Had a look at this? Published on their website this morning (http://www.fish.govt.nz/information/03strategicplan/strategicplan.html) , made the 0600 Radio News.
Hardly a rollicking good yarn. Long on political correctness, frameworks, process and all the usual suspects that crop up in beaurocratic documents and v. short on detail. Makes it almost unreadable - what a surprise.
The bit that hit the news is all fishers being liable to civil or other action if they harm the marine environment (with the burden of proof that they have not falling on the fisher - seen that before) but there is truck loads of other potentially draconian stuff.
I heard an interview with a Min. Fish mandarin who was asked about this environment damage bit and how this would affect 'Mum & Dad & the kids' fishing. A. No effect at all for a few years (my italics) was the reply, but we would be looking at, for instance, the catching and releasing of undersized fish that later die. Q. How would you do this? A. Oh, many ways but the using of larger hooks might be one way. Are we to see the Hook Police going through our tackle boxes at the ramps? How does this extrapolate to monitoring purse seiners who might on occasion catch the odd tonne or ten of undersized fish? Incidentally when asked about the commercial sector's responsibilities in this environment side of things, Mr MinFish's first concern was the inadvertant catching of seabirds! - I kid you not.
If you are sitting down and are awash with ani nausea medication give it a read - it will put you in a great mood for the W/E.
obald
Oh dear, we already have plenty of rules that are widely ignored so lets create a whole lot of new rules. Lets give that boffin a medal!
A size limit on hooks is a great way to target larger snapper. Pity if I catch a snapper on a 3/0 while fishing for tarakihi.
I would be guessing that his reference to in a few years means that they plan an education campaign to empower fishers to self regulate their own catch .. sort of thing that guys like us already practice, but does this guy actually think it will work? If only all the poachers knew all the rules and regs aye ... no more problem. What an idiot.
Obald raises a very interesting issue - the fact that the only strong environmental lobby group that often works against commercial fisheries is more concerned about sea birds than fish.
I suspect this is due to the apparently strong linkages between DOC and Forest & Bird. For example, much pressure is exerted controlling commercial fishers so they don't catch albatross, and I think bird catch is also ONE of the issues everyone is whining about with Hoki certification.
NZRFC, NZBGFC, etc are lobby groups for fishers' rights and do not seem to make inroads (or we do not hear about them) on government process. The environmental groups get more government attention. There is therefore a gap in representation - a lobby group of environmental focus (not a fishers' rights focus) that concentrates on the marine envrionment. Seafriends, NZU, a few lone crusaders like Roger Grace, Cousteau Society overseas, and possibly others could potentially take up this gap, but they are generally very quiet on the issues. the Greens stated they wanted MFish to adopt an eco-system approach and manage stocks above Bmsy. NZU is making an effort and as they have extractive users to consider as well as industry concerns and strong environmental base, they would seem to be the logical organisation to 'fight for the fishes'.
Problem is, no environmentalists seem to be stepping up to the mark and criticising MFish for their Bmsy target fisheries management policies and oversights, seemingly entrusting that MFish manages the fisheries 'sustainably'.
Where to from here? Ask why the environmentalists are so quiet about fisheries management. Lack of education on this issue? Lack of cohesive representation? Is the issue a non-issue in their eyes? I dunno, I'm just having a rave!
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