If what matt watson is talking is dribble, Shane Jones must have a rubbish dump in his lap with the amount of garbage that falls out of his mouth
Interviews of his are painful to watch as he seems to just make up justifications on the spot.

Im a seafarer and I work with a lot of ex commercial fisherman and do my revalidation training regularly with current commercial fisherman. I have yet to hear a positive story from any of them.

I have nothing against commercial fishing but it needs to be done in a sustainable and honest way. At the moment it seems paying fines is just a cost of doing business.

I do believe recreational anglers play a role too, places like the hauraki gulf, bay of Islands, coromandle and others have a massive recreational pressure that impacts the fishery likely more than the commercial pressure in the same area. You see it where big fish spots become popular. Where trophy catches seemed the norm, after a few years the same quality of fish just isn't there and trophy fish aby aecreational fishers aren't using destructive fishing methods and certainly not on a large scale.

If you look at most of the collapsed fisheries a lot are commercial only or have recovered since reducing commercial take or reducing commercial fishing methods. Orange Roughy, Hauraki Gulf and Coromandle scallops, Golden Bay snapper are some examples.

It hard to argue that commercial fishing is even giving back through jobs created and employment with recent closures of coating plant in Nelson and the use of foreign crewed ships to catch quotas. Its all negatively affecting the environment for increasly less positive input to local economies rather than just maximising profit for a select few operators.

Kandrew wrote: That’s why we should lure fish more, the cost of bait is just ridiculous. For a bag of pillies I can buy a micro jig that will last for months.