Hangler. I wasn’t going to reply to any of this as I have no desire to give you any more oxygen than necessary to spout your negative and uninformed drivel. However I will outline why I said a couple of things.

1/ Asians: A huge amount of our fish end up in Asian markets. They end up there because Asian countries appear to have no concept of environmental sustainability. They fish out there waters and then try to plunder everybody else’s. This is not racist ranting but well documented fact, historically through Korean fleets, the Japanese market, foreign charter vessels and more recently the ever growing presence of China who are in the process of introducing massive fishing trawlers into the Pacific.

Having overpopulated, polluted and raped their own oceans they are now hungrily eying the Pacific Islands, Australian and New Zealand. If you doubt veracity of my concerns take a look at the ravaging of the tuna and shark population and ask what’s next. It’s been well documented on television and proven by those who are trying to catch such fish as yellow fin. If you’re passionate and GENUINELY concerned about the fishery you would have to have been living under a rock not to know this. Our fishery is constantly under threat from corporate and political greed, who are willing to sell our resources to Asian/foreign interests to line their own pockets . And it’s us, the recreational fisherman who are being asked to pay for it

If you have any doubts about Asian interests, look in your in own bedroom. It’s pretty obvious your own wife knows which side her bread is buttered when it comes to wanting to be in this country and to enjoy our fishery as indeed many Chinese do. I had the pleasure of hosting several young students from China over the years and I can say they were by and large really great people. I can also say that not one of them was very keen on heading back to China at the end of their stay, in fact quite a few didn’t and are busy overstaying and hiding in Auckland. They recognised pretty quickly what we had in this country including our fisheries which from your comments you seem quite happy TO GIVE AWAY.

2/ Economic interests. What garbage. Here’s the facts taken from a recent report that examined the fishery in relation to the Foreign Charter Vessels used by New Zealand Fishing Companies so they don’t have to pay real wages to REAL New Zealanders .

There are actually 11,500 people employed in NZ in the fishing industry. Most of them probably work in shitty factories where they take home $13.50 an hour along with the joy of smelling of fish for the rest of their 24 hours. A lot of the foreign owned fishing vessels are manned by Asians who routinely, exploit beat and rape their own crewmen and pay about $2.00 an hour if their lucky. This is the true picture of your so called “major export earner for New Zealand”. Sure the aquaculture industry makes 1.56 billion, but out of this the commercial fishery provides around $296,000 to our economy. So whose getting this money? Sure as hell isn’t the ordinary kiwi. But look carefully at the Business Round Table factory owners and corporate iwi and you’ll soon see the magnificence of the trickle down affect of your so implied export bonanza. The rich are getting richer while we the recreational fisher are told we must give up our rights for god and country. What TOTAL CRAP.

Contrast this with what could be if we actually curtailed the commercial fishing industry to a level of real sustainability and looked at how much we could earn through tourism and education. I would welcome any Chinese tourist coming to our country to sample our hospitality enjoy catching 10 snapper and spend money as well as learning about the benefits of sustainability and looking after the environment. And the money earned would go to real New Zealanders and not a privileged few.

3/ Torpedo Users. I wasn’t referring to all torpedo users but just you and your mate Te Hori. Both of you apparently frame your sad arsed arguments around self interest. You never catch 10 snapper so who cares if they cut the limit. Won’t affect me. Is there any concern for the state of the fishery in these comments or is just the joy of hearing the sound of your own voice criticising anybody else who dares to speak. Well let me tell you something pal. I’ll speak my mind any day of the week regardless your jaded and negative attitudes.

And I’ll say this in closing. . Personally I don’t have a problem with a small reduction in limits as long as this is matched by cuts in the commercial quota. If there not prepared to make sacrifices then why should recreational fishermen?

You can sit there Hangler, mocking those who dare to raise any points contrary to your rather blinkered point of view if you wish. And in some respects you will be right. There will be a lot of anger, a lot of hand ringing and ineffective protest. But amongst this, people will put forward submissions and will fight these proposals. They won’t win but at least they’ll keep the pendulum from swinging completely in favour of political and commercial self interest and greed. It is because of this passion and drive that you constantly attack and deride, that this country still has a limit for snapper and that we haven’t been reduced to only being able to catch red cod. Thank Christ they don’t all think like you Hangler. Good luck to them I say.