Concerned for the others fishes, mammals and birds of our oceans?
Read this and weep.
Pundit's Claire Browning prises open the scab on a long-running fishing ulcer.
"Species ranked ‘nationally critical’ are dying in our fisheries. Legislative fixes have twice been voted down by the National party"
"Former Fisheries Minister, Hon Jim Anderton, put independent observers on 4% of all fishing boats: one out of every twenty-five boats. He found that one hundred percent of all reported by-catch of birds, seals or dolphins happened on the boats with observers aboard."
"“There is no Minister in any Cabinet who faces more litigation, legal challenges, or development of jurisprudence around the area of his or her portfolio than the Minister of Fisheries. That is the nature of the industry,” says Eric Roy, who chaired the Fisheries Act rewrite."
Even the commenters hit hard. An ex MAF observer says:
"But fisheries is the most corrupt industry in NZ, and the entry of former Soviet kleptsiarchs via the leasing/foreign crews mechanism has done nothing to improve that. The Vietnamese crewmen who recently perished down south are only the most recent victims of a perniciously under-regulated industry that should, properly administered, be safe, and returning several times as much as NZ's total agricultural production - because that is the scale of the resource involved."
4 comments:
I've heard fishermen bragging about shooting seals off the bow and cutting up dolphins so they don't wash up on the beach.
There are some real shockers in this industry.
By the way, did you see those crazy Rivertonian fisherman crossing the Grey river bar on the news last night?
It's a nasty business Shunda.
I did see those fishing boats miraculously surviving a pounding, wringing, wash-cycle mega-agitation as they were pumped over the bar. WishedI was on board! I do love the feeling of being at Death's door!
If I was on board my stomach contents would have bailed!
"On Fish" I'd like to hear Busted Blondes thoughts on this. She has had some pretty forthright things to say about shonky fishermen in the past.
Has she FBB?
Her Dad's a fisherman I'm guessing.
As too your stomach contents - yes, it'd be slippery underfoot had I been aboard also!
Speaking of which, my father-in-law was saying only recently that when the Spitfire pilots returned (if they did) from the dog-fights over Britain, their cockpits were generally decorated with what had been the contents of their stomachs - even in training, I was told.
Wash-down must have been less than fun.
At least on the ocean there's sluice-water everywhere!
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