning-by-doing'. It is the same basic principle that led to the development of a strong Mātauranga Māori to guide susatainable harvesting by your tūpuna. Regular monitoring and 'learning-by-doing' is likely to be the main approach used by Tangata Whenua to manage their fisheries - for one thing it is inexpensive and sometimes can be done by the Tangata Tiaki themselves - for another it allows the Tangata Tiaki to get on with gathering kai to continue their customs, culture and manaakitanga while continually updating their knowledge about the mauri of their resources.
Research is more normally used to figure out why a given bylaw is not working, or how it could be improved. It can also help identify threats and solutions to more complex problems that may be reaching from far away to impact on your kai. Research is so slow and expensive that it will be important for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai to be very selective about where it directs its researchers to investigate. The main FRST contract that has kick-started Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai has placed a lot of emphasis on searching for improved monitoring methods that the Tangata Whenua themselves can apply ie. we will concentrate on tool development in the first instance before getting into the bigger picture of how things work ecologically out there on your areas. The development of a marine 'Cultural Health Index' is a splendid example, and seeing whether 'Catch Per Unit Effort' adequately reflects stock levels is another.
Kōrero with hapū and rūnanga groups that are joining Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai has already underscored widespread need for regular stock assessments, and especially baseline surveys when mātaitai, taiāpure and temporary closures are set up. This prompted Nigel Scott and Henrik Moller to write to the Ministry of Fisheries to urge the establishment of a separate putea for funding such stock assessments. Their submission can be download here. We will keep members informed of the outcome of the request.
