The Ministry of Fisheries has decided to put ban on fishing on some parts of the Marlborough Sounds to help rebuild blue cod numbers but the fishermen were not happy with as they fear losing their earning. They hold protest meeting at the Waikawa Boating Club. The meeting was called by the Marlborough Recreational Fishers Association and was chaired by Mayfield Motors managing director Sturrock Saunders.
Mark Baxter, charter boat operator, said that the number of blue cod is dwindling but closing areas to cod fishing is not the answer. According to Baxter Double Cove had been closed to fishing for 50 years but no improvement in the numbers of cod had been seen yet.
The ministry’s proposal contains measures to combat dwindling numbers of blue cod in the Sounds and was presented for public consultation last month. The measures include closing the Sounds to blue cod commercial fishing, closing parts of the Sounds to all recreational and other hooks and line fishing for at least three years and reducing and tightening daily blue cod bag limits.
David Scranney, ministry’s representative, told that the government has not fixed any hard and fast rules. He added that the ministry needed public opinion in this regard so that blue cod populations could be rebuild. Recreational fishers put more pressure against the proposal saying minister know every thing but they don’t listen. Des Boyce, of SoundFish, a fisheries management group, urged people to submit their opinion with reasoning and not with emotion.
