Just a note to spread the word. My brother Steve has finally managed to get a meeting with Craig Foss in Hastings tomorrow to discuss the trawler problem in HB (Kairakau for him, to be precise).
He's been trying to get a response from MPI for weeks and finally managed to do so by accusing them of taking backhanders from the commercial sector. They decided not to ignore him after that.
He's trying to push for the trawlers to be limited to outside the 30m mark on the east coast here.
Thousands of rec fishermen have offered verbal support but very few have the courage to actually front up in person and do something about it.
Anyway we need FACTS about the state of the rec fishing in HB.
We need letters (at the least) from people who have had kontiki's chopped off by trawlers. Where when etc.
We need photos of trawlers working close to the shore.
This is going to get really ugly.
He's already been threatened over the phone etc.