Early years
Rock lobsters (crayfish or kōura), have always been an important food for Māori. Traditionally they were caught by hand or taken in baited pots that were lowered around coastal reefs. Round or beehive-shaped pots, known as pouraka, were constructed from the stems of a native vine, pirita or supplejack, which were lashed together with harakeke (flax) fibre. Pots were set during the day and left overnight.
Commercial crayfishing, as it was known in New Zealand, was slow to develop. A small canning industry operated from 1906 until the 1930s, but the demand for rock lobsters was not high until 1948. In that year some rock lobster tails were sent to the United States and an export market quickly developed.
Boom and bust
Large volumes were caught from the Fiordland coast and around the Chatham Islands in the 1950s and 1960s. With high prices being paid overseas for rock lobster tails, many fishermen decided to go crayfishing. They used steel-frame and wire-mesh cages in preference to the traditional supplejack pots.
By the late 1960s, more than 230 crayfishing boats were operating around the Chatham Islands. There was enormous waste of meat at this time as only the tails were frozen and exported; the bodies were usually dumped at sea or buried on land.
The boom years ended in the 1970s as rock lobster landings in the Chatham Islands dropped from a peak of 5,945 tonnes in 1968, to around 510 tonnes in 1974. With a long period until maturity, the population was unable to recover quickly from such an intensive harvest.
Managing the fishery
In 1980 and 1981 the government attempted to control the number of boats harvesting rock lobsters by declaring certain areas to be controlled fisheries. In 1990 the Quota Management System (New Zealand’s system for monitoring commercial fish stocks) was applied to the crayfishing industry.
In 2004, rock lobsters were New Zealand’s third-largest seafood export earner. Since 1991 there has been a steady export trade of live lobsters to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, worth about NZ$110 million each year.
Recreational fishing
Around 400–500 tonnes of rock lobster are legally caught by recreational and customary fishermen each year. Regulations govern the size of animals that may be taken, and there is a limit of six per person per day. Females carrying eggs have to be returned to the sea.
Keystone species
Rock lobsters play an important role in determining the type of habitat that prevails in an area. Animals and plants that play this pivotal role are known as keystone species. In areas where rock lobsters are fished to low levels, grazing kina (sea urchins) numbers often increase dramatically. With few predators controlling their numbers, the kina eat their way through kelp ‘forests’ so effectively that they destroy the kelp beds. When marine reserves are created, the density of rock lobsters and other predators increases, kina numbers fall and kelp forests are re-established.