Could somebody tell me just how far into the gulf commercial long liners are allowed to fish and if they have a different minimum snapper size to recreational fishermen. The reason I ask is that this afternoon we watched a commercial boat retrieve his line with just about every hook holding palm sized snapper of which we never saw one returned to the ocean. The line had been set 250m from the beach along half the length of the back of Motuihe. It all just seems a little too close and a lot too small to me!

they can fish where ever but logic would suggest not in the channel...

ski ya muppet, i suggest you do some light reading of previous threads before you let your middle finger do the talking, thats it blame the com boys for all destruction, the recreational fish'os are perfect and dont kill anything - ever...again i would think the continuous SW blowing its tits off bought him in to pay the bills

capt phil..can you recall the name of the boat??

and how often in life do you see a commercial boat working locally????, this is the second time in a year ive herd of it and never seen it...which isint really much considering the amount of boats and fish in this area at times...

Thanks for the info guys. I guess these fellas need to make a living like the rest of us.

Tobes --- the boats name was 'Tiddles'. Ive seen the boat around but never in that close before.

CP

I think the inner gulf is closed to commercial fromlate spring to early April?  I'd like to see the inner harbour closed to commercial ops on the basis that many recreational could use the resource against a few commercial.  The commercial have a right and a need to fish but I think some level of public good needs to be applied to this one.

   Cheers

     DA

Precisely Lethal, also remember these guys can only catch their quota. It's those dickheads in wellington that set the quota!!

SaltyC

"if we had the guts to endorse it.......... "

Eric me ol' china.....what on earth do you mean by this?.....do you mean fishing.net.nz endorse it?.....if so I think you may have missed the point....continue along the same way you are going and growing support for the idea and ultimately if there is anything that we can do we will.....we just can't afford to call it "the Fishing.net.nz Marine Reserve" or whatever.....

"The Vegetable, Lethal and Reidfish Reserve" or something of that nature would be just fine.....when/if you need us to work with you or send out information on your behalf then let's talk?

Ski, you have been texting too much. Fish farms? No mate, those are not really the ideal answer either as what are the fish fed on? Bulk fishmeal. Caught how? by product of commercial fishing. Need more fishmeal? Go out and bulk harvest the baitfish schools and krill. Chop out the bottom of the food chain. Whoops!

Fish farms actually are less effecient for raising fish than are wild fish, in that there is a LOT more waste of fishmeal pellets than there would be in the wild with fish eating other fish.

Basically the whole ocean IS a fish farm. It is just a balance to try and get a sane level of extraction of that fish. With the worlds oceans being open waters, free to whoever want whatever is out there, then you bet, someone is gonna drive a boat out there to catch as many of those free-swimming dollar bills as they can.

I think, perhaps, that territorial Economic zone waters should be moved from 200 miles to 500 miles. Give the pacific nations the patrol capability to manage their areas, and the aid funding to be able to say no to licencing of the asian fishing fleets in their waters, and we'd go a long way to solving the shortage of fish in the pacific at least.

Commercial fishing is here to stay. Have no doubts about that. Every time you buy fish&chips, or a a mcdonalds fillet'o'fish or a make salmon sandwich or a tuna casserole or.... you are supporting the commercial fishing industry.

The problem is to limit the catches of migratory fish in open oceans. And to reign in the corporate greed of the large fishing companies. If NZ went back to a 90% long-lining inshore fishery, with no trawling/netting, (still allow offshore trawling for the Hoki etc) I think the added value and the more selective fishing this practise involves would very soon restore much of our former fisheries.

Anyhow, thems my thunks.

cheers,

Stu.