Before a Special Tribunal Under the Resource Management Act 1991 In
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Before a Special Tribunal Under the Resource Management Act 1991 In the matter of an application for a Water Conservation Order for the Ngaruroro River and Clive River Statement of Evidence of Martin John Unwin on behalf of New Zealand Fish and Game Council, Hawke's Bay Fish and Game Council, Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, Jet Boating New Zealand, Whitewater NZ Incorporated and Ngāti Hori ki Kohupatiki 15 October 2017 Introduction 1 My name is Martin John Unwin. 2 I have been engaged by Fish & Game New Zealand (FGNZ) to assist with their application for a WCO on the Ngaruroro River by characterising the angling values of the Ngaruroro River in a national and regional context. Qualifications and experience 3 I hold the qualification of Master of Science in Physics (with Distinction) from the University of Canterbury. From 2001-2006 I was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, published by the Royal Society of New Zealand. 4 I have been employed by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and its predecessor organisations for 41 years. I retired from full-time work in August 2013, and now work part-time from my home in Wanaka. My main research interest was the biology of Chinook salmon in New Zealand waters, a topic on which I have published over thirty papers in thirteen peer-reviewed international scientific journals. 5 A strong secondary interest throughout my career was collecting and analysing data on usage of New Zealand's fishery resources by recreational anglers. I helped design and analyse numerous surveys of recreational fisheries in both marine and freshwater environments, and have authored or co-authored over forty reports on the results. I have presented evidence on how the survey findings characterise the angling values of New Zealand river fisheries to the Environment Court, Special Commissions, and Regional Council hearings considering Water Conservation Order (WCO) applications and regional planning matters on numerous rivers and catchments, including the Mataura, Rangitata, Buller, Hurunui, Waiau, Kawarau, Nevis, and Oreti. 6 While this is not a hearing before the Environment Court, I confirm that I have read the code of conduct for expert witnesses contained in the Environment Court Consolidated Practice Note (2014). I have complied with it when preparing my written statement of evidence and I agree to comply with it when presenting evidence. I confirm that the evidence and the opinions I have expressed in my evidence are within my area of expertise. I have not omitted to consider material facts known to me that might alter or detract from the opinions that I express. Summary of evidence 7 In a report published in 2013 I identified the Ngaruroro River and its headwaters as a nationally important fishery. For North Island anglers seeking a remote 12000434 | 3048593 page 1 fishing experience in an expansive wilderness environment, the Ngaruroro headwaters provide virtually the only such fishery outside the South Island. 8 Two national angling surveys I have conducted on behalf of FGNZ since my 2013 report was published strongly reinforce this conclusion. The first survey, published in 2013, asked respondents to rate their enjoyment of rivers they were familiar with on a 1-5 scale, and to identify their most important attributes. The second survey, published in 2016, estimated total usage of all significant New Zealand lake and river fisheries over the 2014/15 angling season. 9 The 2013 survey yields three quantitative measures which allow each river’s value to be assessed relative to others. These are its mean enjoyment score, which is closely related to the intuitive notion of importance; its location on the Recreational Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), which spans environments ranging from urban and urban fringe to pristine wilderness; and “angling productivity”, which characterises rivers with extensive areas of fishable water and where anglers have a high expectation of catching a fish. 10 The upper Ngaruroro River (defined as the section above the Taruarau confluence) was the 25th most highly valued of 431 New Zealand river fisheries analysed in detail. It ranks ahead of the upper Mataura River and Tongariro River, both of which have an international reputation. Its peers include rivers such as the Manganui-o-te-ao, Nevis, Maruia, and Ahuriri. With the exception of the Tongariro River, all of these rivers are protected by WCOs for their fishery values. 11 The upper Ngarururo fishery scores highly for both ROS character and angling productivity, both of which contribute to its high importance score. However, I believe this score is significantly enhanced by its rarity value in a North Island context, which greatly increases its importance to North Island anglers. 12 The Taruarau River was the 9th most highly valued of the 431 river fisheries analysed, with the 14th highest ROS score, and the 17th highest angling productivity score. For these reasons alone, it could well serve as the prototype for a high value headwater/wilderness fishery. 13 The results of the 2014/15 national angling survey, together with those of three predecessors conducted since 1994/95, suggest that annual usage of the whole Ngaruroro River has remained relatively stable over this period but that the upper reaches have gained in popularity relative to the lower reaches. The Ngaruroro River consistently ranks among the 50 most heavily fished rivers in New Zealand, with a mean annual usage of 4,230 angler-days. The upper reaches accounted for 58% of annual effort (2,470 angler-days) in 2014/15, compared to 16% (980 angler-days) in 2001/02, and 20-25% (550 angler-days) in 2007/08. 12000434 | 3048593 page 2 14 Anglers from outside the Hawke's Bay region accounted for 38% and 46% of estimated effort on the upper Ngaruroro River and Taruarau River, respectively, during the 2014/15 angling season. This is consistent with results for other FGNZ regions, where the 2014/15 data strongly suggest a general trend towards increasing angler patronage of backcountry and headwater river fisheries throughout New Zealand. Scope of evidence 15 My evidence is based on data from six national angling surveys conducted by FGNZ and its predecessor organisations (the Acclimatisation Societies) over the 35 years from 1980 to 2015. These fall into two groups, with differing objectives. Two surveys, conducted in 1979/1981 and 2013, characterised individual river fisheries in terms of qualitative attributes such as proximity to home, accessibility, scenic beauty, and wilderness character (Teirney et al. 1982, Richardson et al. 1984, Teirney & Richardson 1992, Unwin 2013b). The remaining four surveys, conducted in 1994/95, 2001/02, 2007/08, and 2014/15, estimated annual usage of all New Zealand lakes and rivers by anglers fishing for acclimatised species including brown trout, rainbow trout, and salmon (Unwin & Brown 1998, Unwin & Image 2003, Unwin 2009a, 2016). 16 My conclusions regarding the angling values of the Ngaruroro River are similar to those I presented in an earlier report on its fishery, based on the angler survey information available at the time and prepared as a background paper to accompany FGNZ’s component of an application for a WCO (Unwin 2013a). However, this report was published before results from the 2013 and 2014/15 surveys were available, so is now incomplete in two respects. First, the 2013 river attributes survey (Unwin 2013b) provides a much more robust characterisation of the fishery than was possible in the 2013 report, which was based solely on 30- year-old data from the 1979/81 survey. Second, the 2014/15 survey (Unwin 2016) provides more up to date information on angler usage than was available in 2013. 17 I begin my evidence by summarising the main conclusions from my 2013 report. I follow this with a review of the findings from the 2013 and 2014/15 surveys, focussing on results where the new data significantly extend or modify the conclusions in my 2013 report. Throughout my evidence I keep methodological and analytical detail to a minimum, so as to emphasise the results rather than technicalities. Full details of both surveys, and their predecessors, are available in the technical literature (Unwin 2013b, 2013a and references therein, 2016). 12000434 | 3048593 page 3 Evidence Angler Usage of the Ngaruroro River (from Unwin 2013a) 18 The Ngaruroro River is unusual among North Island rivers in draining a catchment which is highly elevated, receives abundant rainfall, and with land cover dominated by tussock and grassland rather than indigenous or exotic forest. Such catchments are relatively common in the South Island, where they are represented by rivers such as the Wairau, Clarence, Ahuriri, and Nevis, but in the North Island are limited to the upper Ngaruroro and part of the upper Rangitikei. 19 The Ngaruroro River fishery shows considerable longitudinal variation in general character, angler origin, and level of usage. The lower reaches are predominantly fished by anglers from Hawke's Bay, and are valued for proximity to home, ease of access, and large areas of fishable water. By contrast, the upper reaches attract significant numbers of visitors from outside Hawke's Bay, and are characterised by remoteness, high scenic and wilderness value, and large fish. A weakness of the 1979/81 survey was that the “upper reaches” of the Ngaruroro River were not explicitly defined; for the purposes of my 2013 report I interpreted it as referring to the headwaters above Kuripapango. 20 Estimated annual angler usage of the Ngaruroro River was 3,760 angler-days in 1994/95, 6,240 angler-days in 2001/02, and 2,810 angler-days in 2007/08. This is well below usage levels for highly used North Island rivers such as the Tutaekuri, Tukituki, and Rangitikei, but comparable to well-known South Island back country fisheries such as the Buller, Tekapo, and Ahuriri, and ahead of other high profile central North Island rivers such as the Ruakituri, Manganui-o-te-ao, and Whakapapa.