A storm has been brewing for a while in snapper 1.

The whole system is flawed. A commercial long liner can fill his quota in 4 weeks. Catch them all in November before they spawn. Catching the same quota after they spawn would make a huge difference in the stocks. Its not what we are catching its when.

here we go again, give nothing take plenty, time the Com's took a cut!!!! we are the ones that alway end up giving,

if they the Com's are told to make a cut they take it to court and get it over turned

if they can save 1/3 of the fish that they discard no one would have to take a cut!!!

my argument totally
All commercial catch should go towards their quota.
A snapper of 100mm long that is going to be crushed in the nets should be considered part of the commercial catch.
Yes it worthless but they have caught it and killed it so its thiers

^^^ agree but maybe instead of closed season for spawning season a reduced limit for the peak period. but it comes back to the same old thing, ENFORCMENT for recreational and commercial bet there will be snapper washed up on the coromandel again this spring its just a joke.

The increase in take is through our sector, the private sector.
There will be more and more pressure on "our quota" as more people go fishing.
The commercial take is the same so and limitations will come from our quota.
There is little doubt in my mind that there is a lot of waste in the commercial take that also needs to be addressed as I mentioned before but the extra take is our problem and will continue to be so.

In previous similar post over the last 13 years I have been a member on here, I have suggested  dividing the gulf up into say 4 sectors with a closed period for each sector once in every 4 years.
One problem with a total closed period is the the related businesses in the closed period still need to stay open so a total closure is very damaging to them(charter operators and shops). Increase in size limits dont work as it leaves more smaller fish to be squashed to death by netters.
I still back the closed system for certain areas of the gulf and strongly believe that all commercial (regardless of size) count towards the commercial quota but I also think that there should only be longlining allowed in the gulf.

That said the pressure should be on us as rec fishers as it is the increase in our numbers that are creating the problem.
Maybe we should be licensed and only allowed to fish a limited number of times throughout the year?

Popcorn time again(although Im of coaching bowls for the next few hours)

I am aware that commercial take has not gone up.

thats what i have said in previous threads,maf/mpi have no idea of our stocks.at the moment we are allowed 270mm and 9 fish,why not go to 330mm and 7 fish but lift commercial upto 280mm from the persent 250mm,surely taking fish at 250mm is doing real damage.ok the comms boys will need new nets to allow release of the smaller fish.what do they do with a 250mm fish?as 270mm does not feed the cat,i do not eat a lot of snapper,give catch away to the elderly but they do not get my gurnard

Up sizing will work for the first year, after that fish numbers will be the same.
Probably need to head down the same track as the aussies, minimum & maxium size limits and a season......

whoop there it is!