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The Fishing Paper May front page

The new look Fishing Paper and all new New Zealand Hunting News is out now.
This month we include the autumn edition of our Mayday safety supplement designed to help you stay safe in the great outdoors. It includes the amazing story of how one man's life was saved by his personal locator beacon.
Join a couple of blokes as they hunt the Roar on the West Coast. Read how authorities are coming down hard on users of illegal dog tracking collars and are raiding houses! After nearly three years our first Nelson tagged kingfish is recaptured. Check out a 117lb groper ... plus tonnes more all in the May issue of The Fishing Paper and New Zealand Hunting News.

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Merger Threat To Fisheries

"The announcement of a merger between the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries could be just another nail in the coffin of public access to a feed of fish from our inshore fisheries or an opportunity to ensure proper recognition of our rights are given effect", said New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council (NZRFC) president Geoff Rowling.

"Not content with having ripped the heart from Mfish during the strategic review two years ago they are now destroying its soul by turning it into a completely commercially orientated backroom section within a much larger organization. That review saw a significant reduction particularly in human resources committed to managing fisheries for the public and this merger will only serve to speed the devolution of control to commercial interests.

It is plain from Government statements the emphasis will be on gaining the greatest commercial gain from our fisheries and it follows this will occur at the expense of public access. There seems to be complete denial of the crucial part that access to a feed from our shores plays in the daily lives of thousands of New Zealanders just trying to provide their kids with a healthy feed.

On the other hand the Government could recognise the difficulty present voluntary organizations will have defending public access to a fair share in a new super-sized ministry with a less informed and more over worked Minister. The much better resourced and organized sectors of commercial and Maori will ride roughshod over the public share unless the Government does something about leveling the playing field.

It is very unlikely the Government refuses will provide a proper section within the new ministry structure to look after the public's interest, so the very least they should do is fully fund an independent investigation into how this interest can be better represented and protected. Now is the time for a national discussion about how we guarantee access to abundant fisheries for all New Zealanders now and into the future.

The NZRFC is ready to take part in any new initiative to facilitate this discussion with the view to improving representation and protection of public access to a reasonable daily bag. It is crucial for the public that having shared the pain in rebuilding many of our inshore stocks over the last 25 years we don't just see them all disappear into containers for processing in China.

Geoff Rowling
President NZRFC
Ph 0274 593557