Once again Government looking to be worse for marine conservation than National
Radio NZ reports:
The government is considering scrapping the rollout of cameras on commercial fishing vessels altogether.
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash said many in the fishing industry were unhappy with the camera proposal and all options were on the table – including dumping it entirely.
One of Mr Nash’s first moves when he became the Fisheries Minister was to put the brakes on the rollout of electronic monitoring of the commercial fishing fleet.
The former National government came up with the plan last year, saying it would protect the sustainability of fish stocks and act as a deterrent against illegal activity, like fish dumping.
On top of the effective scrapping of the world’s largest marine sanctuary in The Kermadecs, this shows that all the rhetoric from Labour and Greens on environmental issues is lagging well behind their actions.