A few years of exported fillets. Then back to the 1980s -90s ,depleted fishery when a legal snapper in the manukau was a rarity.

And the fishery was just begining to recover so well.

More anti commercial B/S from Legasea, the science is so much better these days than what there was pre QMS and even in the years following its introduction. Yea so what if commercial have had increases they have also had some decreases, what this photo does show is that recreational have also had increases in to their allowance. FFS recreatioanl arent happy  matter which govenrment is in power, I can remember a lot of you saying when Labour got in there would be changes, well it didnt take long for a lot to bitch & moan about their fisheries minister duiring their 6 distructive years. Recreational contribute next to nothing towards fishery management but you lot sure as hell have a lot to say and in my view Legaseas anti commercial propaganda have all of you brainwashed into thinking that NZ fishery should be recreational only when the fact its a shared one, commercial, Iwi and yes recreational.

It went pretty much like this:

Not specifically Opito Bay more the wider area. 

Imagine if we bit the bullet and built up biomass of each species to 60% then managed it at that level. It would benefit all including preventing stress issues like kina barrens etc. Rec, Coms, Charter all benefit. Manage it at fingernail levels one bad event and we are decades to fix situation if we can. 

I just came back from Fiji in the weekend and had a day fishing. Caught 2 tuna in one day. Showed the crew pics at what I catch 20 minutes away from my house and they were blown away. Comms have wiped out large parts of their fishery