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Introducing Fiordland

Fiordland’s physical and biological features

Straddled on the Alpine Fault, where the Pacific and Indo-Australian crustal plates meet, Fiordland is one of New Zealand’s more seismically active areas.

Its rocks and landforms are distinctive, the result of a long and varied geological history that features extensive erosion by glaciers over the last two million years. Glaciers flowed to the sea, excavating characteristic ‘U-shaped’ troughs to well below sea level. When the ice melted, the sea flooded in to fill the fiords and created the landscapes we see today.

Since the days of the huge glaciers, a more subtle form of erosion has taken place – caused by the weather. Storms can hit Fiordland throughout the year and often with little warning, making its weather complex and unpredictable. With more than 200 rain days a year, and upwards of seven metres of annual rainfall, the sheer volume of water has created streams, rivers and a multitude of waterfalls that still scour Fiordland’s steep walls and carve out new paths.

While the southwest coast of New Zealand is buffeted year-round by the Pacific Ocean’s swells, inside the fiords the waters are generally calmer, with the steep walls and islands providing shelter from all but the wind. This can funnel through the gaps and rise to a great intensity, depending on direction.

Most of the drowned glacial valleys ultimately become shallower toward their head, and culminate in estuaries at the mouths of extensive river systems.

Fiordland’s marine environment

Beneath the salty waters of the inner fiords lies a very special world, created by an intriguing combination of environmental factors. And it all begins with huge amounts of rain.

Deluged by New Zealand’s highest annual rainfall, numerous rivers and streams pour a layer of tannin-stained brown freshwater into the fiords. Less dense than seawater, this fresh influx lies on the surface, its thickness varying from five centimetres to more than 10 metres deep. Because it is stained the colour of tea, the freshwater layer greatly reduces the amount of light able to penetrate into the depths. Kelps, normally the basis of marine communities, cannot grow in the light-poor conditions. Instead, deeper water species, which normally inhabit the dark depths, are able to colonise much shallower habitats. This is known as ‘deep water emergence’.

Conditions are quite different in the outer third of the fiords, at their entrances and along the outer coast, and are best described as dynamic.

The profound difference between the inner fiords and the entrances and open coast has a big impact on the number of species and the abundance of fish found in each habitat. The remarkable, but less productive, inner fiords present considerable constraints for marine plants and creatures. In contrast, the outer fiords surge with the energy of waves and the continental shelf is very narrow in this region. Kelps flourish in the turbulent water here, fostering productive marine communities. The fiord entrances and exposed outer coast contain marine biodiversity typical of southern New Zealand.

While fiord habitats change between inner and outer reaches, they also change from north to south. Fifteen main fiords lie along the 200 kilometres between Milford Sound/Piopiotahi and Preservation Inlet. Those in the north tend to be narrow and steep sided, supporting mostly inner fiord habitats. Further south, catchments tend to be lower and more open, with more outer fiord and open coast habitats. This supports a greater diversity and abundance of marine algae (seaweeds).

Fish and invertebrates

Although, in places, the fiords are deeper than 400 metres, the reduced light restricts most life to a narrow band around the rock walls, down to about 40 metres. Along with fish and mobile invertebrates (such as rock lobster), black and red corals cling to the walls alongside ancient brachiopods (clam-like animals that have remained relatively unchanged for over 300 million years).

On the muddy fiord bottom, heart urchins and tube worms predominate to depths of 200 metres. Below this, bivalves, tusk shells, and crabs live in an environment similar to that found at more than 1,000 metres in the open ocean.

Harvestable fish species, including rock lobster, paua, blue cod, and tarakihi, live in the inshore areas along the entire coast. Where kelp and other seaweeds flourish in the exposed fiord entrances, particularly in the south, there are good stocks of butterfish (greenbone), moki, and trumpeter. Tuna, barracouta, kahawai, and mackerel are found in mid water, while bluenose, groper (hapuku), and sharks inhabit deeper coastal waters.

Marine mammals

Fiordland boasts a rich and varied range of marine mammals. The Fiordland coastline and inner fiords provide important habitat for a number of species – resident populations of bottlenose dolphins and New Zealand fur seals (kekeno) are common, while Dusky and common dolphins, southern right whales (tohora), and humpback whales (paikea) are regular visitors.

Fiordland’s terrestrial environment

Plants

The Fiordland National Park’s ridges and valleys support a rich diversity of plant life – from alpine herb fields on snow-capped peaks, to New Zealand’s largest remaining expanse of indigenous beech-podocarp forest. Fiordland’s native vascular plants number about 700 species, and botanical surprises are still being discovered. Many of these species are found nowhere else in the world, including species of speargrass, buttercups, tree daisies, and herbs.

Mammals

Like most of New Zealand, Fiordland is home to a host of introduced land mammals, such as stoats, possums, rats, and mice. However, New Zealand’s only two native land mammals are also found here – two species of bat (pekapeka). The curious long-tailed and short-tailed bats are tiny, weighing less than 15 grams, and use echo-location to catch insects. A third species of bat was last seen in 1967 but is now thought to be extinct.

Birds

Fiordland’s varied terrain also supports a wide range of birds, some of them endangered. The takahe, a large flightless rail related to the more populous pukeko, is of ancient lineage and poorly adapted to cope with introduced predators. The species was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 1948. Fiordland was also the final refuge of the world’s only flightless parrot, the nocturnal kakapo, which are now managed on predator-free islands.

Near the sea, there is a good chance of seeing Fiordland crested penguin (tawaki) and blue penguin (korora) in the water, black-backed gulls (karoro), red-billed gulls and white-fronted terns overhead, and ducks, kingfishers (kotare) and white-faced herons at river mouths. Common bush birds are likely to be encountered almost anywhere in the forests; most noticeable are the grey warbler (riroriro) and bellbird (korimako). Some of New Zealand’s threatened species, including yellowhead (mohua) and saddleback (tieke), can also be found on islands where predators have been removed. To help ensure these islands remain predator free, be aware of your quarantine procedures – do not take any plants and animals ashore when you land. (see also ‘Island biosecurity in Fiordland’ section).

Insects

Fiordland has an extraordinary variety of insects, and 300 of the estimated 3,000 species are unique to Fiordland National Park. Of note are the large alpine weevils, giant land snails, weta, and many species of native butterflies and wasps.

Probably the most notorious insect in Fiordland is the sandfly (namu), which breeds in the many streams and inhabits every nook and cranny of the fiords.

History of Fiordland

Settlement and cultural history

Maori tradition

One interpretation of the traditions of the Fiordland coastal marine area is presented below. The understandings and stories about this area vary among whanau and hapu.

The fiords traditionally represent the raised sides of Te Waka o Aoraki (the canoe of Aoraki). The waka (canoe) foundered on a submerged reef and its occupants – Aoraki and his brothers, Raraki, Rakiroa and others – were turned to stone. They stand now as the highest peaks of Ka Tiritiri o te Moana (the Southern Alps). The fiords at the southern end of the Alps were hacked from the side of the wrecked waka by Tu Te Rakiwhanoa, using his magical adze. The fiords’ deep gouges and long waterways were intended to provide safe havens on the rugged coastline, while their fish, forest and birds sustained travellers.

Particular stretches of the coastline have their own traditions.

Tamatea was an important explorer who named numerous landmarks in Fiordland. After voyaging down the South Island east coast, Tamatea’s waka Takitimu capsized in Te Waewae Bay and was wrecked at the mouth of the Waiau River. Spending time ashore, Tamatea explored much of the Murihiku region, including Fiordland. Tamatea (Dusky Sound) is named after him, as are several locations in Chalky Inlet.

Place names along the Fiordland coast record southern Maori history and point to the landscape features that were significant to these early seafaring arrivals.

Maori occupation

Maori arrived in the South Island and explored much of Fiordland between AD 1200 and AD 1500. Waitaha appear to have arrived first and are said to have discovered the lakes known as Wakatipu, Te Anau and Manapouri, before following the Waiau River south to Te Waewae Bay. Later expeditions explored the Fiordland coast.

About the sixteenth century, Ngati Mamoe iwi from the North Island arrived and settled in the south, succeeding the Waitaha. In turn, Ngati Mamoe were followed and joined by Ngai Tahu, who were to become the dominant South Island iwi. Through conflict and intertribal marriage alliances, the three southern iwi eventually merged to become the wider Ngai Tahu Whanui of the present day.

A major kaika (settlement) was reported at Martins Bay before 1800. Traditional accounts suggest that Martins Bay was an important settlement in accessing the area’s valuable pounamu resources, as it provided easy access by sea to Milford Sound/Piopiotahi to the south, and to Awarua to the north. This naturally led to canoe building, an industry for which this settlement was well known.

Battle sites, urupa (burial grounds), tauranga waka (canoe landings), nohoanga (campsites), and landscape features bearing the names of tupuna (ancestors), attest to and record this extensive Maori history (Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998).

Maori use of natural resources

For the most part, human occupation of Fiordland was seasonal, with southern Maori venturing around the coast during late summer and autumn on sealing, birding and fishing expeditions. New Zealand fur seal (kekeno) was an important protein source, especially when the moa became extinct. Kekeno were harvested in summer, with the meat preserved in airtight poha titi (kelp containers) for consumption over winter, while the pelts were used for sealskin capes and other garments.

Along with seal meat, a wide range of seafood was harvested, including blue cod (rawaru), groper (hapuku) and eels (tuna) from the inland lakes, rivers and streams. Analysis of midden remains from a cave shelter in Dusky Sound provided evidence of pipi, scallop, mussel (kuku), paua and limpet shellfish consumption, together with bones of weka, kiwi, kaka, kakapo, penguin (tawaki), duck (tete), Pacific rat (kiore), dog (kuri), and fur seal (kekeno) (Peat, 2007).

Historical and current records show little open sea fishing in Fiordland, as conditions would have been too rough and unpredictable for the waka used by Maori at the time. Double-hulled canoes lashed together were observed by William Wales (an astronomer aboard Cook’s Endeavour) in 1773 in Dusky Sound. These craft could not be regarded as seaworthy in any conditions other than light winds and slight seas (Anderson, 1986).

Captain Cook’s sojourn in Fiordland

On Captain Cook’s first circumnavigation and exploration of New Zealand in 1770, he sailed the Endeavour up the Fiordland coast. Abandoning his first attempt to enter an expansive fiord in the failing light of day’s end, he named it ‘Dusky Bay’. Sailing north, he cautiously avoided entering Doubtful Sound/ Patea, being ‘doubtful’ there would be enough wind to sail back out of the steep-walled fiord.

On his second expedition in 1773, Cook described wooded hills rising directly from the sea, backed by rugged mountains of barren rock, and prodigious height, ‘covered in large patches of snow which perhaps have lain there since the creation’.

The explorer provides the first European impressions of Fiordland’s fishing, recording in his journal:

What Dusky Bay most abounds with is fish; a boat with six or eight men, with hooks and lines, caught daily sufficient to serve the whole ship’s company. the variety is almost equal to the plenty. some are superior and in particular the coal fish (blue cod), as we called it, which is larger and finer flavoured than any I have seen before, and was in the opinion of most on board, the highest luxury the sea afforded us (McNab, 1909).

Cook had several interactions with three or four small Maori families during his exploration of Dusky Sound, all of which were friendly.

With his astronomer, William Wales, Cook visited two whare rau (round hut) dwellings, as well as a cave shelter at Cascade Cove. They found:

... a canoe hauled upon the shore near two small mean huts where there were several fire places, some fishing nets, a few fish lying on the beach and some in the canoe (Beaglehole, 1961).

Wales described the huts as round and vaulted, four or five feet high, constructed of flax and bark and built strategically near the sea. Wales also described the fishing tackle used by Maori in Dusky Sound:

They had a variety of fish hooks in their canoes. Some made all of wood, others all of bone (whale and human) and others again, part wood and part bone, joined by tying them together. Their lines are made from hemp (flax) plant, some twisted as our cordage is with two, three or four strands or twists, and others platted like the lash of a whip (Begg and Begg, 1966).

Cook’s glowing accounts of ‘teeming fish and numerous seals’ in the fiord undoubtedly encouraged the first sealers aboard the Britannia to visit in 1792. The following year a Spanish expedition, led by Italian Alessandro Malaspina, tentatively explored the entrance of Doubtful Sound/Patea, after Cook’s reports of the region and its resources.

Harvesting and fishing history

Sealing

The next wave of visitors drawn to the remote southwest coast and Stewart Island/Rakiura were European sealing gangs.

In 1803, following the collapse of the Bass Strait seal fishery, Australian sealers turned to southern New Zealand and the sub-Antarctic islands for fresh stocks to exploit, initially supplying the lucrative Chinese market, and also America and Europe.

The New Zealand fur seal (kekeno) was the main species hunted, along with the less valuable New Zealand sea lion (whakahao), also known as Hooker’s sea lion or the hair seal. The industry reached a frenzied peak in 1809–1810, quickly decimating stocks. In 1809, the Governor Bligh returned twice to Sydney with 10,000 Fiordland skins on each occasion. The following year it returned from Doubtful Sound/Patea with a further 10,000 skins.

Most shore-based sealing gangs relied on small wooden whaleboats to access remote seal colonies along the outer coast, and for fishing. Their ability to find food made the difference between success and failure. Sealers subsisted on fish, shellfish and seal meat, as well as birds’ eggs, sea birds and woodhens (weka) to augment their dry stores and salted pork and beef rations.

In the 10 years following the first boom and bust bonanza, Fiordland’s fur seal numbers slowly rebuilt to allow a short-lived sealing revival in the early 1820s, before collapsing again. In little more than 30 years, this industry had all but exterminated the fur seal, killing more than one million animals for their valuable skins.

Despite diminished fur seal numbers and falling demand and returns, some isolated sealing persisted. The Seal Fisheries Act 1873 and regulations set an annual four-month open killing season until 1894, when the Government finally gave the fur seal full protection. Even so, occasional limited open seasons were declared, with the last in 1946. That year, the Bluff -based MV Kekeno (captained by Harry Roderique) brought back 4,000 skins from southwest Fiordland and Solander Island. In one 15-day expedition during June and July, 1,181 seals were killed while the Kekeno was based in Luncheon Cove, Dusky Sound.

Whaling

Before electricity, whale oil was a staple consumable, used for candles, soap and heating, lighting the street lamps of Europe and America, and lubricating the factory wheels of nineteenth century industry. In the days before plastic and spring-steel, the baleen mouth plates of the southern right whale (tohora) were put to many uses, from furniture and umbrella ribs, to women’s corsets.

The first commercial whaling in New Zealand waters began in the 1790s, with visits from American and British pelagic whaling vessels in pursuit of the sperm whale (paraoa), the largest of the toothed whales. In the first half of the nineteenth century, these whales were hunted to near extinction in the Pacific Ocean.

In New Zealand, closer to shore, slower moving southern right whales (tohora) were targeted when they used inshore bays and southern fiords to mate and calve while on their annual winter migration north from sub-Antarctic waters.

At first, ‘bay whaling’ was conducted mainly by American, British, French and Australian colonial vessels, which anchored in the fiords and coastal bays and harbours while whaleboat crews were sent to intercept the migrating whales and newborn calves.

Growing export demand led to less-costly shore-whaling stations being set up around the southern New Zealand coast. The first, in 1829, was the remote Port Bunn (Rakituma) shore-whaling station in Cuttle Cove, Preservation Inlet. The land was purchased from Te Whakataupuka, the Southern Murihiku paramount chief, for 60 muskets, a cannonade and 1,000 pounds each of gunpowder and musket balls. Six houses were built for a staff of 60 men (including Maori boat crews), and sheds for up to 16 whaleboats. The station prospered until whale stocks became depleted, and was abandoned in 1838 for a more accessible site at Jacob’s River (Aparima/Riverton) in Foveaux Strait.

By the early 1840s, the decline in southern right whale numbers visiting Foveaux Strait necessitated the use of larger vessels and extended trips to the western fiords by whalers living at Jacob’s River and Bluff. During winter it was not uncommon for these vessels to spend up to three months ‘hunting bay whales off the sounds on the west-side’.

During the summer off -season, whalers returned to the fiords on sealing expeditions. On one such cruise, in 1842, the schooner Amazon put into Bligh Sound one night and dropped anchor. To the crew’s surprise, fires were seen ashore. Early next morning a Maori cave dwelling was found, and in it some flax mats, a whalebone patu paraoa (club) and other articles, including fish hooks. The occupants of the ‘Cave of the Hawea’ had fled into the bush, leaving only footprints behind them (Roberts, 1913). They were thought to be Ngati Mamoe fugitives who, some 60 years earlier, had escaped Ngai Tahu (Hall-Jones, 2002).

By the mid 1850s, the two ‘robber industries’ of whaling and sealing were in decline, and the leading whalers began to diversify into shipping and pastoral run holding in the grab for land. The world’s reliance on whale oil eventually ended when technology was developed in 1859 to extract underground oil deposits, which allowed the refining of petroleum products.

Finally, in 1936, the southern right whale, threatened with near extinction, received formal protection under an international convention.

Commercial finfish fishing

Before 1900, commercial fishing on the Fiordland coast was limited. The fishing that did exist was centred on hand-lining for blue cod and groper (hapuku). Blue cod was more marketable than groper and smaller, which meant more could be carried on board the small fishing craft. In 1893, Bluff fish merchants were shipping large quantities of locally caught fish, including blue cod, to Melbourne for the Australian fish markets. In 1896, a fish freezer was established in Fisherman Bay, North Port, Chalky Inlet, to store fish landed by a fleet of small vessels from Riverton/Aparima. It is still possible to see the concrete wharf piles (Hall-Jones, 2002).

After the turn of the twentieth century, fishing in Fiordland gradually increased, with more boats venturing around to the western coast. Blue cod was still being exported from Bluff for regular sale on the Melbourne fish market.

With more markets for their fish, fishermen from Colac Bay (Oraka) and Riverton/Aparima in particular, began making longer journeys to the West Coast grounds, remaining away from their homes for many days on end (MacIntosh, 1980). Trips became longer as advancements in technology increased safety, and the advent of shore freezers helped to ensure a profitable catch would survive the time at sea. Despite the development of combustion engines, most craft continued to carry sails to ensure their return to port. Fiordland was, and still is, a dangerous and rugged coast where vessel reliability is of paramount importance.

Blue cod remained the main fishery until the end of the 1940s, with fish caught on handlines from tender dories. The catch rate was determined by how fast the lines could be hauled and returned. Other limiting factors were freezer size and fuel supplies. To overcome the obstacle of freezing facilities (not all boats had freezers until after the 1940s), a second fishing station was established in Dusky Sound.

The rusting metal hull of the clipper steamer SS Stella still lies on its side at the northern end of North Port, Chalky Inlet. Once used to service lighthouses and deliver mail and passengers, at 50 years of age (in 1926) the Stella was dismantled and its hull used as a freezer base, firstly in Luncheon Cove, Dusky Sound, and then in its final resting place in North Port.

Other fisheries at the time were lining for groper and occasional set-netting for moki and butterfish (greenbone), although this was restricted almost entirely to two-to-three months of the year. As with the blue cod fishery, freezer space was limited and only the larger fish were taken to ensure a profitable operation.

During World War II, the blue cod fishery waned as fishers entered military service. The slide continued even when hostilities ended as commercial oyster dredging in Foveaux Strait rapidly expanded and markets were found for trawl fish species, such as rig and elephant fish. These fish could be caught close to port and yielded greater profits than blue cod.

Since the 1980s, fishing for off shore species such as shark, groper, tuna and bluenose has grown. Some exploratory fishing for kina (sea urchin), sea cucumber (bêche de mer), and scallops has been undertaken. Apart from kina, these have not developed into commercial fisheries in Fiordland.

Today, Fiordland’s blue cod fishery is seeing a resurgence. On a season-by-season basis, a few boats from Bluff and Riverton/Aparima fish the southern fiords from Dusky south, to spread out the fishing effort and avoid competition on fishing grounds in Foveaux Strait and around Stewart Island/Rakiura.

Rock lobster fishery

The opening of the American export market for frozen rock lobster (crayfish) tails during the late 1940s fuelled the rapid development of this fishery. Before this, only a limited European market existed.

Only the rock lobster tails were taken because they took up less room and could be frozen to maintain their quality during several weeks at sea.

Commercial fishers began with hoop/ring pots, moving to wooden pots and later steel pots. Synthetic ropes and plastic buoys replaced natural fibre ropes as the new technologies came on stream. Better able to withstand the exposed waters and punishing conditions, these developments allowed fishing efforts to improve and by 1948 the bonanza was beginning.

This was a virgin fishery and although the techniques for harvesting fish had not yet been perfected, catches were initially very large. Between July and February, the coastal stretch from Puysegur Point to Milford came alive with small fishing boats. A system was developed where smaller boats would feed their catches into a mothership with large freezers. The peak came in 1956 when landings totalled more than 4,000 tonnes.

As time went on, matching the early catches required increased effort. With the advance of new technology, increasing numbers of boats entered the fishery until a moratorium on new entrants was introduced in 1978.

The ability to land lobsters and get them to market was boosted by the 1953 opening of the Homer Tunnel (allowing road access to Milford Sound/Piopiotahi), the completion of the Wilmot Pass road into Deep Cove in 1965, and the arrival of amphibious aircraft. Freighting tails directly from Fiordland also allowed fishers to conserve fuel and stay away from their home port for longer.

By 1988, a new market had opened – Asia – and live rock lobster exports superseded ‘tailing at sea’. Helicopters and floatplanes meant lobsters could be at the packhouse within minutes of leaving the boat.

Industry growth levelled off, with the decline of the fishery. Rock lobster was introduced into the Quota Management System in 1990. Around this time, many small fishers sold up and left, and boat numbers within the wider southern area (including Fiordland, Southland and Stewart Island/Rakiura) dropped by 75 percent, from 271 in 1979 to around 70 vessels in 2008.

In 1999, following Ministry of Fisheries and industry concern over declining catches, the total allowable commercial catch was cut by 20 percent, to 711 tonnes. Two years later it was again cut by 20 percent , to 568 tonnes, to allow rock lobster stocks to rebuild. While the fishery was allowed to rebuild, the CRA8 Management Committee has been proactive in carrying out research into handling, transporting, holding and processing techniques, and the sustainability of rock lobster stocks.

The fishery has since recovered at a higher rate than expected and allowable commercial catches have increased to catch levels equalling those of the 1970s – more than 960 tonnes.

The latest 2008 increase means that Southland now produces 33 percent of New Zealand’s rock lobster exports, earning approximately $70 million in export returns for the country each year, and bringing millions of dollars into the Southland business community.

Paua fishery

The Fiordland commercial paua fishery is based on harvesting the blackfoot paua, the largest of three abalone species endemic to New Zealand. While paua is highly valued by Maori as a traditional food source, and is important for recreational divers, it was first exploited commercially in the late 1960s for its opalescent shell, which was used in polished paua jewellery and souvenirs.

The opening of new markets for canned, bleached paua meat exports in the early 1970s brought a rapid expansion of commercial harvesting of Southland’s inshore paua. Predictably, the most accessible paua beds near Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island/Rakiura were the first to be heavily fished.

A four-month closed season was introduced, along with a monthly harvest limit and a ban on underwater breathing apparatus, including scuba gear. Up until the issue of individual quota in 1985, fishers were restricted to landing a maximum of one tonne of greenweight paua per vessel, per week. However, this was easily circumvented by fishers registering multiple vessels, including dinghies, inflatable craft, kayaks and in one case, it was rumoured, a wooden pond board (a plank used to partition areas of a boat’s deck).

Apart from fishing regulations, the biggest restriction on Fiordland’s paua fi shery was the requirement that any paua for export had to be landed alive in the shell at the packhouse. The distance from port and the cost of floatplanes and helicopters discouraged large-scale diving – until the introduction of quota and higher export returns.

In 1995, concern about diminishing paua stocks at Stewart Island/Rakiura sparked legislation which aimed to divert divers with larger vessels to work the more distant Fiordland coast (Elvy et al. 1997). Their efforts in this remote environment were helped by innovations such as holding pots and vessel wet wells, which keep paua alive until landing.

Fiordland’s exposed coast and isolation means only the best equipped fishers can access the area; often fewer than 20 fishing vessel operators catch the bulk of the harvest.

Despite the constraints, by 2006 concerns were being raised over stock assessment findings and commercial harvest levels within the Fiordland paua fishery. The Minister of Fisheries agreed to a suite of measures proposed by the PauaMac5 Management Committee, including quota owners voluntarily agreeing to shelve their annual catch entitlement by 30 percent for three years, and increasing the minimum size allowed to be taken commercially. The paua management committee has also been working to improve catch effort information collected about the Fiordland paua fishery, to provide a more accurate view of what is happening.

Recreational fisheries

From the first European settlers in Fiordland, up to the early 1950s, subsistence fishing was a characteristic of Fiordland, servicing the needs of the few tourists, hunters and mariners who ventured into this isolated corner of New Zealand.

That began to change in 1953 when the Homer Tunnel finally opened for road traffic. Although boats were not allowed to be towed through the tunnel until it was widened in 1983, the easier access brought more tourists, many in search of a fishing experience.

One of the first to capitalise was the Lyvia Lodge in Doubtful Sound/Patea, built in 1954 to replace the Deep Cove hut built in 1900. It became a destination for walkers on the Doubtful Sound track, and fishing was popular from the outset. The lodge menu relied on locally caught fish and venison, as food supplies were brought in only twice a year (Hutchins, 1998).

However, it was the new Wilmot Pass road, built as part of the construction of the Manapouri power scheme, that first opened the door for recreational fishers to bring their own boats to Fiordland. With the ban on towing boats through the Homer Tunnel still in place, determined fishers petitioned authorities and, in 1965, the Wilmot Pass road was opened to the public. It made Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound/ Patea the only practical entry point for trailer boats into Fiordland, their skippers attracted by ready catches of finfish and rock lobster, and a growing awareness of big game bluefin tuna, albacore, and sharks.

For 20 years from the early 1970s, the Fiordland Big Game Fishing Club offered annual expeditions into Doubtful Sound/Patea and, once the Homer Tunnel ban had been lifted, Milford Sound/Piopiotahi became their focus. The club has since wound up.

Up to the mid-1980s, safety constraints on small boats restricted most recreational fishing to the Doubtful/Thompson/Bradshaw Sound complex. Some fishing was done from tourist boats in Milford Sound/Piopiotahi and, on an opportunistic basis, from commercial fishing boats elsewhere in Fiordland. A few brave souls travelled outside the fiords in search of southern bluefin tuna, using fast boats and picking breaks in the weather. Even so, two-thirds of their time was spent inside the fiord, fishing for groper, rock lobster and blue cod. Between them, daily catches of up to eight bluefin tuna (each weighing 29–50 kilograms), 12 to 14 groper, and half a bag of rock lobster tails were not unusual.

While Milford Sound/Piopiotahi is today the major focus for recreational fishing, the access, infrastructure and services available at Deep Cove mean Doubtful Sound/Patea continues to be popular. Privately owned trailer boats can be towed across the Wilmot Pass road by obtaining a permit from the Department of Conservation or using an operator with a concession to tow boats over the pass.

A growing trend is for syndicates to buy cheap, ex-commercial boats and convert them for recreational use.

Developments in technology are changing the nature of recreational fishing in the fiords. Today’s easily transported fibreglass and aluminium hull trailer boats are safer and, with increasing numbers of people and fishing pressure on the inner fiords, recreational fishers and charter operators are ranging further afield. The outer fiord and the open coast are by far the preferred fishing sites, although the weather still has the last word.

Fish finders, echo sounders and global positioning systems (GPS) have become almost standard, even on trailer boats. GPS and sounders are seen to be particularly useful in relocating favourable fishing spots and GPS is used as a matter of course to set and locate long-lines or lobster pots.

Scuba diving has become increasingly popular in the fiords. Once limited, mainly due to a lack of compressed air supplies, diving has increased since the late 1970s, prompted by the growth in dive charter activity. Divers mainly target rock lobster.

Charter fishing

Charter fishing had its informal beginnings in the early 1960s when some commercial fishers began to take friends and acquaintances away to enjoy the hunting and fishing opportunities of wild and remote Fiordland. At first, most trips were combined with normal commercial fishing operations, but they soon developed into informal charter arrangements.

Since then, the commercial charter vessel industry has steadily increased, spreading fishing pressure into the less accessible areas of Fiordland, especially Dusky Sound and the two southern-most fiords. Clients are a mix of divers, fishers and deer hunters. Divers target rock lobsters, along with scallops in season, while blue cod and groper are the top targets for line fishers.

Operators now routinely helicopter clients in from Te Anau and Clifden to remote places such as Breaksea and Dusky Sounds, and the upper reaches of Preservation Inlet. Trip options range from part-day and overnight sight-seeing cruises to seven-day excursions.

Surveys by the Ministry of Fisheries show that most first-time fishers and divers in Fiordland are aboard licensed charter boats, making these operators important advocates for the Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine Area. Skippers can promote sustainable fishing by setting realistic expectations for fishing catches, advocating compliance with the various rules, and encouraging responsible behaviour.

Fiordland’s charter fleet is a mix of local and seasonal vessels. Charter operations traditionally start in October and build up towards Christmas. Activity increases in late summer and peaks during the autumn deer hunting ‘roar’, before dropping off in May. Deep Cove has a fleet of locally based charter vessels, while charter boats from Bluff and Riverton/Aparima are seasonally based in the lower fiords. More recently, vessels have come south from Marlborough for autumn and winter, due to declining fishing opportunities in the Marlborough Sounds, particularly for blue cod. Charter vessels from other regions are also frequent visitors, often as part of a circumnavigation of the South Island.

Commercial charter operators in Fiordland require a resource consent issued by Environment Southland.

Cruise ship visits

The first passenger cruise vessel to visit Fiordland was probably the Union Steam Ship Company’s Wanaka, in 1877. Thereafter, the company ran popular tourist excursions from Dunedin to the western fiords until 1910, when their steamer Waikare struck an uncharted rock in Dusky Sound. Having safely abandoned ship, the 226 passengers and crew turned to line fishing off the rocks while they calmly awaited rescue the following day. This mishap effectively brought cruising in the remote southern fiords to a standstill for more than 70 years.

After terrorists seized the Italian liner Achille Lauro during a 1985 cruise in the Mediterranean, American and European customers fled in droves. In the search for a safer cruising area, many companies turned to the South Pacific, and Fiordland.

The number of cruise ship visits in Fiordland has built up slowly since, but more recently numbers have begun to increase more rapidly: in the 2006/07 season, there were 34 cruise ship visits, in the 2007/08 season 44 visits, and there will be 62 cruise ship visits in the 2008/09 season. The Diamond Princess and her sister ship, the Sapphire Princess, are the largest cruise ships visiting Fiordland, at 116,000 gross tonnes.

To ensure environmental standards are maintained, Environment Southland has agreed conditions with individual cruise ship operators and restricted cruise ship operations to:

• Milford Sound/Piopiotahi
• Thompson Sound
• the outer part of Doubtful Sound/Patea
• Breaksea Sound west of the Acheron Passage
• the Acheron Passage
• Dusky Sound west of Cooper Island.
  

 

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