Maori will be down to eating fish heads'

None of those who attended LegaSea's presentation on the government's Snapper 1 quota proposals in Kaikohe on Monday evening was happy, but it was former Labour Cabinet Minister Dover Samuels who was angry.

His people had been fishing the east coast since before 1840, he said, but if this proposal (to reduce the recreational/customary daily snapper limit to three per person) became law they would be restricted to eating fish heads.

"I've heard all this before, from all sides," Mr Samuels said.

"This agenda has been going on for years, but this proposal is the thin end of the wedge. It's a slap in the face, an outrageous situation, for those who have struggled to maintain their way of life, and who rightly regard the sea as their food basket.

"Tell the Minister that if he wants another Maori war we will start it here.

"(Minister) Nathan Guy is quite a nice bloke but he knows bugger-all about fishing. I don't think he is stupid enough to accept some of their (ministry) options, but we're up against a bureaucracy that thinks it knows more about fishing than the people involved."

Mr Samuels also had a blunt message for Maori who were involved in commercial fishing practices that wasted huge numbers of fish.

"If you're involved in these shenanigans then show your colours," he said.

"You can't sit on both sides of the waka. You are hypocrites; brown or white, it doesn't make any difference to me.

"This is a real opportunity for customary and recreational fishers to put this to bed forever, otherwise it will go on and on and on."

Labour list MP Shane Jones said the immediate imperative was to ensure that customary and recreational fishers would not be "stuck" with a maximum of three snapper per day, but there were broader issues.

"Maori got 10 per cent of the snapper quota in 1989," he said.

"Divide 450 tonnes by 28 tribes and you realise, we really do need to be Jesus to satisfy the tribal appetite (a reference to the feeding of the multitude).

"This Minister is quite weak," he added.

"He has already backed away from a limit of three snapper, so it's all about pressure, pressure, pressure. That's what will make the difference. No pressure and we in Wellington will assume you agree with what is proposed."

Noel Birchall told the meeting that the proposals were not driven by the Minister, however, but by his bureaucracy. And while Ministers changed, the bureaucracy did not."

Meanwhile LegaSea strategist Scott Mcindoe said all his organisation wanted was fair application of the law, while the ministry's response to LegaSea's case was a disgrace to democracy and a blatant attempt to change the way in which fisheries were managed.

"This is 82 pages of limits and graphs; it's written by lawyers preparing to defend themselves," he said, waving the ministry document.

"It has nothing to do with sustainability. It's about sovereignty. This is the carve-up."

Recreational fishers had made an enormous (but unacknowledged) contribution to fisheries conservation, while the commercial industry continued to use destructive, indiscriminate methods that were calculated at wasting some two million fish per annum.

"The dirty dark secret of dumping, discarding fish, must be exposed.

"These are signs of a poorly managed quota management system."

LegaSea's specific requests include that the Minister ban trawling and Danish seining in nursery and sensitive inshore areas, and that commercial waste be measured, reported and removed from quota.