Fishing on Tāhunanui front beach a ‘safety issue’

The safety of fishing off Tāhunanui’s front beach has been questioned after two potential close calls over the summer.

In December last year, just after Christmas, Elizabeth Parkes went swimming with a friend at the beach where they had to give a wide berth to someone who was fishing on the beach.

Less than two weeks later, when Elizabeth’s son was visiting, he was swimming and didn’t notice any fishing lines until he got “semi-tangled” in one of them.

“Hooks and certain parts of the body? It’s not nice,” Elizabeth says. “It’s a very serious health and safety issue.”

Neither she nor her son said anything to the fishers about their safety concerns.

“I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun,” she says, but adds that “public safety is paramount”.

Elizabeth highlights Tāhunanui’s Back Beach, a “great fishing spot” that swimmers generally avoid anyway due to the strong currents in the area as a better place to fish than the front beach.

“In the height of summer, there can be hundreds of people all along the beach. The last thing we need is fishhooks in the water,” she says.

“The potential, sadly ... is that especially if a child got tangled in a fishing line and tried to free themselves, they could drown.”

Elizabeth presented to Nelson City Council about her concerns during the Annual Plan hearing in May.

At the time, Mayor Nick Smith acknowledged he wasn’t aware of the specific rules along the front beach but added he would be hesitant to regulate fishing there, especially considering the issue hadn’t been raised with him before.

“It’s impossible to have what I would call the Common-Sense Act, and that is people just behaving with respect,” he said.

“I’ve always found that people are pretty reasonable.”

However, he said that council would look further into the issue.

Council’s group manager environmental management, Mandy Bishop, has since confirmed the area between the black buoys at Tāhunanui’s Front Beach - including the area where Elizabeth and her friend had to dodge fishing line - was for swimming only.

“Fishing is not allowed in the swimming zone, but it is allowed in other areas of the beach as long as it doesn’t interfere with the main activities happening there,” she says.

“We are currently checking the signs at the beach to see if they provide enough information about these restrictions and if they are placed in the right locations.”

Elizabeth says she doesn’t remember seeing any signs about the fishing and swimming rules despite being a frequent visitor, and that the buoys are too far out to be easily seen by beachgoers.

So, she’s glad to hear council is checking the signs.

“It’s good news,” she says. “They may need to be renewed, enlarged, or more put up. Clearly the folk I saw, and my son saw, fishing hadn’t seen the signs.”