Well, actually there are a few meetings coming up in Northland (am awaiting confirmation of venues and times and places) where those contracted to reserach where we dive and fish will be asking that question of the public. Watch this space.

I have spoken to one guy who's job it is to research this, and we are in the process of arranging an e-mail and snail-mail mailout of maps for divers to mark the places they use in Northland.  This will happen when we have it set up correctly.  We are also contacting all dive clubs in the North, and dive shops. This should ensure a thorough collection of data so they know where divers go and where AMA would be inappropriate.

My submission to NRC is in progress.  It concerns me a bit that there is no process for creating new AMA in the future except on plan reviews, because if they do what they did in Auckland, basically only harbour areas where they already have farms will be included.  What about new offshore locations or coastal locations which may cause less disruption and be necessary for other species?  Seems poorly thought out to me and could threaten a potentially worthwhile industry.  Also the question of whether or not they shoudl charge - give us a break, everyone else pays seabed licence fees, so these commercial interest shoudl too.

The compensation to commercial fishers issue is a red herring, it comes from the Fisheries Act 1983, and not the new AMA change to the RMA.

ARC's process looks to be one of simply zoning existing areas for AMA with staged expansion of these areas. Will check when I get better copies of the maps.

Have your say.

Reidfish