Concession Crayfish

[ Concession is a privilege granted to a sector or body that in turn disadvantages the majority]

How has a $240 million commercial crayfishing industry been allowed to influence the Ministry of Primary Industries [MPI] to their advantage for such a long period of time.

Concession crays are taken from CRA 3, CRA7 and CRA8.

Recreational are not permitted to harvest the same size fish.

After all this is a public resource, not a commercial resource.

At the moment crays from CRA3 and CRA8 are not allowed to be sold in New Zealand, only crays from CRA7 with strict packaging regulations.

If proposed changes to regulations allowing unrestricted sales of concession crayfish in New Zealand go ahead, there will be concession crayfish available at every corner dairy within five years.

I have plenty more to say but in the interest of political correctness, I will  refrain but if you wish to contact me, please feel free to do so. My contact

details are inside the front cover.

Recreational fishers need to understand where the future is heading.

Keep an eye on the NZRFC website for details.

George Zander

RFC Submission to Review of Inshore Fishstock Sustailability Measures for the 2012-13 Fishing Year

Context:

A national conversation on the future of marine recreational fishing in NZ is taking place from 14-16th February 2013 in Nelson. This conversation is part of the Future Search project. It is an opportunity for the people who care about fisheries in New Zealand to dialogue, discover common ground and agree on action plans for recreational fishing.

Given the sheer number of recreational fishers in NZ (around 1 million) and the rich diversity of beliefs, values and ideas held by all these people, a planning tool called Future Search has been chosen to guide the national conversation.

Expressions of Interest (EOI):

The ad being placed in key print and online fishing publications in addition to being widely disseminated to recreational fishing networks around the country – is an opportunity for anyone interested in participating in the February 2013 event to put their hand up.

Process to consider Expressions of Interest:

The Future Search Project Manager will receive all the Expressions of Interest and work with people to get details of their interest and experience in recreational fishing. This information will be provided to the multi-stakeholder steering committee for consideration.

Final decisions on the 70 participants in the February 2013 event will then be made by the steering committee at the end of August 2012.  The steering committee’s decisions will be guided by pre-agreed criteria and knowledge from their own stakeholder networks.

Invitations to selected participants will then be sent in early September. An explanation will be sent to non-selected participants about the process and ways they can still provide their input to the project.

Future Search website:

A website dedicated to the Future Search project is currently in development and will be live sometime in September 2012. This site will have information on the selection of participants process and ways for fishers to learn more about the project and have their voices heard.

Multi-stakeholder steering committee:

The steering committee make-up is purposely diverse to best ensure the diversity of the recreational fishing sector is catered for in the February 2013 event. The 10 members* on the steering committee have connections with the following interest groups:

• Recreational fishers in the North and South Islands with particular interests in sportfishing, angling, diving and sustenance fishing
• Recreational fishing advocacy
• Tackle and marine industries
• Fisheries media
• Youth interests
• Science and Environmental interests
• Maori interests
• Government

Members: Daryl Crimp, Bruce Hartill, Keith Ingram, Tania McPherson, Kate Mulcahy, Mike Shepherd, James Stevenson-Wallace, Scott Tindale

public notice ad for FS5

Contribute to Future Search: http://fishinfuturesearch.co.nz/contribute/

Notice_of_AGM_2012_and_Registration

http://fishinfuturesearch.co.nz/contribute/

After years of battling to be heard in the increasingly complex fisheries management processes in Wellington and indeed battling amongst themselves, some in the recreational fishing sector have decided that enough is enough. The wholly volunteer advocacy model being run is not working and is increasingly unfit to take recreational fishers into an abundant and sustainable future.

It is time to chart a new and different future for recreational fishing that has a strong and coordinated sector adding value to fisheries management. This will bring certainty to other fisheries stakeholders and to the overall job of managing for sustainable fisheries.

A presentation on the Future Search method and its usefulness to recreational fishing issues was given at the NZRFC annual general meeting in July. The Council voted unanimously to support the Future Search project as a way of fostering change across the whole sector.

The meeting design of Future Search 2013 comes from theories and principles tested in many cultures for over 50 years. The core conditions of success of the method involve getting the whole system in the room, getting participants to focus on future and common ground, not problems and conflicts empowering participants to self manage and be self responsible and finally having a global context for local action. The following video explains the Future Search method in simple terms.

The co-developers of the method, Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisbord can be watched here explaining Future Search.

The Future Search method has been successful on a wide variety of issues in countries as diverse as Northern Ireland, USA, Sudan, Brazil, Germany and many others.

To learn more about Future Search and how it can be applied to the challenges facing recreational fishers in NZ, read the following Future Search funding flyer

Donate to Future Search: http://fishinfuturesearch.co.nz/contribute/