Media Statement
For immediate release
Thursday, 26 August, 2004

Baldock calls for cool heads in fishing industry

United Future fisheries spokesman Larry Baldock today called on the fishing industry to be reasonable in its demand for kahawai, and to recognise that it is taking its share directly from the country's recreational fishers.

"One would hope this would temper their exaggerated claims of property rights being expropriated," Mr Baldock said in responding to Sanford managing director Eric Barratt's claims made yesterday.

"This is not about preventing any commercial fishing of kahawai. It is about eliminating the targeting of kahawai by purse seiners.

"And in doing that, I firmly believe Sanford's expectations should be addressed because the Ministry of Fisheries let them into the kahawai industry, so they should be reasonably compensated if we now want them out.

"However, when commercial fishermen talk property rights on kahawai, let's have them acknowledge at whose expense they are claiming those rights," Mr Baldock said. "A little good will will go a long way."

"And at $1.20 a kilogram, this is a not a high-value fish that is going to close factories, so let's keep the silliness out of it."

Mr Baldock said it has long been accepted reality that kahawai is a recreational fish.

United Future is promoting a Supplementary Order Paper to the Fisheries No3 Amendment Bill, revoking the immediate introduction of kahawai into the Quota Management System (QMS).

Commercial fishing interests also need to understand that if the kahawai stock is not rebuilt, their quota will be meaningless anyway, he said.

Ends.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>