ive looked at the net problem, and yes it needs refining.
there are a couple of ideas out there that would work well depending on what your targeting,
if you still want to catch Leather Jackets Jack Mackerel Frost fish then your not about to use one of these nets,
why because these fish can swim out as well, they are more suited for Gurnard snapper JDs Tarakihi which yes is fantastic,
but you loose out on a few other by catch which have no Quota or are very high that the inshore fishery will never land them anyway...

like i said before its easier to reduce the quota of the big 3 Gurnard JDs Tarakihi to a point that its catch-able within the first 9months of the season so the Comm's will not still be chasing them when its impossible to land the Quota they have now,
its while they are chasing these 3 species that they keep catching snapper and dumping them, because in their words there are too many snapper....

here are two of the catch records first is Gurnard "catch should be 750t" and the second is JDs "catch should be 300t" the dark red line is the Quota "TACC"
the green lines are what they have caught per year...
so as quick as it took me to write this MPI could F#*KING fix it...


take no notice of 2014 that is not a complete year....

Of course they can see it. They just don't give a rats ass. They see figures like that and think "what's the problem, comms could catch WAY more of these, why are you complaining"
Their second thought is "all that under utilised quota, needs to be caught so we can earn our levies from the comms, and we will have a bigger budget! Find out some way or some one who will catch that quota!"
The bureaucratic mind looks at life from a rather skewed angle I think. Even skewedier than mine, and that is saying something! :-)

I don't think it is fair to accuse the MPI of outright corruption, in fact I think that is not an issue at all. The thing is though that MPI is there not to ensure rec fishermen can catch heaps of fish, but to ensure that commercial fisheries make as much money as poss for themselves and by extension the country.
That is what I meant about those graphs of Lethals, MPI would look at those as immediately seek to increase the catches of those "undercaught, under-utilised" species.
MPIs job is not to be a recreational fishing advocate. MPIs job is to maximise commercial fishing.

OK so went fishing today.   Two long liners hauling gear. We drove past quickly and saw dead snapper floating. Now these guys are non doubt the culprits of the fish washing up.

Fish are coming in at night, these guys must be setting at night an leaving them soaking all night an haulin on the morning. They will be biffing back the dead on the line fish that would have likely been gut hooked hence the report of no hook wounds.

Talked to another fisher women at the ramp who caught nothing an was disgusted at the floating fish. Being a local and part of the itm crew you can't sayou it's bad angling.

Noticed the liners move wide after hauling. So they targeting the small amount of school fish moving in close at dark an then hitting the deep. I don't see how leaving your gear in the water all night is acceptable if this is the amount of waist from doing so.

Hence them dumping them. Not very smart from the long liners.

that is complete bollox!!!……apart from informing the f.net.nz community….what else did you do CBro?

****Cannot set between half an hour before dawn and half an hour after dusk

scary,no escape,just crushed fish

Hi Kezza, I had my nephews out on the boat yesterday and we took 6 snaps out of the spawing fishery and discussed how many we needed for the whole family to eat on Christmas eve before doing so.

this site in particular has give me the information and understanding of how the system works if it wasnt for people like John H from LegaSea and Tagit plus others who have dug up information from off the net we wouldnt be so well informed,
it has been one huge leaning curve,
we started off blaming the people that do the fishing Comm's but they are just the tip of the Iceberg,
just like a Iceberg there is way more hidden under water than is sticking out above it,
when you start to dig around you find the Goverment/MPI/Quota Holder/Fishing Companies are the true plunders of our fisheries not the poor guy stuck out in front "comm's" to take the blame,

then when we start to understand that, we realize just who is being payed by who to advise the Goverment on our fishery,
the very thought of what go's on behind closed doors before its released to the public is scary to say the least, when you consider this is a resource that is owned by all yet we have some truly unscrupulous people that are in it for just the money,

the one thing which i have learn't more than anything is Maori with a now huge percentage have also taken the easy road which is counter to what they stand for, i am very disappointed in their attitude towards something they hold very dear to their heart, i wont go into the benefits they are loosing out on,
but what i would like to say is if they stood up to be counted they could be the ones to change the whole system for the better,

well that is my two cents worth,

Kezza how about you adding something to this your more informed about how Maori use this resource???