MPI announces 2,722 submissions against Paua Proposal

Former All Black and Paua to the People spokesman Kees Meeuws, says “The South has spoken, we’re united, it’s clearly a bad idea to open up these areas.”

A mere 22 submissions (less than 1%) were written by paua quota holders, the commercial fishing industry and their allies in support of the MPI proposal.

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt says “We (Invercargill City Council) submitted in opposition. There is a clear lack of science. What we do know is this is a very valuable community resource that needs to be looked after.”

Dunedin Mayor, Dave Cull, says there are concerns that Paua is already being fished in an unsustainable manner.

“The industry has clearly not sustainably fished within its existing resource, otherwise why would it need to expand the area it wants to fish?

The opposition comprises grassroots submissions from the Paua to the People movement, recreational fishing and diving clubs, and from some of the largest representative bodies of the South including Ngai Tahu, Dunedin City Council and the Invercargill City Council.

Paua to the People have received no signal that the Paua Industry Council, or MPI are backing down on this.

Kees Meeuws says “Who in their right mind would go ahead with a proposal that has less than 1% public support? It would be undemocratic and quite frankly a bit reckless.”

Whilst MPI write their submission review report, due end of May, the Paua to the People movement are focusing their attention on the Hon. Nathan Guy, Minister for Primary Industries, and local MPs.

“We are going back to our groundswell movement of thousands, and urging all New Zealanders to make their views heard by writing letters to Nathan Guy and Southern MPs via the movement website www.pauatothepeople.org.nz.” says Kees.

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