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A Commission of Inquiry is the only answer

September 21, 2016 Leaked documents show the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has been aware of widespread fish dumping for years yet not acted to prosecute the offending commercial fishers. These papers highlight deeply rooted problems with the management of fisheries. Now recreational fishing and environmental interests are calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the Quota Management […]

Poll: Do you support LegaSea’s call for a Commission of Inquiry?

September 21, 2016 There is increasing public outrage over the decision by the Ministry for Primary Industries to not prosecute commercial fishers who admitted dumping fish. Video footage reveals between 20 and 100% of some quota fish were being discarded during every haul aboard trawlers off the east coast of the South Island. A media storm broke out […]

MPI needs to be overhauled following damning report

September 16, 2016 The Heron Report into why the Ministry for Primary Industries did not prosecute fish dumping paints a picture of an incompetence. The Report, which follows revelations that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has filmed fishing boats engaging in illegal activity over a period of several years, says the decision not to prosecute was “flawed” […]

Fryday FryUp – 16 September

September 16, 2016 Welcome to the FryUp – a regular look back at the week of fishing in the news.  It’s official. It’s all our fault. That’s right – never mind the trawlers, the overfishing and the dumping. Apparently the biggest risk to our fisheries future is recreational fishers and we need to regulate them at once. That’s […]

Commission of Inquiry Poll

September 10, 2016 LegaSea is calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the Quota Management System and how our fisheries are managed. Do you support LegaSea’s call for a Commission of Inquiry into the Quota Management System? There is increasing public outrage over the decision by the Ministry for Primary Industries to not prosecute commercial fishers who admitted […]

Fryday FryUp – 9 September

September 9, 2016 Welcome to the FryUp – a regular look back at the week of fishing in the news. Crayfish ‘functionally extinct’ Crayfish numbers in the Hauraki Gulf have dropped to such a low level they’ve now being called “functionally extinct” by the director of a research marine ecology consultancy company eCoast, Dr Tim Haggitt. Haggitt and […]

Fryday FryUp – 2 September

September 2, 2016 Welcome to the FryUp – a regular look back at the week of fishing in the news.  Quality over quantity The Quota Management System (QMS) is either world class and the envy of other countries or it’s a con, perpetuated on a people who would have had the wool pulled over their eyes. According to […]

Barry Torkington: An unholy alliance

August 31, 2016 The opinion piece in Monday’s Dominion Post (We’re catching fish but not value: why the QMS needs reforming) is critical of New Zealand’s Quota Management System (QMS) and with good reason. The academics who authored the piece used the context of a lack of value creation and capture to frame their point. If the New […]

Trawling banned 600 years ago

August 26, 2016 Bottom trawling is an indiscriminate method of fishing which has been around for hundreds of years, more or less unchanged. For centuries people worldwide have scoured the sensitive ecosystems from the bottom of the seas. What were once beautiful environments, are now little more than barren wastelands. New Zealand is lucky in that our country […]

Fryday FryUp – 26 August

August 26, 2016 Welcome to the FryUp – a regular look back at the week of fishing in the news.  Slipping through the net? Radio New Zealand has asked the Ministry for Primary Industries about its prosecution rate in light of the damning report from Auckland University into fish dumping. Fewer than 1% of its prosecutions related to […]