Between two of us, within a single hour - an astonishing catch of 27 good size fish, 14 snapper, the rest kahawai, gurnard, and koheru.

Such fishing we haven't experienced in decades! Lloyd Hosken of Marine Life Tours is conducting a remarkable experiment with seabed or sea-life enhancement. This project is bearing fruit (or rather, fish) within the space of barely two years. Lloyd has inspired community groups to assist in building various shaped concrete modules. These are dropped onto designated sites (each named for the group which built them) on a stretch of featureless muddy sea bottom about two kilometres off the Opotiki coast. Our Eco-fishing experience on June 17th included an ongoing survey of seabed life and fish numbers at one of the half dozen (so far) reef sites - hence the carefully timed hour, the standard rods and baits, the counting and measuring of fish and the recording of the contents of a dropped crab basket (14 whelks). We then fished a control area, outside the developing reef, for an exact hour - at the same depth. This time we caught 13 fish (5 snapper 2 gurnard and 6 kahawai). The crab basket was empty of whelks. Lloyd's philosophy is about respect for ocean life and sustainable fishing. The community enhances the breeding/feeding fish habitat and in return people can catch themselves 'a feed' close to shore (so keeping fuel usage low). Taking home about half the catch of the day we were able to share a feed of fish with seven other families and single elderly folk in our neighbourhood. A great experience!

Reviewed over 3 years ago and experienced in June 2009