With an election looming, a new survey by Horizon Research has found saltwater fishery policies are important to voters. A nationwide survey reveals most (79%) Kiwis believe bottom trawling and dredging should be phased out of inshore fisheries and replaced with selective fisheries techniques with just 3% wanting them to continue unrestricted while 18% didn’t know.
The survey included about 194,000 voters – 5% of New Zealand’s adult population. The research also found 68% of Kiwis believe conservation ocean fishing policies should have top priority or be given more priority than they do now, by political parties. The survey also showed 59% feel the commercial fishing industry has too much sway over government officials.
Legasea has been keeping a close eye on fisheries policies of parties.
“Sadly it’s not looking good. So far only the Greens have released a fisheries policy. Both National and Labour have suggested one is coming while ACT believes other issues are more important.”
With an election looming, a new survey has found conservative fishing policies will be a top priority for many people casting their votes.
What is wrong with these political parties? They are so far out of tune with the public.
Fisher folks, FOCAS PLEASE:
Careful not to miss that huge thing with the trunk knocking over the furniture in the room, the zoo labels it Elephant. In fishing terms it’s called:
1.Ownership of fresh water, foreshore & seabed out to 12 N. miles.
2. You may have noticed by now fish inhabit water as a first choice.
3.Whatever authority owns/controls the water, owns/controls the fish.
4.The process is far advanced to hand that ownership/control to MOEDI TRIBAL IWI!
5your fishing is about to be at the behest & fees payable to MOEDIS!
6.That old tradition of grab the gear, lunch, chuck it in the boat & launch is about to end until the brown warden clips your ticket.
7.Welcome to fishing apartheid
My comment ist the same as Joe Toole, there is a massive voting block that appears to be completely ignored. Dumb asses?
When will the politicians wake up to the flaws in the Transferable Quota System which paves the way for politically powerful corporate fishing companies to wield power over the resource, the industry and management (mismanagement?) decisions.
I recall when the QMS (Quota system) was launched at a meeting of stakeholders (commercial, recreational and Maori) in Wellington, as president of the NZ Recreational Fishing Council I attended along with the council’s Wellington rep. John B Henderson for the recreational sector.
We warned the meeting that the transferable aspect would see “wheeling and dealing” by the predatory corporates and a domination of the resource by companies. Sadly our warning was true – over 80% of fish quota I believe is now owned by powerful corporates.
More recently I talked to a Fisheries Ministry officer who admitted the influence of the corporates currying favours by making political party donations, was an impediment to fisheries management.
I made submissions to the Maori Fisheries Bill in 1990 where I argued the fishery resource was owned by the public, i.e. the people regardless of ethnic background. In other words the NZ public, whether European, Asian, Maori, etc., forbears. Two Labour MPs Ken Shirley and Bill Sutton on the select committee aggressively verbally attacked me when they were meant to be listening not bullying.
Interestingly another member iof the Select Committee NZ First MP Winston Peters walked in, sized up the situation and lambasted Shirley and Sutton who then retreated.
The analysis of political party’s policies is disappointing.
While the Greens rank best, sadly they seem more intent on social engineering than environmental.
I have the same thought as for all the other aspects of NZ life – there should be no distinctions/preferences on racial grounds.
My other thought – so few parties appear to have relevant policies.
Every time there is an election year all the parties frantically start trawling for votes. Whether it be setting the net with a promise to remove GST on fruit and vegetables, ban mobile phones from schools or slash wasteful government spending.
These policy announcements are designed to catch or sway as many voters as possible. Sure there is going to be plenty of “by catch”. Voters who won’t actually vote the way they want at the polls. But hey that’s an expected discard when trawling for votes tactics are used. As long as there are a few target species retained from the net.
Isn’t it ironic however that year on year no party has the guts to step up and completely ban bottom trawling from our inshore waters. Sure we get the odd sensational headline that promises to ban trawling but read between the lines and you will see that the ban only applies in a few marine reserves or marine protected areas. It’s actually less than a half truth announcement and in itself is “trawling for votes” tactic.
Yet with 80 % of the population against bottom trawling in our inshore waters the popularity of a bold announcement by any party to ban bottom trawling completely will have a sea of votes coming their way.
The best way to trawl for votes this election is to actually “ban trawling” for votes.
They will certainly catch my vote.
It’s a shame that politics has become more americanised, where the people and personalities seem more important than the actual issues. Fishing is so fundamental to the kiwi way of life yet no political party has shown that they give 2 hoots about what is good for our fishing future. I hope people do vote on fisheries matters because everything else they are currently arguing about will be the same in a year’s time. We need to get our families and friends to vote on the future of our fish.
Every party this year is going to behave like they are starved for votes. The reality is they, like everyone, are starved of decent policies.
Families are struggling with the price of healthy food, right now, right here in New Zealand. This results in poor public health which impacts our hospitals who are starving for medical staff and resources to cope. Yet we export enough food to comfortably feed a population of 40 million people.
But it gets worse. Our last truly accessible wild resource that all New Zealanders can access to help put food on the table is starving too. Every government that we have in power for the last 40 years has done nothing to curb the demise of our inshore fisheries. The place where people can go to gather food from our rich coastal waters.
They have allowed the scallop fishery to completely collapse through dredging and over fishing. Fish species are disappearing. They’ve allowed bottom trawling to continue despite 80 % of the population wanting it to be banned. They have allowed purse seiners to bulk harvest tens of thousands of tonnes of bait fish from our waters each year and then shipped all of it offshore for next to nothing in economic return. The result is that our fish left behind are starving and our sea birds are starving too.
The recent explosion of white fleshed snapper has been scientifically diagnosed as chronic malnutrition.
Our fish are starving, our birds are starving, our people are starving and to top that off our medical resources are starving.
Now we have the Fishing Industry Transformation Plan announced by government to help the fishing industry build more efficient trawlers to catch more of a declining fish population so we can export more to feed other countries and the fat pockets of our private fishing company owners. What an outstanding plan to starve us more.
No wonder our political parties are starving for votes. Just have a read of their fisheries policies if you can find them on the plate.