who going to keep it legit now??

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    Posted: 03 Dec 2016 at 8:49pm
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www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/govt-putting-snapper-stocks-risk-summer


Govt putting snapper stocks at risk this summer

Eugenie Sage MP on Friday, December 2, 2016 - 11:12

The Government has put East Coast snapper fisheries at risk by prematurely slashing the number of observers charged with monitoring and preventing commercial fish dumping, and undersize fish and wildlife being caught, the Green Party said today.

Information obtained by the Green Party shows the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) cut the number of fisheries observers on trawlers by 60 percent in 2015/16 in the East Coast snapper fishery, which runs between the North Cape and Cape Runaway. Observers were removed before the completion of a trial of cameras to electronically monitor fishing vessels. The trial saw 80 percent of the installed cameras fail in the first three months.

“This ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to policing the fishing industry is putting snapper at risk," said Green Party fisheries spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

“In New Zealand we should be able to head out on the water and find snapper. But that relies on MPI making sure the snapper stocks are not being run-down and abused by commercial operators.

“If MPI doesn’t do its job properly, that makes it harder for Kiwis to go out and catch something for themselves.

“MPI needs to put independent observers back on the trawlers. Kiwis should be confident that if there’s fish dumping going on and undersize snapper are being caught, these guys will be caught.

“It's farcical that the Government gave Trident Systems, a company owned by the fishing industry, the right to install and operate these new cameras, which are meant to monitor the trawlers.

“There’s a clear conflict of interest, and this gives a strong whiff of a regulator captured by the industry.

“The Government has rushed to get rid of observers before it even knew if these cameras worked. They’re putting cost savings and the fishing industry ahead of the health of our snapper, and that’s not good enough,” said Ms Sage.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote v8-coupe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2016 at 12:21pm
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Originally posted by pjc pjc wrote:

www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/govt-putting-snapper-stocks-risk-summer


<h1 ="page-er" style="-sizing: border-; font-size: 30px; margin-top: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: NationalBookItalic, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 28px; color: inherit; padding-bottom: 9px; border-bottom: 0px;">Govt putting snapper stocks at risk this summer</h1><div ="region region-" style="-sizing: border-;"><section id="block-system-main" ="block block-system clearfix" style="-sizing: border-;"><div about="ews/press-release/govt-putting-snapper-stocks-risk-summer" of="sioc:Item foaf:" ="ds-1col node node-greens-press-release node-promoted view-mode-full node-media clearfix" style="-sizing: border-;"><div ="field-post-date" style="-sizing: border-; color: rgb154, 205, 50; font-family: NationalBookItalic, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 18px;"><div ="field-posted" style="-sizing: border-;">Eugenie Sage MP on Friday, December 2, 2016 - 11:12
<div ="field-" style="-sizing: border-; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; color: rgb89, 89, 89; font-family: " Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">The Government has put East Coast snapper fisheries at risk by prematurely slashing the number of observers charged with monitoring and preventing commercial fish dumping, and undersize fish and wildlife being caught, the Green Party said today.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Information obtained by the Green Party shows the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) cut the number of fisheries observers on trawlers by 60 percent in 2015/16 in the East Coast snapper fishery, which runs between the North Cape and Cape Runaway. Observers were removed before the completion of a trial of cameras to electronically monitor fishing vessels. The trial saw 80 percent of the installed cameras fail in the first three months.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“This ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to policing the fishing industry is putting snapper at risk," said Green Party fisheries spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“In New Zealand we should be able to head out on the water and find snapper. But that relies on MPI making sure the snapper stocks are not being run-down and abused by commercial operators.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“If MPI doesn’t do its job properly, that makes it harder for Kiwis to go out and catch something for themselves.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“MPI needs to put independent observers back on the trawlers. Kiwis should be confident that if there’s fish dumping going on and undersize snapper are being caught, these guys will be caught.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“It's farcical that the Government gave Trident Systems, a company owned by the fishing industry, the right to install and operate these new cameras, which are meant to monitor the trawlers.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“There’s a clear conflict of interest, and this gives a strong whiff of a regulator captured by the industry.

<p style="-sizing: border-; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“The Government has rushed to get rid of observers before it even knew if these cameras worked. They’re putting cost savings and the fishing industry ahead of the health of our snapper, and that’s not good enough,” said Ms Sage.


<div ="share-" style="-sizing: border-; margin-bottom: 48px; margin-top: 32px; color: rgb89, 89, 89; font-family: " Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></section>


MPI are doing their job. They have been charged with doubling primary exports by 2025.
They only way they can do that is to tilt the field in favour of industry.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote John H Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2016 at 12:46pm
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As posted on the LegaSea page

The observer figures in the article look correct.
My reading of the earlier press release was that up to 80% of footage was lost from a few boats because of technical problems. Not the loss of all footage from 80% of the fleet.

Of course when you are trailing a new system it would be good to have independent validation of what is being reported. The observers should be recording catch and the weight of legal discards.

In normal circumstances 210 days which is about 11% of all days fished is on target for an inshore fishery.  It was higher in 2014-15 because the Minister required it.

In 2012-13 the MPI observer plan had Zero days observer coverage on trawl and Danish seine in SNA1  !!

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2016 at 1:20pm
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John H,do observers have to notify vessl owner that they will be onboard for a particular trip or can they just turn when the feel like it?Surprise!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote John H Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2016 at 2:11pm
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Yes definitely get a few days notice that an observer is coming and arrange a time an place to get aboard. On smaller boats they sometimes put a crew member off to fit an observer on.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2016 at 3:39pm
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Originally posted by v8-coupe v8-coupe wrote:

[QUOTE=pjc] www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/govt-putting-snapper-stocks-risk-summer

MPI are doing their job. They have been charged with doubling primary exports by 2025.
They only way they can do that is to tilt the field in favour of industry.


 
Call me a skeptic! I guess this wouldn't really happen would it??

And therein may 'lie' one of the major issues. Publicly everyone in government etc discusses how focussed MPI are on sustainability etc but in reality you might guess that many of their ministry/personal incentives are probably tied to the governments financial targets. 

You can imagine the discussions between MPI and industry -

MPI - how are you going to double your exports Mr Industry

Industry - we need looser regulation and increased TACC's, plus a whole lot more of the public coastline given to us for shellfish and fish farms etc

MPI - but the fish stocks are already at maximum extraction levels and we have issues with overfishing of the shared inshore fisheries. Problem is that the overfishing issue is so bad now that the public know all about it because it is directly affecting them. The public are also on our case about all your wasteful fishing practices so we can't loosen the regs any further. We also get too many complaints when we try to give you extra coastline that the unreasonable public want to still be able to enjoy. What can we do?

Industry - heres the plan - lets tell the public that we have a world leading fishing management structure that everyone else in the world wants to copy. Then we can pretend to put some extra monitoring in place, but in reality we can use that as an excuse to loosen the existing monitoring. Don't worry, we have a carefully thought out plan for this. Without the monitoring we can catch more. The public might complain about not being able to catch a fish, but let them moan. They don't have any real facts to work from so it is only going to be bunch of moaning and you can live with that can't you MPI/government. After all the polls show that you won't get voted out next election.
The coastline thing is a bit tougher, so we just need to sneak that through in small increments so there isn't too much opposition. That way by the time the inshore fish stocks are fully depleted and we have to stop fishing them so hard, we will have all that new income from the fish farms etc. Then we get the public daily fish limits slashed so that the inshore stocks can rebuild and then by 2025 - 2030 we can everything we need.

MPI - sounds like a plan to me. Just got to got to make sure the public don't work it out.



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