August 12, 2013
Snapper cuts deny manaakitanga
Opposition is growing to a plan to cut the recreational bag limit for snapper, with a Ngapuhi-hosted hui in Kaikohe last night rejecting the plan.
Scott McIndoe from LegaSea, the advocacy arm of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, says the hui called on Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy to adopt the council’s plan for restoring the health of the fishery.
He says Mr Guy’s ministry had behaved in a disgraceful manner by mismanaging the fishery and then leaving the commercial catch untouched while seeking to put recreational fishers on the beach.
"We will be denied a meaningful fisheries experience, denied the opportunity to get a reasonable limit of fish from an abundant fishery, denied the opportunity to be generous, which is what fishing is about. We go out there, we work, we invest, we come together with our friends, we buy the bait and the ice and the petrol, we catch the fish and we come home and we give them away," Mr McIndoe says.
There are further meetings tonight at Toll Stadium in Whangarei and tomorrow in Warkworth.
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