I had a visit on Thursday afternoon from a member of the investigation staff for the Ministry of Primary Industries. I spoke to him briefly regarding the proposed changes to the recreational catch limits in Snapper one.

According to their [MPI] research, which is quite considerable, with the increase in population of the Auckland area, plus the huge increase in the number of small boats, kayaks, tinnies etc, the recreational catch of snapper over the last few years is estimated to have gone up by a whopping 600%.

The reason for his visit was over something far more serious so I did not pursue the subject further. However, it was interesting to hear from someone who was directly involved in the research side or fisheries.

One other thing he did mention, none of the professionals working out of Napier have a quota for snapper, so they actually take measures not to catch them. Because of this any snapper they do catch cannot be landed, in fact they would be penalised should they do so.