Paua (PAU5D)

It appears that MFish have used the lowest estimate of the public catch – 22 tonnes (1995/96) on which to base its allowance for the public gathering of paua for the next 5 years.
It has done so at a time when the paua are at their lowest ever recorded biomass, when the commercial CPUE has plummeted 70%, when Customary Maori state clearly that it is increasingly difficult to find legal sized paua in shallow, sheltered reef.
Why does the MFish recommended “allowance” ignore the 1991/92 estimates of 39 tonnes and the 1999/2000 estimates, and then have the audacity to state that our catch is increasing.
Are MFish attempting to “pin down” the public to the lowest ever-recorded public harvest estimate and then attempt to constrain the public to that historically low level of catch?

For the full document (10 pages) :

If you have Microsoft Word www.option4.co.nz/ippdocuments/pau5d.doc (44Kb)

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