Fishing and outdoors may 2018

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Of Predators, Possums and Poisons

The Government’s plan to end all hunting in NZ! A survey was done to estimate how much red meat is harvested out of our great outdoors by the public that hunt and gather wild red meats. It is estimated that the value of this superior in quality and organic meat to be in the vicinity of about one billion dollars.

This figure does not include foods gathered from fresh and salt water.

Now lets’ see, one Billion dollars, - hmmmm - that’s $200 million dollars lost in income taxes and $150 million lost in GST to the New Zealand Government and most probably billions of dollars lost to farming producers.

Is it that farming, industry and the New Zealand Government could have huge financial gains by eliminating wild foods that the public gather for free? Remember, the Sodium Fluoroacetate (1080) industry is controlled by government through its SOE and the Animal Deer - the real target for poisons?

Health Board is funded by farmers and Government. And the farmLivestock farmers pay a levy for Ombudsman’s Act and the Of- DoC’s mismanagement and bu- ing industry is a significant politiTB eradication, collected through ficial Information Act. As a char- reaucracy. Simply put deer and cal force in lobbying Government. deductions from farmers produce ity - no joking - it dodges taxes. wild pigs are introduced game Cellular agriculture is a hot topthrough the meat or dairy process- But it is all one big hoax founded animals while stoats, weasels, rats ic which plays directly into the ing plants, by Beef and Lamb NZ Ltd, on misconceptions and myths. and possums are introduced pests. hands of the government in reDairy NZ and the Deer Industry NZ. Why do farmers paying levies and Deer and wild pigs are not intro- moving venison and wild pork.

These organizations are sharehold- taxes put up with the suction- duced pests which is how they Natural and ‘free range’ will be ers of the former Animal Health ing of their hard earned money? are viewed by the government. New Zealand’s selling point Board, now called Ospri. All of the And it is based on de- “So we believe that our conserva- in the - quality natural meat. farmers’ levies plus a top-up of monizing the possum. tion lands should be managed Forest and Bird’s Kevin Hague sees a taxpayer Government funds go The Animal Health Board, Depart- to protect their indigenous eco- future where meat will be pumped to the Animal Health Board. Re- ment of Conservation and Regional systems and provide for a range out of massive stainless steel factomember farmers are taxpayers. Councils are the organisations that of recreation, not managed as ries in China and the United States.

The Animal Health Board was set have fabricated the lies and de- game preserves for hunting. These “We don’t have a future in comup by the New Zealand Govern- monized the possum. The purpose game preserves are in direct con- modity farming; we won’t be ment as an incorporated Society in is to dupe the general public and flict with the purpose for which able to compete on price. We that it is a stand-alone entity that the rest of the world that the only conservation lands are managed, do have a future as a producer is answerable only to the Minister salvation of our farming from TB and that is to protect our natu- of top quality natural meat.” of Agriculture. As an Incorporated and the salvation of our forests and ral indigenous ecosystems, wild- Removing access to wild veniSociety it is exempt from both the precious native birds from preda- life, and habitats.” Eugenie Sage. son and pork will ensure contors rest with the continual use “The Green Party opposes this sumers that want fresh natuof Sodium Fluoroacetate (1080). Game Animal bill because of ral meat will have no choice.

Why do these Government de- the pre-eminence that it gives The company Animal Control partments perpetuate the myth to introduced deer, tahr, cham- Products located in Whanganui of the demon possum, rats and ois, and pigs in the management processes 1080 into pelleted baits stoats and the wonderful use of of our public protected lands.” ready to be aerially sown by heliSodium Fluoroacetate (1080)? “In giving this privileged status to copter. The two directors of this Page 4 - Mussel farmers It is the bureaucrats ensuring their hunters and hunting, we seem to company are the Minister of Fiaccept liability continuation of often huge fat sala- have forgotten the deer menace nance and the Minister of Primary for debris on ries and luxurious empires to con- and the huge financial and resource Industries (MPI), two very high beaches tinue to use 1080? There is another investment by the Crown over ranking members of Parliament. element at work. Roger Douglas many decades in controlling deer Federated Farmers hold a seat too.

Page 5 - Hit and miss report on the QMS and Richard Prebble dreamt up and other pests on Crown land.” Now if you have not yet added State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). And now this Green MP is all this up, it means Federated Dubbed “Animal Control Products” the Minister of Conservation! Farmers and Government want Page 6- Mussel farming the company as a SOE has to make Job Losses? to eliminate wild food gathering increases anger a profit regardless of consequences. What about the Department of to have huge financial gains for Why else would the MPI and the Conservation worker - do they themselves. And the tool to do this, Page 7- Corruption in the Treasury the shareholders be in- toe the 1080 line for fear of los- Sodium Fluoroacetate (1080) to Seafood Industry volved other than to support this ing their jobs? One retired DOC get rid of wild game such as deer. idea? And the Company is called person told me at his estimate A Conspiracy?

Page 8- Doctor advises Animal Control Products not Pest 75% of DOC staff are opposed to A conspiracy theory you may 1080 Health Control which speaks for itself. 1080. But they dare not admit it. scoff. Maybe, but Man has conChecks So government through DOC, TB- Many DOC guys and gals got into spired since Julius Caesar’s day.

Free and regional councils drums these jobs because they love the Plotting and scheming does hapPage 13 - NZ Sports Flyfishing champs up business for the SOE by buy- New Zealand great outdoors and pen for self-interest, power or ing 1080. Any sane person can genuinely want to nurture our money, but it all does add up. see the economic stupidity. Our precious native birds and bush. The New Zealand Government has silent forests are a memorial to But perhaps the plot thickens? this grand plan to make New Zea-

SEE INSIDE

- By John Buchanan

land ‘predator free’ by the year 2050.

It is emotional scare mongering that we are in dire danger from predators. Ecological reality is every living thing is a predator including Man. When you Google what the NZ Government means by ‘Predator Free NZ’, they are only going to target the rat, stoat and possums. But a praying mantis is a predator. So is a ladybird. So is a kingfish and kahawai.

The main tool for this grand predator free plan is the deadly persistent, non-selective, inhumane super poison Sodium Fluoroacetate (compound 1080), which is aerially spread over vast tracks of the people’s beautiful back country.

DoC says in their literature that “It’s an opportunity for New Zealanders to protect our biodiversity and leave an impressive conservation legacy for future generations“.

What codswallop. It’s all about DOC and OSPRI’s managers’ salaries.

DoC have changed their stance to say pests such as rats, stoats and rats , but the evidence still points to killing deer and pigs.

They have changed their website to reflect a better profile but underneath the dragon sleeps.

What about all the other predators out there like the cat, dog, hedgehog, mice, kingfish, kahawai, lady birds and praying mantis and even Man? The Morepork, native falcon and hawks are predators too.

Even the fantail preys on insects.

The possum is a herbivore, it only eats leaves and foliage proven by Landcare Research studies. So does this make it a predator of bushes and trees? At least one Landcare Research scientist has tagged the herbivore possum as a predator such is the ignorance of some scientists.

With their use of the deadly 1080 and brodifacoum poisons DOC will leave a shameful, destroyed conservation legacy for future generations, because broad spectrum poisons kill every living thing including insects, lizards, frogs, and our precious native birds.

Will future generations thanks this generation for such a legacy?

Yet the bureaucrats in DOC are trying to soften the blow by targeting school children to brainwash them through our education system that all predators are bad and poisons are good.

About a decade ago, DOC employed a plethora of freshwater scientists.

Most of those, particularly those graduating from Auckland and Otago Universities were ‘schooled’ in the Forest and Bird mantra - native = good, introduced (pests) = bad.

Then, when DOC lost a significant amount of its funding, most of these ‘scientists’ were ditched. So where did they all go?

Well quite a lot of them went straight Cover story continued page 2...

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BRAG PAGE

Whitianga gentlemen Greg Stevens out fishing on Nadgee Fishing Charters from Te Kouma, Coromandel

Send your photos into mail@fishingoutdoors.co.nz

So the good ol Coromandel is proving the place to be if you want a feed of fresh snapper Coromandel Fishing Charters have been helping fill the bins with a good variety of fish.

Anglers have recently had excellent fishing out from Coromandel catching fish out on the ‘Nadgee’ a 13 m Australian hardwood trawler which has been converted to a Charter Fishing Vessel.

Fishing and Outdoors PO Box 10580, Te Rapa, Hamilton 3240 Ph 021 02600437 Editor Graham Carter mail@fishingoutdoors.co.nz 021 02600437 Advertising Sales Tracy Fairey Bay of Plenty 027 884 7156 Graphics: Astro Creative Photography: Sandi Tuan Regular Writers: Graham Carter James Speedy Ben Hope Frank Henry Dick Featherstone Tony Orman Rhys Smith John McNab Fishing and Outdoors is published

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Cover story continued ... to Regional Councils. Hence we have a discernible and sometimes blatant bias within Regional Councils in favour of native species and antagonistic towards introduced species such as trout and salmon.

Regional Councils have of course welcomed and played on this because (a) most of them are farmers or have farming interests; (b) they are also well schooled by the likes of Federated Farmers, and (c) they hate Fish and Game for continually showing up and publicizing their short-comings.

These people are as rabid as mad dogs and about as dangerous.

Deafening Silence Forest and Bird and the Green Party advocates of this poison programme have infiltrated local and central government to push this agenda. Organisations like NZDA, Fish and Game have been directed to pull their heads in and not comment. Their silence is like a thunderclap. The silence is deafening.

The NZ Government have concocted this predator-free NZ plan (which is completely unattainable) to suck everyone into give more credibility to the use of the deadly 1080 and brodifacoum poisons.

For example it is impossible to kill the pests in our rural areas. When you look at the areas that have been aerially spread we see a picture emerging that adds weight to the theory that the New Zealand Government and its associated authorities have an ulterior hidden motive to end all hunting and food gathering.

Take the example of the North Island’s Kaimanawa area of Clements Mill Road to the Oamaru River. This would be the most hunted piece of real estate being the home of the Sika deer. This area was aerially spread with 1080 last year.

This is real easy country with easy access and has very low populations of possum. The Rotoiti Forest was aerially spread with 1080 and this is private land that is hunted by a hunting club and is a major food gathering place for the local Tangata Whenua. The Tarawera Val-

ley is earmarked for 1080 later this winter; this is private land and a food gathering place for the locals.

Molesworth was “1080 nuked” when possum numbers are close to zero.

Further south, the areas that have been plastered with 1080 are the Routeburn Valley, the Caples and Greenstone Valleys, the Blue Mountains, the easily accessible areas of the Hollyford Valley, the Eglington Valley and the whole of the West Coast of the South Island.

Deer are the target. Molesworth Station now owned by the State and “managed” by DoC has recently been 1080’d. Reports are that 300 to 500 deer died through 1080 poisoning and many more deer are running round with 1080 residues in their bodies through sub-lethal dosages. All areas are significant to hunters. This is just a very small example of areas that have been aerially bombarded with 1080.

DoC says they use deer repellant to protect valued recreational species, yet time and time again we see this not working.

Bill O’Leary National President of the NZDA says “In plain language NZDA opposes the use of any poison when it is used in such a manner that game animals are killed.”

“Currently there is no evidence of 1080 being used to eradicate deer and wild pigs from National Parks.”

“The NZDA is aware that DOC has identified rats and mustelids as pests.

Pragmatically there is no current alternative to aerial poisoning when large areas of land are considered.”

He says that the NZDA preferred any method of control other than spreading poison by aerial distribution to be used for introduced pest eradication?

Yet Federated Farmers, Forest and Bird, Ospri NZ and TBFree state differently. They see wild pigs and deer as pest wildlife which could carry TB and poison accordingly guided by their surveys.

So while DoC says it categorises deer and pigs as game animals their sister organisations the ones that spread the poison see differently. It all adds to the theory that govern-

ment bureaucrats hunting and wild food gathering dissolved. We all know that Governments around the world want to disarm the law abiding public of firearms - except the USA - and that the United Nations Security Council is putting pressure on Governments for the disarmament of the public. Well if hunting is

going to end, it will be so much easier for the Government to make the disarmament of the public happen.

If you don’t have access to a private hunting block then your chances of shooting deer will be greatly diminished.

It is time for fight back. We all have to stand up and fight these

moves to end a way of life and the values we treasure. This is our heritage that we are losing. So all you apathetic hunters and fisher people, stand up and fight against these atrocities. To organisations like NZDA show some spine. Because once it’s gone, it’s too late!

Anti-Poison Public Targeted by DoC Spying

by James Speedy

The Department of Conservation has been spying on the anti-1080 poison public using controversial security firm Thompson and Clark, National Radio’s “Checkpoint” recently reported.

The surveillance firm uses secret chat channels to communicate with government departments, and share information about members of the public it’s monitoring for those departments.

The revelation drew strong reaction over the 1080 issue.

Andi Cockroft, co-chairman Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of NZ (CORANZ) said the spying showed the deceit and deception which some bureaucrats indulged in.

“This clearly demonstrates the levels to which the public’s government agencies will stoop to while pushing their abhorrent poisoning programme,” he said. “Worse still is DoC hiding behind OIA get-out clauses when they could easily release sufficient redacted information to prove or disprove the allegations?”

Checkpoint under the Official Information Act revealed that DoC has used Thompson and Clark to monitor anti-1080 activists since October 2016.

Laurie Collins spokesman for the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust described the spying as “bizarre and dangerous.” New Zealand was a democracy not a dictatorship run by bureaucrats.

“DoC seems to be in total denial of democracy and that they’re public servants supposedly accountable to the public. They are actually spying on their employers - a

sizeable chunk of the people who pay DoC’s bills and salaries. It’s melodramatic nonsense. It smacks of a propaganda war with introduced animal paranoia driving it.”

He added it was “police state stuff akin to a Third World country.”

On Checkpoint Bill Wallace, leader of the Ban1080 party currently in recess, said it seemed a “beat-up to give the department some credibility.”

Checkpoint revealed the intelligence was shared with DoC staff via multiple private channels on messaging app Slack. There was also a weekly phone briefing involving senior staff from both organisations. But DoC is refusing to release any information or communication from any of the channels.

“It is deemed that providing such information may prevent supply of such information in the future and therefore jeopardise the safety of our staff,” DoC’s director of safety, Harry Maher, said in an OIA response.

Checkpoint said DOC had spent $103,187 excluding GST with Thompson and Clark since 2015 and paid $3737 per month for the intelligence Thompson and Clark provided about anti-1080 activists - called a “risk assessment package”.

John Key was correct in saying that the GCSB was not spying on Kiwis but he inconveniently forgot to say that T and C were.

Harry Maher said DOC staff could be harassed if the intelligence from those channels is released, “and it also runs the risk of driving some of the conversations underground”, he said.

But the Prime Minister Jacinda Adern was not impressed with DoC’s furtive spying. Greenpeace has also alleged it was spied on by Thompson and Clark, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month warned government departments against using the firm to spy on the public: “Their behaviour around spying and so on is totally inappropriate,” she said.

Harry Maher said the intelligence gathering was necessary because of threats made by anti-1080 activists who in some cases had threatened to shoot down helicopters.

“They’ve threatened to kill our staff and their families, we’ve had physical confrontation, and we’ve had instances of tampering with vehicles, loosening wheel nuts.

“So we needed a specialist security company to help us with that because we just don’t have the resources or expertise,” Mr Maher said.

But allegations of vehicle sabotage and harassment were dismissed in Checkpoint by Bill Wallace.

“Their staff isn’t at risk,” he said on Checkpoint.

Laurie Collins said DoC’s behaviour was poor public relations.

The treatment of three pensioners at Whitianga 1080 storage was a P.R. disaster for the department.

“That and the paranoid squawking by DoC’s director-general over imagined sika deer releases, WARO operations, mega-1080 drops and now spying, aggravates their already poor public image to their taxpayer employers,” he said.

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AESTHETIC TEST DOOMS FISH FARMS Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has been bleating that changes may need to be made to the Resource Management Act if iwi are to make progress in aquaculture.

Why should Iwi be given preferential treatment? Are they giving any benefit from their profits to the Maori people?

When you consider the huge amounts of plastic and waste that mussel farms deposit under and around the farms, do we really need more?

Iwi farmers are no different to other mussel farmers, and the extra environmental damage is not worth it.

The Maori aquaculture settlement was designed to address a systemic imbalance in the amount of coastal space allocated to Maori, but there has been little development even when space has been identified.

Mr Jones, a former chair of Te Ohu Kaimoana Maori fisheries settlement trust, says many iwi are concerned at a recent Supreme Court judgment sets a high bar for fish farming.

And so it should when you consider the environmental damage and potential health risks.

“A concept called amenity value or aesthetic value has been elevated to such a point of primacy it’s going to be very difficult if not impossible in my view to expand the size of the aquaculture footprint, so Jones has gone crying to David Parker, the Environment Minister.

Jones says that he’s looking at a work programmes in terms of future reform of the Resource Management Act. But who will be the biggest loser? The NZ environment.

Jones says one of the projects that could be affected is a Ngai Tahu plan for fish farms in southern Fiordland.

Perhaps Jones would be better spending some of his billions buying fish quota back from iwi and making sure that money be spent on the local Maori planting trees that they own as settlement, rather than a fictional group like iwi that was created so the government could give them money. No way should there be any fish farms in Fiordland ever.

Say no to any aquaculture of any sort in any sound or fiord. The example is every other sheltered fish farm like the salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds a disaster ecologically, so why would any person with a brain allow or do the same thing in Fiordland one of the ecological wonders of the world.

Mussel farmers accept liability for debris on beaches After last month’s cover story in the Fishing and Outdoors newspaper; in a statement released by Gilbert James, the chairman of the Coromandel Mussel Farmers Association they accepted full responsibility for the debris that is washing up on the Hauraki Gulf beaches and under the water around the farms.

Gilbert James said: ‘Some nonbiological, i.e.: man-made material, notably pieces of farming rope, does escape from marine farms and this is cast ashore in intact condition typically on an adjacent beach.”

Mr James goes on to say that beach clean-ups are done annually and also says that some areas have more than one beach clean-up.

Yet to date we have three significant storms in the first four months so far this year and the mussel farm plastic debris is everywhere.

An annual cleanup does not deal with this as the debris is spread far and wide after each high tide.

What he also fails to address is the huge amount of mussels that are dumped over the side of the harvesters and not landed to be utilised

2 people. As a result, 2 vehicles and dive gear that were used in the alleged offending were seized.

Mike Green MPI said “Providing and sustaining a black market for those who are taking illegally is bad. We will come down hard on everyone involved and we will seize, when applicable, all the gear, equipment, and vehicles used in the commission of an offence.”

What he failed to state is the black

market trade will flourish because the commercial operators are not supplying local trade at reasonable costs and that their greed is causing the black market to flourish.

While the MPI and Police are focusing on these offences and not dealing with the cause these sort of black market operations will continue to rise.

Our councils are part of the problem Many people have put in submissions to our Regional Councils.

The Councils all say the right things in their consultation documents and then do not follow through these ideas because it would need a rate increase which costs votes.

Council staff deceive their elected Councillors in order to preserve the status quo and they have some elected people in their pockets as well.

For those of you who remember

the “Yes Minister” series on TV, a former mayor said that the politicians were embarrassed by it, the public were amused and entertained by it, and the public servants thought it was a training manual.

What happens in our councils is a case in point.

The CEOs are virtual dictators. Bob Parker lost the Christchurch mayoralty largely because he would/ could not criticize his CEO. If he

The well-head issues highlighted that there was a gap between what elected reps are told and what is actually happening. Included in the small print of the LTP documents on line, but not printed, is the following: https://www.ccc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/The-Council/ Plans-Strategies-Policies-Bylaws/Plans/Long-Term-Plan/ draft2018/Financial-Strategy2.pdf At the preferred option rates increase “wastewater assets would deteriorate, possibly resulting in increased wastewater overflows and slower response times” (Financial strategy pg5, first bullet point).

“With the exception of water supply, the proposed capital renewal programme does not provide sufficient investment in asset renewals to maintain the current levels of service” “The number of wastewater system blockage complaints is expected to increase over the next ten years and response/ resolution times will decline for faults and blowbacks.

Resident satisfaction with wastewater system reliability is expected to decline as a result.”(Financial Strategy Doc pg 17- Three waters.” ....... and the buggers will probably get away with it unless exposed!

as fertilisers. He also ignores that fact that large amounts of mussel rope is trucked to landfill areas while the smaller pieces are left.

These smaller pieces create a significant navigational hazard as one fishing charter operator found out when he ran into a coil slightly submerged and destroyed his outboard motor.

The state of the seafloor under some of the farms in some cases is deplorable and contravenes the resource consents and code Out of practice that the farms require. By

Massive black market pāua bust A group of Wellington divers are facing charges for gathering excess pāua and offering to sell it on the black market.

The MPI operation targeted a group of people who had been diving in isolated areas around Wellington’s south coast that are mainly accessible only by way of specifically equipped 4x4 vehicles.

It was discovered the pair were in possession of more than 600 pāua - 30 times the daily limit for

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had however the guy would have resigned and got an estimated $5 million for “constructive dismissal”.

The guy had already got an undisclosed out of court settlement from councillors who attacked him.

Canterbury, the water wise, is a basket case. No matter where you live, there is a basket case coming to you.

“The council needs a comprehensive approach to water issues and that it is driven by the local community.

021 0733374

This sort of stupidity is happening around the country.

Those wastewater discharges screw up fishing/swimming rivers and beaches everywhere.

The plain fact of the matter is that Local Government NZ is part of the problem, and not part of the solution.

They tell more public porkies than DoC, and you have to try really, really hard to do that. They are completely captured by the agricultural industry. They mostly operate in secret - in committee.

As for ‘democratic’ processes, have you had a good look at how their electoral system works? Even Fish and Game NZ could learn a thing or two from them about getting the outcomes you want.

Most Regional, District and City Councils currently have their long-term plans out for ‘public consultation’.

These are the plans that they have developed in committee, based their budget on, buried any inconvenient facts so deep they will never see the light of day, and they now are giving the public the ability to ‘agree with them’.

Try getting them changed, that’s quite a different story. And who has the time and patience to go through even one of them with a fine tooth-comb, let alone all of them?

But it is a huge problem, nationwide.

And individuals and industries aren’t going to change their behaviour to achieve better freshwater outcomes while they have LGNZ (their regulators) in their pockets. Worse, we have cabinet ministers blithely quoting their lies as fact, and as justification not to change things.

It details how stacked our local zone committee is with industry interests and also how they are able to be there - because they have an exemption from the auditor general’s office.

And is why water issues take a back seat.

This is corruption through and through.

Labour, Greens, and NZ First I think were all aghast at Nick Smith’s government’s puppet squashing democracy.

A return to democracy at Environment Canterbury (ECan) appears unlikely before 2019, despite Labour’s longstanding objection to the status quo.

The last Government removed democratically-elected councillors in 2009 - 9 years ago! - and replaced them with seven commissioners the following year.

One of the sacked councillors, Eugenie Sage, is now Minister of Conservation.

As a principle, the Smith/National government’s actions were deplorable.

Book review of Charlie

the

Wild Paterson

Out of the Wild is more than just a candid account of one man’s battle against the elements over a seven year period. It is a story of tenacity, hope, determination, and share guts.

Charlie’s story unfolds as he details the issues he faced in building a dream, fighting the bureaucracy and wild weather of Fiordland National Park with nothing more than a dogged determination.

Hunting deer for food in the thick Fiordland rainforest around his wilderness home, to using the old traditional methods to store his kills, through to trapping and living off the land on the smell of an oily rag.

His escapades tell tales of adversity, lack of finances, ill-health, blackmail, battling against powerful opposition which detail the levels of cor-

ruption in our beloved government.

His description of DoC is very accurate …… ‘the loser here is ….conservation in general. Imagine the money flowing into DoC to fight introduced pests the biggest problem by far in the Park and a battle DoC is losing …….against introduced pests.

Like all government departments of its ilk, it is to top heavy, full to overflowing with over-paid, career driven bureaucrats and eccentric, long haired academics wearing the latest expensive outdoors gear…… wasting the limited DoC resources on new office furniture and the latest roll out of PR, HR and OSH courses for staff, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with conservation. It’s DoC’s upper and middle management who ….have lost their focus of ‘on the ground’ or ‘rock face conservation’ to their new demigods of Academia, of Bureaucracy, of Commerce and of

Culture. Taking much needed money, resources and time away from their ‘Bio-diversity Teams’ which engage in genuine, on-the-ground conservation work of killing pests. The silent forest is a memorial to DoC’s mismanagement and bureaucracy.’

Out of the Wild is a unique New Zealand wilderness story.

Politics - M.Ps Amnesia Agony It never ceases to bemuse that politicians once they are no longer in government can cry foul and suddenly take the moral high ground.

Do they consider people are stupid?

Or is it just that they have conveni-

ent memory failings, i.e. amnesia?

Take new National Party leader Simon Bridges who on a Newshub interview, March 3, boasted “My record on the environment is strong.” a But let us pause for moment and recall.

In 2014, as Energy Minister, “he signed off on mining exploration on Department of Conservation land at Victoria Park forest.”

Well Newshub need to get one thing correct. It is not DOC land - it is public land, owned by the people. DOC is the caretaker.

When Bridges was interviewed on television about signing off oil and gas exploration rights for the country’s biggest forest park, he admitted he did not know where the Victoria Forest Park was. For Simon Bridge’s information it is in the Lewis Pass area, near Reefton and Springs Junction.

The Victoria Forest Park aside, what was National’s record environmentally and particularly with the outdoors?

Very memorable, unfortunately, was Environment Minister Nick Smith’s strident snarling denials that rivers were clean. At the same time the news and photos of Canterbury’s Selwyn Fiver, once a dry fly river of high quality and revered by the late George Ferris,, was a stony ditch with occasional algaeinfested pools. The Orwell River was similar. The National government led by Smith, ditched the democratically elected Environment Canterbury Council, and put in its own stooge sycophantic, compliant, subservient commissioners.

The same minister (Smith) parroted by a fawning Conservation Minister in Maggie Barry, then launched “The Battle for the Birds”

- by Rupert Pye

with 1080 as the main weapon to repel imagined hordes of rats. Smith went to ridiculous oratorial lengths, sermonising about rats and predators in “biblical proportions.” Smith seemed ignorant of Landcare Research which showed fast breeding animals like rats swell rapidly in numbers following 1080 drops.

Within four years, rat numbers from surviving rats have grown 400 percent from levels before poisoning.

Smith, Barry and Bridges seemed ignorant of 1080 being an insecticide poison which has by-kill of anything else which ingests it. It poisons the ecosystem Thereby birds, animals, such as deer, succumb to the poison. Unlike rats, most are slow breeders and take decades to recover in numbers.

Bridges should be reminded of plundered sea fisheries to name another matter of the legacy the John Key led National government left. Also the sales of farm lands to foreigners, some being iconic high country stations with high outdoor recreation values.

Bridges would do better to think before bragging.

Meanwhile the new government should be watched closely and in particular to see if NZ First delivers on its promises to end aerial 1080, sensible firearm laws, clean rivers, and “sustainable sea fishing with guaranteed access for recreational fishers and the protection of existing game species.”

They should unlike Simon Bridges, realise the people have long memories. will wait and see.

We

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Hit and miss report on the Quota Management System According to an Environmental Defence Society (EDS) a report into inshore fisheries ‘Voices from the Sea’, written by its policy director Raewyn Peart and published by the NZ Seafood Industry states that the Quota Management System (QMS) is a success in some areas, and a miserable failure in others.

How many reports and assessments of our inshore fishery does one have to wade through and there have been many over the last few years.

It normally becomes clear very quickly if the independent author of the report has been commissioned by or has worked for MPI. Any person who has worked for MPI has almost always been brainwashed into thinking of the fishery as an economic entity as opposed to an environmental entity that needs to be self-sustaining to be of benefit to any person.

In some case’s the person commissioned to perform an assessment of the fishery has no knowledge of the fishery in terms of practical sense because they have spent their time studying at University in an effort to learn more about the process and how to make a report for a ministerial inquiry.

It could be that the person commissioned to do an enquiry into our inshore fishery has a Degree in Law or Forestry.

This does not mean that a person who is a QC can’t do an effective assessment of our inshore fishery as a professionally educated person;

it just means they have to learn about the fishery as they do the assessing.

If an inexperienced QC was to look for information on the inshore fishery there are only two places to source that information.

One would be the records of MPI itself and the other would be the commercial fishermen who catch and record their catch.

This is and always has been the major issue when assessing the fishery catch and sustainability because for the best part the commercial fishers have not been recording accurate or truthful catch returns for 30 years or so.

The commercial fishers know far more about their fishery than they will ever say. The decline in the crayfish in Cray 2 is a very good example of this. MPI took small steps to rebuild this fishery when what was needed was big quota cuts in an emergency fashion.

MPI consulted with commercial crayfishers over this decline and of course, the crayfishers denied that any such radical quota cut was needed.

From as far back as 1942 the Cray 2 fishery has been in decline and should now be closed to commercial exporters forever.

The commercial fin fishers are no better than the crayfishers in their effort to protect annual income comes as a greater priority than that of a sustainable fishery. There is no way commercial fishers would paint any more than a rosy picture

to a QC who may ask questions.

But worse still the commercial fishers are now trying to and in some case’s succeeding in convincing the QC that the recreational fishers are to blame for the demise of the inshore fishery.

The inner Hauraki Gulf is the best example that the recreational fishers are not to blame for the demise of the inshore fishery. The fish population is very healthy in the Gulf despite the thousands of recreational who fish there every day.

This area has the highest population of recreational fishers in any water space in NZ and yet the fish population and size in this area is increasing. If the commercial fishers were right the area would be depleted of fish in the highest recreationally fished area first. But this is not the case and it proves that the commercial fishers are just looking for a scapegoat for their disgustingly wasteful fishing practices in the past.

The reason there are so many fish in the inner gulf is that there are no bottom trawl vessels allowed. Therefore no fish have been dumped by commercial fishers for 30 years and not bottom damage has occurred for 30 years.

Stop blaming the recreational fishers for a delegation of our inshore fisheries by the exporters, the proof is in the gulf.

If a QC wants to know how to rebuild a fishery, it’s simple kick out the exporters and trawlers outside the 12nm limit.

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Rollout of fishing cameras important practical step National is moaning about the Government’s explanation for its reluctance to install monitoring cameras on commercial fishing vessels to better protect our marine life falls short of being credible, National’s Conservation Spokesperson Sarah Dowie says.

What she fails to explain is how National botched the rollout of cameras with a poor monitoring programme and the use of cheap Mickey Mouse cameras that wouldn’t pick up a blowfly on a toilet roll.

That is why Nash has delayed the roll-out as he investigates a decent workable system.

The Associate Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage agreed that cameras on fishing vessels are a useful monitoring tool to help protect seabirds and other mammals.

“This Government has delayed the rollout of electronic monitoring on commercial fishing vessels and is even considering removing them entirely, despite the advocacy of the Minister and the fact we know they will result in less harmful bycatch.

Sage a former Forest and Bird advocate can’t be trusted in her current role of destruction or collusion (DoC) as she says one thing and means something entirely different.

The greens are yet to discover there are other fish in the sea besides dolphin and their main supporters, forest and bird may have enough voting power to convince the government they need cameras to protect sea mammals from their continued slaughter of the commercial fishers.

NZFirst know full well there are fish in the sea and their supporters from the commercial fishery have only the dollar value of the fishery in mind. Shane Jones will be very likely to support the fishery of NZ as a financial entity there to be squandered until the last fish has gone.

Dowie says the Department of Conservation has gone as far as to say it would be the single most important step we can take now to better protect our seabirds and marine mammals like dolphins. Yet National are the very party that allowed the trawlers to continue fishing in the Maui habitat. How could anyone take her seriously when she speaks with a forked tongue?

“The Government needs to explain exactly what and who among the Coalition partners is blocking this very sensible technology from protecting seabirds and marine mammals like dolphins.

“That’s why the previous Govern-

ment had committed to it – and why the current Government’s reluctance is so hard to understand.

“The deaths of five Hector’s Dolphins last month was a real tragedy. They are endangered and the Government should be doing more to protect them – instead it is doing less and no one seems to be able to explain why.

“Eugenie Sage has washed her hands of it – saying questions around the protection of our marine species are a matter for Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash.

“New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters has vehemently objected to suggestions it might be New Zealand First preventing the rollout.

“So who is it? And why?

“Either way, someone needs to front and explain what’s going on,” Ms Dowie says.

NZ First want the Kermadec Fishery for Maori and is busy doing backroom deals with Fishing Companies in a failed bid to ensure it survives the next election when punters are taking bets that NZ First will be lucky to get many if any votes now that it has betrayed its voters and supporters over its own ignored fishing and 1080 policies.

NZ First has failed its very own voters and supporters miserably.

Aquaculture arrogance at all time high Submissions on the proposed National Environmental Standard for Marine Aquaculture closed on 8 August 2017.

The submissions can be read at https://www.mpi.govt.nz/ news-and-resources/consultations/proposed-national-environmental-standard-for-marine-aquaculture/submissions/ Redactions have supposed to have been made to the documents consistent with the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). Email ad-

dresses, phone numbers and addresses of submitters have been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA, to protect people’s privacy.

Submissions have been grouped alphabetically by surname, business, organisation and Iwi name.

Some of the submissions show the arrogance of the submitters in relation to how they view their ability to use the water space with complete disregard to the Resource Management Act, the Public that use the areas for rec-

reational purposes and the possible effects on the ecology of the areas.

This blatant arrogance beggar’s belief, these people seem to forget that the water space belongs to the people of New Zealand and must be treated with respect.

If a change to the RMA by government was seem as bullying of a breach of public right to public water space, the protesters would most likely take their action to either a legal or illegal action to prevent any further erosion of their public rights.

6

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Mussel farming increases anger

good sized Greenshell mussels As the demand for seafood from mussel farms grows; so does the pollution and damage to the ecology of the seafloor around the Firth of Thames.

Seaside communities are again brassed off with the proposed increases in mussel farming applications.

On the western side of the Firth of Thames in the Hauraki Gulf, the coastal area from Miranda north locals and visitors regularly collect mussels from the beaches.

Here the mussels smell so badly they have to be washed in fresh water so the mussel spit out the brown sludge before they can be consumed. They are covered in hair and barnacles; the meat is skinny and full of brownie ‘shit’.

This is caused because the mussel farmers strip the lines and dump the unwanted mussels under the farms. These mussels fall to the bottom, where they lie in the thick congealed toxic mud and are then eventually washed ashore with the tidal flows. Locals believe that the mussels are affected by the proximity of the mussel farms to the beaches.

What happens is that when the mussels are harvested the vessels dump a huge amount of broken and damaged mussels back into the sea around the farms. Over time this dumped waste ferments and becomes a foul smelling sludge.

They are so close to the beaches that the current and low tidal flow doesn’t have time to wash the sludge under the farms further out into the Gulf, and as the stripped mussels lie in it while waiting to be washed ashore they get affected.

The residents of the surrounding Hauraki Gulf have now realised that mussel farms are ecologically far worse than Salmon farms as they find their pristine beaches turned into a cess pit of plastic ropes and foul smelling mussels.

About 15 years ago, applications for mussel spat farms in more than 10 sq km of coastal water in the Firth of Thames off Kaiaua roused local tempers. The Kaiaua people stopped the spat farms because the greedy mussel farmers wanted exclusivity to grow seed mussels. They fought this because of the low current and tidal flows. They believed that the existing farms were suffi-

cient and that the pollution would get worse and worse. This is exactly what has happened. Now some of the areas are so badly affected the mussels are not fit for consumption.

These mussel farms don’t belong in this water space it is too shallow with not enough tide flow to disperse the toxic waste produced by the high intensity aquaculture farm.

A former mussel farmer explains: ‘By the time that the harvesters get over to the Kaiaua side (especially in the summer months) where time is of the essence when harvesting mussels these particular farms are now not suitable for growing Greenshell mussels. Being in the industry for 26 years as a mussel farmer we have seen a

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steady decline in the quality and standard of a harvestable mussel.

With coastal areas becoming more contaminated it spells for a very untidy and unsustainable industry.’

‘There is a total disregard for the ecosystems from the mussel farmers because of the costs of labour, fuel, levies, control checks and product costs.’

Aquaculture has now lost social licence to the point that a mussel farm is like a prison; nobody wants one in their back yard.

The Kaiaua Coast was also developing tourism area being promoted as the Pacific Highway Coast noted for its migratory birds and undeveloped character.

It’s time for the Environment Court

to evict the mussel and oyster farms out of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park because it is clearly not acceptable for the area to be treated with such bloody minded disrespect as the commercial fishers and aquaculture farmers have done in this case.

DoC’s double standard A recent TV programme highlighting attacks on DoC staff while they are being attacked while going about their business has been called as complete fabrication when the opposite appears to be the case.

No proof or evidence was forthcoming or that these socalled events even occurred!

Surely this fact would raise eyebrows with the public?

Yet contrary to this DOC staff and illegally employed DOC contractors have attacked people going about their business in public places.

These complaints were reported to the Police who did not accept the complaints despite witnesses who supported the allegations.

Why is there a double standard?

Is it strongly believed that this is another PR stunt to gain public sympathy as DOC are the most prolific liars on the planet.

The real issue is 450 million poison baits are dropped every year in our environment. Animals die over a few days from 1080 and up to two weeks from brodifacoum poisoning - hemorrhaging to death.

Our insects and invertebrates in our waterways are disappearing and bird numbers are being decimated. Those are facts.

Where is the proof that anyone loosened any wheel nuts? It was probably poor maintenance.

And that’s most likely why the Police are not involved, had there been any truth to the matter there

suing philosophical and economic objectives take it upon themselves to run amok, threatening would be an ongoing investigation. natural heritage values many are It is painfully obvious even to passionate about in this country. the casual observer that DOC .... pursuing thinly-veiled idealand Forest and Bird are aided istic pipe dreams that are felt and abetted by a crooked, cor- to be based on a deck of cards rupt and complicit Government. .. with reckless abandon. PeoIn his book ‘Out of the Wild’ Char- ple protest. When their protests lie Paterson says ‘the silent for- are ignored .... they feel powerest is a memorial to DoC’s mis- less …. what do people do next? management and bureaucracy.’ In physics, actions have equal …… ‘the loser here is ….conserva- and opposite reactions. tion in general. Imagine the money People, too, can push back .. often flowing into DoC to fight introduced in the only ways they feel they can ... pests the biggest problem by far in It was the WHO who classified the Park and a battle DoC is los- it as one of the world’s most ing …….against introduced pests. deadly exotoxins .. not those Like all government departments who oppose it’s use, here in NZ. of its ilk, it is to top heavy, full to It was the manufacturer who overflowing with over-paid, career said keep it out of waterways, driven bureaucrats and eccen- and remove/bury toxic dead tric, long haired academics wear- carcasses ….. not those who ing the latest expensive outdoors oppose it’s use, here in NZ. gear…… wasting the limited DoC Those who oppose it’s use have just resources on new office furniture witnessed the non-target death and and the latest roll out of PR, HR and destruction it wreaks ….. labelled as OSH courses for staff, all of which “by kill” .. including native species. have absolutely nothing to do with Only a “Psychopath” that is a person conservation. It’s DoC’s upper and suffering from a chronic mental dismiddle management who ….have order with abnormal or violent solost their focus of ‘on the ground’ cial behaviour is capable of using or or ‘rock face conservation’ to their supporting the use of 1080, because new demigods of Academia, of these animals die such a nasty, cruBureaucracy, of Commerce and of el, prolonged, painful death and Culture. Taking much needed mon- only a “Psychopath” with a zero level ey, resources and time away from of empathy could support its use. their ‘Bio-diversity Teams’ which There is no other explanation; engage in genuine, on-the-ground people that use or support the conservation work of killing pests. use of 1080 are “Psychopaths”.

Many also consider it unfair that a self-appointed minority in NZ pur-

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7

Corruption in the Seafood Industry Outdoor Recreation Body Wants Oil To get a grip on how corruption in the seafood industry works in NZ we first need to understand what corruption is.

Corruption in almost all case’s is when an official choose’s not to enforce a regulation or law that society has accepted as necessary for a peaceful and lawful society.

When an official turns a blind eye to society’s laws and regulations then you end up with one law for one group of people and no law for the other group of people committing the same unlawful act.

When this happens in the fishery of a country then the result is a depleted fishery with a mass of environmental damage and a very unhappy population of citizens.

The people who benefit from corruption are likely to be the extraordinary wealthy or in some case’s the officials themselves.

When the previous Minister of MPI Nathan Guy put the Blue Fin Tuna quota up just in time for some tuna vessels from Japan to arrive to fish in our waters, that was corruption.

Had a commercial fisher approached the Minister and asked for more Blue Fin Tuna quota because he had a commercial boat the answer would have most likely been no. Therefore a rule for one and another rule for others.

Fisheries senior management in MPI were aware of widespread fish dumping and high grading in the commercial fishing industry yet chose not to act. This must surely be a case of corruption at the highest level.

When the directors of fishing in MPI knew that at least 350 offences had been committed against the Hawkes Bay fishery by a Hawkes Bay Seafood Company and still choose not to alter the TACC or make any attempt to rebuild the fishery, it had to be corruption because no person that wears undies in this country could be that stupid.

Every time a government or the fishery management department fight for the financial benefit of a fishery over the sustainable needs of the fishery it is

generally the result of corporate pressure and is corruption in plain sight.

How in God’s name has it come to pass that the fishing and aquaculture industry in NZ has been able to get government to except the stupid and pointless codes of practice or codes of conduct for the seafood industry rather than the written legislation already in place.

These worthless documents that are mostly voluntary with no means of enforcement are an example of the seafood industry writing and getting approved their own rules or Codes of Practice which over-right the legislation.

If anyone dumped half a tonne of fish on Ninety mile beach as a recreational fisher then they would be fined thousands of dollars, lose their car and boat and for half a tonne of fish probably go to jail.

If a commercial fisher did that he would say that it was dolphins that did it and some official would have a stern word to him about a possible breach of their code of conduct.

How have the mussel farmers in the Coromandel got away with so much mussel farm plastic waste on the beaches and under their farms for so long when this comes under the resource management act that seems to have been superceded by their own code of conduct.

A WRC Site Compliance Report, Moturua Island - LI373 states that the consent holder shall ensure that non-biodegradable material lost or removed from the structures authorised by this resource consent, including but necessarily limited to, anchors, lines, droppers, ties, buoys, cages and timber, shall be removed as soon as practicable from the seabed, water column or foreshore and disposed of on land to the satisfaction of the WRC. WRC receives sporadic complaints from various members of the public about mussel farm litter specifically cut rope ties washing up on Coromandel beaches. The A+ Programme promotes avoiding

such discharges from the farms and requires regular beach-clean ups to retrieve lost marine farm debris.

At a Coromandel Marine Farm Association (CMFA) meeting in August 2017, WRC raised this matter and requested further information on practices and beach-clean up regimes. CMFA advised that appropriate practices and training are in place to minimise discharges but that accidental discharges do occur. To address these, regular beach cleanups are being undertaken and each member of the CMFA is responsible for a particular stretch of coastline.

According to the TCDC and WRC the consent holders have not submitted any beach clean-up information.

They continually dump hundreds of tons of unwanted mussels over the side of the harvesters, which must surely pollute under the farms.

It is very reassuring that the mussel farmers have promised to play nice when they take our public water space and fill it with plastic structures, which include all the ropes, floats and ties.

With the amount of mussel farm plastic that washes up on the Hauraki Gulf beaches it’s clear that the mussel farmers had their fingers crossed behind their back when they made a promise to the councils and public to clean up their method of mussel farming.

But that’s ok, because the Coromandel residents are allowed to pick up this mussel farm rubbish and the Coromandel District Council will pay for the bags and if left on the side of the road use their contractors to pick up and dispose of it for you.

All at the ratepayers expense of course, how generous is that of TCDC they must be the only council in the country with no debt.

The mussel farmers should be fined under the Resource Management Act and the money used should go to beach clean ups, that way those who made the mess would pay to clean up the mess, not those on a pension or retired rate payer from Tairua or Whangamata.

Poacher pays ‘high price’ for trout Trout poached from Fish & Game’s Ngongotaha hatchery were “anything but a free feed” for a Rotorua teenager who has paid dearly for his catch.

Nineteen year-old Duncan Scowen pleaded guilty in the Rotorua District Court to charges of fishing in hatch-

ery ponds without a licence and being on the grounds unlawfully.

He was fined a total of $700, as well as prosecution and court costs.

Fish & Game says that action has also been taken against three other people.

Scowen and his associates had

entered the hatchery grounds after hours on four separate occasions in January this year, and “helped themselves” to fishing in the ponds, including one set aside for children’s ‘fish out’ days.

Meanwhile, an arrest warrant has been issued in the Wairoa District Court for a 49 year-old Auckland man facing charges of illegal gill netting at Hopuruahine at Lake Waikaremoana.

He also faced counts of taking rainbow and brown trout without a licence.

Fish & Game staff say the alleged poaching happened just after Christmas in an isolated part of Lake Waikaremona in Te Urewera.

“Nets are completely indiscriminate and can result in considerable damage not just to the trout fishery, but to other fish and bird species which may become tangled in a net.”

Exploration Banned on Public Lands A nationwide outdoor recreation advocacy the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of New Zealand (CORANZ) wants oil exploration banned on public wilderness lands such as forest parks.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on future offshore oil and gas exploration in New Zealand and added the only exploration likely to be contemplated by the new Government was on-shore exploration, limited to energy-rich Taranaki.

However CORANZ’s co-chairman Andi Cockroft said the announcement failed to re-

spect the public’s forest parks.

“This is indicative of the lack of thought and foresight by governments making these decisions in the case of the Victoria Forest Park involving public property,” said Andi Cockroft. “CORANZ is concerned that the new government seems to see ‘on-shore’ as okay. That may be okay but not on public lands.”

He said the previous government was also guilty of a lack of foresight.

The previous National-led government in 2014 allowed overseas corporates the rights to drill off-shore and on-shore among the latter being public lands. Included was the public’s biggest forest park,

the 200,000 hectare Victoria Forest Park. At the time the then energy minister Simon Bridges admitted although he had signed the deal off, he had never heard of the park.

Andi Cockroft said there were competing predictions for a cooling as well as a warming climate and if this occurred, then it was important New Zealand was self-sufficient in fuel.

In advocating public lands be excluded from oil and gas exploration, he added that private land exploration would be up to property owners, oil and gas corporates and government environmental safeguards..

“But public lands should not be part of the exploitive exploration,”he said.

National Environment Spokesman Caned Over Water Hypocrisy - by John McNab

The newly appointed National Party spokesman for the Environment Scott Simpson recent claim the previous National-led government’s efforts had led to improved river water quality standards has been clobbered.

Andi Cockroft of the Council of Outdoor Recreation Assns., of New Zealand (CORANZ) described Scott Simpson’s claims as “twisted political spin.”

“It’s a twisted political spin from the party that more than any in living history has destroyed so much natural habitat,” he said. “From highly polluted streams to rivers with little or no flow. From poisoned and silent forests to oil exploration in National Parks.”

National’s Environment spokesperson Scott Simpson said he welcomed news that the efforts of New Zealanders alongside the previous Govern-

ment to improve our freshwater quality were proving effective.

“A new report from Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) released yesterday shows that for all river water quality parameters monitored over a 10 year period, more sites were improving than deteriorating,” he said.

But the report has been criticised by forthright Massey scientist Dr Mike Joy who was reported as saying “it’s an example of trying desperately to make it sound better than it really is.”

Scott Simpson claimed the report showed that the previous National Government’s focus on nationwide water quality standards were a step in the right direction.

“National is a party of practical environmentalists, focused on striking a balance between responsible economic growth and managing our environment,” he said.

His comments followed National’s

Public Parks off-Limits Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on future offshore oil and gas exploration saying the only exploration likely to be contemplated would be on-shore exploration, limited to energy-rich Taranaki.

Not entirely clear is the position of the public’s forest parks such as the 200,000 hectare Victoria Forest Park near Lewis Pass.

The previous National-led government in 2014 allowed overseas corporates rights to drill off-shore and on-shore. One was Victoria Forest Park. At the time the then energy minister Simon Bridges admitted although he had signed the deal off, he had never heard of the park.

There are competing predictions for a cooling as well as a warming climate and if this occurred, then it was important New Zealand was self-sufficient in fuel.

Public lands should be excluded from oil and gas exploration, but private land exploration would be up to property owners, oil and gas corporates and govern-

new leader Simon Bridges claiming on a Newshub on March 3, that his and his party’s record on the environment was strong.

But others supported CORANZ Andi Cockroft’s contention that National’s claims were “twisted political Spin.”

NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers (NZFFA) president Graham Carter said the claims were hypocritical.

“After the debacle over recent years by the National Party regarding intensified dairying increases, irrigation increases and burying their heads in the sand over water quality National’s Scott Simpson has the audacity to make such false claims.”

Graham Carter said National had done little if anything to improve water quality and instead gave it away free to foreign exploiters.

Manawatu environmentalist and NZFFA life member Ken Sims said National’s claims completely lacked credibility in view of its performance as the previous government.

“The real issue is these things are being led and orchestrated by regional councils. They are the ones who run the LAWA site so its credibility is suspect. It’s self-justifying smokescreen.”

Ken Sims said regional councils had been largely captured by farming interests as shown by the Horizons’ Council comprising 80% farming links. ment environmental safeguards..

Public wilderness should not be part of any exploitive exploration.

Andi Cockroft Co-chairman Council of Outdoor Recreation Assn NZ

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Who is responsible for any deaths?

When DoC aerial drops 1080 poison into a gully with 40-50 stream tributaries running into a larger river, with a warning sign on a track entrance.

A family of tourists with two thirsty toddlers pull up on the road with a track leading to the river on Saturday to fill the drink bottles.

A “half dissolved” pellet bouncing down the river is unknowingly collected in drink bottle.

The most likely outcome?

Toddler gets suddenly ill and dies within 4 days.

Whose fault is it?

DoC of coarse and here’s why.

A failure to minimize the risk to the public.

Off the top I’ll break them down.

1.

Manufactures warnings clearly state no 1080 should be dropped into waterways.

2. Failure to take into account the typological environment of this gully, its tributaries and risk of concentration of pellets into a singular river.

3. Failure to analyze the area out of the poisoned zone.

Whether it flows through farmland or intersects a public road.

4. Failure to analyze the increased activity on that road whether it be seasonal peak season for tourism or remotely quiet.

5. Failure to use signage on the intersection of river/ road warning of the risk.

6. Failure to have multi-lingual signage to account for international tourist numbers.

7. Failure to assess risks at all instead based on old science, and ignoring warnings by people who considered them.

So are DoC putting lives at risk?

This scenario is a risk and it is incompetent to use excuses like “the toddlers death was a tragic unlucky situation.

DoC are risking manslaughter charges.

But would the Police in-

vestigate or brush it off.

So the overview is this.

Because there is a risk of death no matter how remote, and the amount of precautions it would take to minimize them.

The incompetence and complete failure by DoC to analyze and the related difficulties to isolate the potential problems arising.

There is only one thing left to do.

Remove the threat to public and halt all 1080 poisoning operations immediately.

Would your local GP know what to look for or what tests are required if 1080 poisoning is suspected?

Where should any specimens be sent for testing?

Are the local laboratories capable of doing the specific testing required?

Perhaps every person who died in the bush should have testing done as a matter of course.

Is the NZ Police corrupt?

When 23.7 tonnes of 1080 bait was stored in the Liquor King Building in Whitianga’s CBD for four and a half months preceding the aerial 1080 drop at Papakai, Coromandel on October 18, 2017 and the NZ Police refuse to charge an illegal security guard with assault something is drastically wrong? Even the Council and Mayor refuse to comment.

The apparent cover-ups are disgraceful.

The “Emergency Response Plan, Papakai Pest Control, Aerial Toxic Bait Operation” on page 14 specifically states: “DOC staff are not to obstruct, restrain or be involved in any action against protestors or intruders. That is the role of the New Zealand Police.”

So why did a DoC-employed, unregistered, unlicensed security thug drag Graeme Sturgeon out of his vehicle, in the dark, in an unprovoked attack and according to three eye-witnesses, attack him?

Or, rather, why has he and DoC been allowed to get away with this?

Why did the Police not prosecute Lane?

Is this an example of Police corruption when a government department can deliberately break the law and a member of the public is arrested?

DoC informed no-one about the Whitianga storage apart from anyone who “approached the warehouse”.

A Security guard under contract to DoC is ‘DoC staff’, even though unlicensed and unregistered!

What he is not is a member of the NZ Police! (If a member of the NZ Police yanked someone’s car door open unannounced, in the dark, with no ID, breaking his car door handle in the process, and then proceeded to drag him out giving him a bloody nose in the process and tearing his clothing, there would be an uproar!

What should by law have taken 21 days for the lawyer to obtain, the security footage which shows a blow by blow account took DoC three months to release.

This is a blatant infringement of a person’s rights.

A witness saw Mr Sturgeon being dragged from his vehicle and punched by Lane, an unregistered, unlicensed security guard employed by DoC. There were 14 or 15 DoC staff in attendance - DoC staff (some senior, such as DoC Projects Manager Nick Kelly, and DoC Senior Ranger, Steve Bolton), other illegal security staff along with truck drivers and loaders Yet DoC would only release 6 sec-

onds of the actual footage - the bit where you see Graeme swinging his arms at guard Richard Lane.

The full footage should by law, have been provided much sooner, and wasn’t.

Are DoC and the Police above the law?

All the witness statements were made available to the Police but they chose to ignore them in favour of an illegal security guard.

Mr Sturgeon laid a complaint with the Police and wanted them to press charges. Instead, after one month, the Police turned round and charged Mr Sturgeon!

Witnesses gave eye witness accounts of the event. If it hadn’t been for their witness statements, and the eventual release of the security footage, which led the judge to dismiss the case and say that Mr Sturgeon was acting in self-defence he might be behind bars now.

Should one have to act in self defence? Should one have to tolerate being hauled from a vehicle in a public carpark, by an unlicensed security guard, with no warning or Keep Out signs? Should one have to pay a $23,000 legal bill to prove one’s innocence?

This whole thing is such a disgrace!

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1080 is in a salt form which dissolves in water and is stable. Put some salt in water. You have salt water. Put sodium monofluoroacetate in water and you have 1080 in stock solution. A toxic genetic damaging soup.

This is a very important point for people to understand. 1080 in stock solution is what we end up with.

The way DoC test for and explain their 1080 science away, they say that in water it is like dissolving sugar in water, then using a sieve like device (DoC can work it out close to 2 parts per billion) to look for sugar crystals, then exclaiming “look, it is gone!”. At the end of the day they’re not our government. They’re a corporation and a law unto themselves.

“Eisler’s Encyclopedia of Environmentally Hazardous Priority Chemicals”, published 2007 by Ronald Eisler, explains this point on page 785.

You can buy the book here: https://books.google.co.nz/ books?isbn=0080547079 ... black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). Commercial 1080 was commonly coloured with 0.5% nigrosine and sold as a compound containing >90% sodium monofluoroacetate, to be mixed with foods at 2226.0 mg/kg in preparing baits, or dissolved in water at 3756.0 mg/L for poisoning drinking water in indoor control of rodents We need to understand that 1080 does dissolve in water and does not dilute.

DoC have deliberately mislead and misquoted the science and told a blatant lie to the NZ public.

Dissolve means you break up the bonds between molecules which is not true with 1080 unless you have the right temperature and biota in water to break/cleave the carbon and hydrogen bond. The compound stays intact as it is unless is been absorbed/taken up by plants and

other living organisms in the water.

Disolves is the correct term to use for 1080 in water and with this new information that makes it even scary (with reference to a solid) becomes or causes to become incorporated into a liquid so as to form a solution, “glucose dissolves easily in water”.

Dilute just means becoming weaker or makes (a liquid) thinner or weaker by adding water or another solvent to it, “bleach can be diluted with cold water.”

When you dissolve a substance like salt or white sugar into water you still have salty or sugary water. If you dilute it further - with more water for example, the taste becomes less salty or sugary.

DoC has played with these words to make it seem like 1080 poison just disappears. They’ve done it to such an extent that many people thought there was no risk in the baby formula threat, and likewise even academics on Twitter are currently ‘tweeting’ that 1080 drops should not have a buffer zone as there is no real risk only a perceived one - and all these pests are hiding in the ‘buffer zones’.

It’s really gotten quite out of hand.

As far as breaking the bonds in compound 1080 is concerned, the sodium part is dropped easily and is really only the carrier.

But the poisonous part - the bond between the fluorine and the acetate (for simplicity’s sake) - this is stable in sterile water and only broken by microbial action. The carbonfluorine bond is strong. Aerobic bacteria, any organism which uses oxygen for the purposes of metabolism is able to metabolize the fluoroacetate but it is lethal. In fact the conversion - lethal synthesis - creates fluorocitrate which is what kills.

If you refer solid to liquid, but in chemistry explanation dissolve

Doctor advises 1080 Health Checks

Understanding DoC’s lies and deceit DoC have for a long time deliberately misquoted and twisted the interpretation of how 1080 poison is dissolved in water.

The evidence has been located that clearly says that 1080 when

dropped in water will poison that water. If you make a statement and it’s able to be challenged with scientific evidence especially, then credibility stocks drop.

Firstly one needs to understand

some points and how the Department of Conservation manipulates the interpretations to fit its own sinister agenda.

Top of Form The Medical Definition of Milligram. Milligram: A unit of measurement of mass in the metric system equal to a thousandth of a gram. A gram is equal to the mass of one milliliter, one thousandth of a litre, of water at 4 degrees C. The attached link gives comments on a proposed experimental control of wasps on Tuhua (Mayor) island using 1% 1080 in water. http://www.doc.govt. nz/Documents/scienceand-technical/casn10.pdf In water. This document explains how 1080 is injected into the baits. Their propaganda is such that even during the infamous “baby formula 1080 threat” people were saying that there was no need for worry as once the water was put into the infant formula the poison was rendered harmless.... the Government is the rogue here.

This theory is an absolute blatant lie.

Stock solution. And in contamination of water trials in the USA the poison is hard to get rid of - this compound is unreliable. It behaves in ways that are not always expected.

See the attached 1080 label instructions: http://www.pestoff. co.nz/assets/LabelV2189.pdf 1080 was specifically designed to be stable in water for warfare or killing a township via its water supply.

How has 1080 been changed since?

means breaking up the bonds between the elements, which is not the case with 1080 and it is misleading.

The salt part dissolves but does not change the compound at all, so you’ve have just diluted it and it doesn’t matter how much water you add... you need the right temperature and right biota to help dissolve or break up the bonds between the elements.

DoC is manipulating the meaning of the word to fool the general public. Dissolve means incorporated into the liquid as a salt.

And playing on words is how they pretend this water poison which they themselves store in watery solution, is safely dropped into water supplies.

DoC drop 1080 into people’s water supplies, have a little chat with them about how safe it is and offer them alternative water supplies - but of course dealing with tough kiwis who don’t want to look like ‘weak idiots’ they say no ‘she’ll be right’ and don’t get alternative water but 1080 water.

If you dissolve sugar in water the sugar is still there, dissolve nigrosine and sodium monofluoroacetate in water to kill rats, so 1080 still has to be toxic in water to kill rats?

DoC knows it can mix 1080 with water because their scientists fed eels poison but they also kept them in water contaminated with 1080.

But nobody can test for it, nobody will ever pin it on this toxin, unless someone actually wants to look for it. And they don’t.

DoC is using scientific language to mislead the public. People need to demand to get their water testing daily.

How does the NZ Government and DoC get away with this? Because people believe what they are told without checking out the facts.

Dr Baycrofts advert in the Westport News

The Westport News 5 April 2018 recently published an article where a local doctor Dr Charles Baycroft was advising locals to undergo 1080 Health Checks, a voice of sanity in an insane system.

Dr Baycroft advises: “1080 is capable of damaging all living cells in the body. That can raise the level of specific enzymes. Doctors know about this. Problem is that the raised enzyme levels do not

prove 1080 unless perhaps many organs have been affected at the same time. Effects on humans have been said to be primarily heart and nervous system but no one can say for certain. If all enzyme levels were normal before an operation and some were raised after, it would suggest but not prove that the 1080 was the cause. To me this is a reason that 1080 should not be allowed in the country.”

While that’s good progress Doctors had better get up to speed about what ‘before and after’ tests to run, and quick smart, because a whole new onslaught of aerial 1080 drops is about to happen, starting this month.

However what many may not understand is the poison won’t show in liquid i.e.: blood, urine etc as the poison goes into muscle, organs etc.

So the question to ask is how do you test without biopsy?

Just feel crap like the 7 that got the diphacinone pain in livers.

Read and be sure you get a test of your blood and or urine. Ask what

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are the levels of normal markers of ill health, i.e. liver markers, kidney markers etc, then repeat after the drop. Get urine tests done promptly, but bloods can be week or 10 days.

Our Doctors are told to treat the symptoms, this advice is from Poisons Centre who will not help in any other way.

DNA tests before and after would have been a sensible study to have undertaken given the long term and unusually widespread use of this poison. And in a country which was genuine about public health protection this would have been the obvious protocol to follow. But quite honestly, for our executive powers to have taken the steps needed to realise and openly acknowledge that this substance is impacting mitochondria and the mDNA which communicates with our DNA, and understood the transcription errors that can result in cancer and other genetic diseases - even at tiny sub lethal

doses (ppm and ppb) - they would have already decided at that point not to throw caution to the wind.

What we have now is deliberate ignorance. We’ve already taken the risks and already covered the disasters up in a deliberate and difficult to back out of fashion - painted into a corner.

So the fact that our government, no matter which kind/party is in power, has never addressed the data gaps or the many concerns of the public, this demonstrates the strangely QED or W5 nature of the 1080 programme. It must be what was wanted - but it’s hard not to ask: why? It’s not safe, not effective and it will blow up in their faces before too long.

The most telling thing is that, most DHB’s and Doctors have no idea what tests one could ask a doctor to perform beforehand that could have different results after a 1080 drop.

People are so resigned to the fact that no health professional seems to take any notice of 1080

Sages licence to kill The Green Party has a stated goal of ridding New Zealand of pest predators like possums before 2050 and includes deer, wild pigs and introduced freshwater fish.

Through Battle for the Birds, which supports Predator Free 2050, the Green Party say they are working to protect a dozen priority species of birds, bats, frogs, lizards, and snails at risk of serious decline or local extinction and that predator control will also benefit many common native species and whole ecosystems.

The Greens support the continued and increased application of 1080 aerial dropping to knock down rat, possum and stoat numbers and believe it is the most effective pest control method across

large areas and difficult terrain.

Meanwhile NZ First their co-alition partner wants to look at alternative methods.

Labour back New Zealand being predator free by 2050, or earlier, but supporting mammalian predators being eradicated through the use of inhumane and completely cruel poisoning.

The Greens and Labour believe aerial 1080 application is the best available option for possum, rat and stoat control particularly in difficult to access country.

Labour say they will at the same time encourage research into and development of new and improved alternatives to 1080, yet have done little to nothing.

and its effects, or would listen to the wider public’s concerns and have never bothered to find out !!!

1080 is today’s DDT and Agent Orange. The Manufacturer has a warning on the packaging “Not to allow in or near waterways or water supplies as is toxic to all aquatic life. Yet organisation like Fish and Game who are members of the Predator Free NZ support this!!”

One day, when there are no birds left, and no insects left, and no wild food that one can risk eating, and sick people everywhere (we already have the second highest rate of female cancer in the world and the fourth highest rate overall, and one of the lowest sperm counts in the world, and the highest youth suicide rate, and the highest domestic violence rate in the Western world) people will look back in horror at 1080 poison and the stupidity that allowed New Zealand to be drenched in it for decades and decades (since 1954, and counting).

The Green Party will double the number of rangers working on the front lines to defend nature and double the amount of pest control on conservation land.

They will increase funding for Predator Free 2050 through a $20 levy on international tourists entering New Zealand, raising $65 million per year for Predator Free New Zealand by 2021.

They confess to knowing that our native birds are in serious trouble, yet want to kill them off through increased 1080 aerial poisoning. Really?

How stupid is stupid?

The Greens state that on predator free, the lines of research on GM should remain open and agree that one big breakthrough could be as simple as creating a longlasting and effective lure for stoats.

Greenpeace supports 1080 Poison!

Beware of The Nature Conservancy. ....they care nothing about conservation. The blind leading the blind.

The following message from Greempeace that they send out to people who ask them for their stance on 1080 poison.

They just take the government’s word for it. They can’t even be bothered looking further!

The tragedy is that Greenpeace place themselves as the self-appointed protectors of our oceans, forest and fauna yet betray us by now by failing to check out the real facts about poisoning our pristine country with poison.

No poison is safe and our history tells us so. “ ......Greenpeace sees protecting biodiversity in NZ, and around the world, as a high priority. We don’t have expertise in 1080 or pest control and take a lead from Forest and Bird that, when used correctly, 1080 is the best solution available to preserve NZ’s biodiversity from the predators that are wiping it out.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on 1080 says the same thing. So does

the Department of Conservation.

The Green party also accepts we need to use 1080. As does the Environment and Conservation Organisation and Birds NZ. The Environmental Risk Management Authority also found 1080 to be biodegradable and safe, with the positives far outweighing the negatives.

It’s fair to say 1080 hasn’t always been used sensibly or responsibly.

There is a lot of misinformation around on the internet about 1080 and it certainly appears that the science overwhelmingly points to it as never being a safe approach.

Green peace know about the use of 1080 in New Zealand and know how cruel it is and how much damage it does to our fauna and flora but are mute on the subject.

They are very vocal about the Japanese killing a few whales which will not endanger the species but on the subject of compound 1080 which very cruel and is going to wipe out our native birds species, do huge damage to the environment and will affect human health.

They turn a blind eye and are mute?

about how they are finding firearms with drug dealers, it is pretty safe to conclude that a person bent on harm is going to get a firearm, as a recent tragic matter in Invercargill has shown.

For registration to prevent a mass shooting all the following must happen before the event: 1/ The individual must signal their desire to do harm in some way; 2/ Law enforcement must act on the threat; 3/ The registry must be accurate; 4/ The individual somehow cannot access other weapons; and 5/ The individual must be detained in some way.

Yet this series of events is very unlikely.

Registration is likely to be very expensive and even with “user pays”.

If the price is too high, cost will act as a disincentive to register.

9

DOC Woos World’s Rich Environmental Exploiters

by John McNab

The Department of Conservation (DoC) is cuddling up to the world’s bankers, many of them with links to the environmental exploiters or “junk food” companies. In mid-March six Squirrel helicopters were chartered from Alpine Helicopters, Wanaka to take DOC director general Lou Sanson along with other DoC officers and several international bankers on an aerial tour of Fiordland.

Included was the Hong Kongbased head of ‘Goldman Sachs’.

The VIP tour landed in the Murchison Mountains, where deerstalker the late Geoffrey Orwell discovered the takahe, pressured to be extinct.

Then it was off to Chalky Island in Chalky Inlet, and Resolution Island in Dusky Sound. Among the six passengers were international bankers.

The VIP guests were reported to be from The Nature Conservancy which

is a Hong Kong group and headed by a former Goldman Sachs CEO. That evening after landing at Manapouri, an evening meal with Lou Sanson hosting, was at the Manapouri Hotel, before the trip home.

The VIP visitors were reportedly with connections to big corporates such as Pepsi Co, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Rio Tinto and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Links reportedly extended to Dow Chemicals, Shell and Coke.

Rangitikei Environmental Watch website commented the VIP group and corporate connections “are all ill qualified to fit any green profile by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Speaking broadly, a not so new breed of ‘environmental’ people have clearly been dominating the green movement for some time particularly since neo-liberal economics and are in fact all for profit.

Heart Warming Thoughts Here’s a thought to warm some of your hearts ... from Ed Chenel, a police officer in Northern Territory, Australia.

Hi Kiwis, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Aussie. It has now been a few years since licensed gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a programme costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.

The first year results are now in: Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent; Australia-wide,

assaults are up 9.6 percent; Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed. There has also been a dramatic increase

Strange bedfellows they shroud their activities in a deceptive cloak of green & sustainable rhetoric but don’t be fooled, Rangitikei Environmental Watch advised.

But Mayor of the Southland District Council Gary Tong is fooled by their 30 strong corporate big-wigs. When challenged about the hosting of the VIP party he backed the corporates.

“I find it heartening that this group of people, ones that are involved in international conservation efforts at their own cost, actually get out and about to see what their money is helping to do.”

Tong said he did not believe the group was a “pile of international bankers on a tiki tour” and understood it was a “controlled and coordinated charter where the philanthropists gained a knowledge and understanding by seeing Fiordland up close.” in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home.

Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in ‘successfully ridding Australian society of guns ...’

You won’t see this on the TV One evening news or hear your Prime Minister or the Minister of Police disseminating this information.

The Australian experience speaks for itself. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note Kiwis, before it’s too late!

AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN

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The SPCA, they know how cruel this poison is but not a word is said by them.

In this last year, two instances of possum trappers only checking their traps every third day was reported to them and nothing was done. Legally and morally traps have to be cleared every day. The hunter even offered to take SPCA inspectors to the trap lines involved.

They didn’t want to know about it!

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society which is supposed to protect native birds, give their blessing and vigorously promote the aerial spreading of compound 1080 which kills big percentages of native birds and which is driving some of our native bird species to extinction?

If a hunter went into the bush and shot one Native Pigeon or Morepork, they would be fined thousands of dollars by the courts. But the Department of Conservation, the Animal Health Board and the Regional Councils kill thousands of Native birds in their aerial 1080 drops. They seem to be immune to the laws of New Zealand as they have exempted themselves from any legal action

Why firearms registration will not work With the recent tragedy in the United States, a certain media outlet has been pushing the agenda of registration of all firearms.

This was abandoned in New Zealand in 1983, but has bubbled to the surface again.

It is absurd to suggest that criminals will register their firearms.

That being the case, then it follows that only the law abiding “fit and proper” will do so.

A thin argument can be made that if a person’s firearms licence is revoked (say because of a protection order) then it will enable the police to seize all their firearms.

This is also on the UN Security Council’s agenda to disarm all citizens and there is no evidence to suggest this is not the hidden agenda here.

Given how the Police routinely talk

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It will use Police money and time to enforce.

This is money and time that should be spent on investigating the theft of firearms, the illegal importation of firearms or those who are “telegraphing” a risk to themselves or others.

If the registry is not accurate, then it achieves nothing. Anyone with endorsed firearms will have had the experience of an inspection and firearms you no longer own coming up.

Given the current shambolic state of import licences we can safely assume that there is no possibility of an accurate record.

Once firearms are registered, and if there is a knee jerk reaction (which there always is) then the Firearms Licence holder (FAL) is the low hanging fruit for political gain.

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10

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Letters to editor Anglers need to get together Dear Sir The NZ government is really becoming a police state ....going against the people’s wishes......your articles in the Fishing and Outdoors newspaper are a great attempt to at least inform people that have been brainwashed with government propaganda saying that 1080 is “a good thing”......and that it’s about creating a Predator Free environment…. but don’t be fooled ....follow the money. ....understand who is making the profits with this.

I have been forwarding a lot of articles and videos to big organizations that fight for the environment …… and making good headway before NZ becomes so saturated with poison, there will be no more wild creatures, no safe drinking water......and no more trout.

My partner and I have been fishing this spring creek for 8 years straight......he has kept fastidious daily journals...and says this year there are only 15-25% of the trout from previous years......more weeds....more silt....no mayfly hatches.....something is very wrong......trout are truth.

NZ anglers need to get together to stop this catastrophe before it gets worse.

They need to appeal to these big fishing lodges that make huge profits from the flyfishing clients....I know it is a catch 22 in trying to enlist their help because of the adversary feelings “kiwi anglers vs non-resident anglers”.....BUT......nobody will have great fishing if there are NO trout or the fishing experience becomes so compromised by the poisoning and low trout numbers......My thought, is to think of the bigger picture of ‘trout future’......don’t pit flyfishing

lodges/guides and locals against one another....but try and find some way of working together.....

Most of these high buck anglers that come to NZ and spend tons of $$ for the helicopter, guide, lodge... want a stellar experience. ....the one that NZ is, has been known for..... big trout...pristine water.......these big lodges need to try to appeal to these high buck clients. ...some of them, I am sure are extremely wealthy. ....to help with this cause..... don’t alienate this option.....work with them........it just might give someone a chance to invest in their passion, help NZ and fight 1080...... after all, some of these lodge/guides make a good living $$.....and I would guess want to try to keep NZ from becoming so saturated with 1080, lose all the bugs….all the trout... and all their clients. ....remember 1080 was first used as an insecticide.....where are all the hatches?.....

It never hurts to ask.....maybe some of these clients are lawyers..... they need to think of the Big Picture......with the continuation of 1080 use.......no one....local or nonresident will have any trout.......

The story relates to a documentary produced by one Nicolas Daniel on the farmed fish industry - principally in the Baltic Sea, and Norway in particular - that paragon of virtue so often quoted to us as having standards in every level of life to which we should all aspire.

I will not go further into the article - read it, and form you own view on the matter. But I will say that the whole idea of our council continuing to promote the farming of Kingfish, and other species in the Gulf is beyond foolish - it is sheer madness, and will inevitably result in irredeemable environmental damage.

They must be stopped, one way or another from pursuing this crazy course of action with advisors who appear totally devoid of any understanding of the dangers.

Fortunately the level of interest by local and foreign farm operators in responding to the ‘opportunity’ afforded them by the widely distributed tender documents appears minimal. Long may it remain so, but we must remain eternally vigilant to ensure that none of them get a foothold in, or adjacent to the Gulf.

Golde Wallingford Hawaii

Name Withheld Auckland

Aquaculture - The Other Story Great Paper Dear Sir If you have ever wondered just why the Marlborough salmon farming industry has suddenly found it necessary to pressure the Ministry of Primary Industry, successfully, to allow them to begin shifting their farms to the outer sounds, just read this story that appeared recently in a ‘healthy living’ magazine that is admittedly no friend of the industry.

Dear Sir A trio of words in your last issue caught my eye. You, Mr Editor, said “Remember we are not a warm fuzzy fishing and hunting magazine.”

Thank goodness for that. Who wants to see rows of photos and stories of various bods with their big fish or big stag while “hard news” is missing?

These other publications rarely pick up on issues threatening the public’s

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sport. Yet if DOC and mad scientists get the last deer by either chemical or crazy science, there will be no need for a hunting magazine. Similarly if rivers run dry or are polluted and sea fish stocks plundered by company fishers, then trout fishing and saltwater fishing as we know it will be gone. Fishers will all be gone.

So these other magazines who do not care an iota about these hard issues will have dwindling numbers of readers.

This is something so basic, they don’t understand.

The other magazines do not even have letters to the editor. Free speech is dead.

Instead we have photos of “grin and grip” style.

But your paper, Mr Editor, stands like a beacon taking up the “hard issues”.

Well done.

“Reader” Hawkes Bay

Is our government corrupt?

all endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs); these actions are exerted at levels of parts per billion (ppb), even parts per trillion (ppt),i.e., 1 thousandth to 1 millionth less than the LD50 mentioned last issue.

This is the level that will KILL 50% of subjects that take the product.

The acute toxic effects seen in the Kochummen family and dying deer, dogs etc. after 1080 drops are due mainly to the neurotoxic effects of fluorine and the actions of acetate and citrate on enzyme systems in the body be it insects, fish or mammals.

The longer term chronic effects are due to the effect of fluorine as a chelator of other minerals, e.g.it grabs hold of calcium and phosphorus and makes them unavailable to the body, or forms different types of weaker bone or different tooth enamel shown as dental fluorosis.

But the major effect is by fluorine substituting for iodine, a process that is rarely considered in the 1080 or water fluoridation discussions and ignored by the authorities.

Iodine is essential for production of the thyroid hormone which governs many systems in the body.

From the long-term prospect perhaps the most sinister effects are on the development and maintenance of the nervous system, especially the unborn child, the ultimate severity being cretinism.

It has been estimated that “The roster of enzymes annihilated by fluorine injected into the nation's water supply number in excess of 72”.

When you add these devastating effects of fluoride to the effects of the 628 pesticides “registered,” illegally probably, in the last decade by our resident clowns, there will be no animals to hunt, fish to fish for or safe food and water to ingest.

Surely the time has come to cast off the apathy Tony Orman mentioned and support the moves being made to rectify the alleged illegalities that allow the clowns to prosper; they may be here but we don't have to tolerate their irresponsible actions.

Legal limits for Koura Dear Sir I recently took part in the trout fishing tournament based in Rotorua for the police and emergency services. Several offenders were caught with large numbers of Koura from Lake Okataina, for which they are now being prosecuted I believe.

On Monday the 9th April myself, my daughter and two friends were fishing on Lake Rotoiti about midday, when we came across a diver some 450 meters off shore from Gisborne Point. The diver was in some distress and asked in halting English for a lift back to shore, which we obliged. On the way back I asked to have a look in his catch bag, which he was reluctant to comply with, but I looked anyway, and found it to be half full of Koura. I asked him if he was aware of the legal limits for Koura. At this point he played the “lack of English” card. On reaching shore we observed his dive buddy walking back to their vehicle. At this point I contacted MPI who said they would respond ASAP. A local had also approached the two men by this time and he also advised MPI of the situation.

It is of great concern to me and many other people I believe that this is happening in our lakes. Perhaps local Iwi can help put a stop to this practice of diving for Koura before it is just another resource which will be decimated by greed.

As an ex fisheries officer I am totally incensed by this experience.

Dear Sir Why does our government not charge these companies for our countries national resource of clean drinking water?

We as a nation have a resource more important than oil and should be as wealthy as any oil nation.

With cities and countries running out of water our government allows chinese companies take hundreds of millions litres of water for nothing when if we were chargBrian Hart. ing for it as a natural resource Tairua. even mere cents per litre imagine the revenue for the country.

Billions of dollars could be used to improve our roading, housing, rail, hospitals, health services and education, fire and police.

Nothing like the new It makes you wonder why and when Ford Truck! will our politicians start working for its I bought a new imported people’s and not their own interests.

Ford F250 - Tri-Flex Fuel Is our local and central government Truck... and supporting bureaucrats as corGo figure...it runs on either rupt as some overseas governments. hydrogen, gasoline, or E85.

What are the dirty little backroom I returned to the dealer deals they are doing or have done yesterday because I couldn’t with the Chinese government? A Government’s job is to listen get the radio to work.

If they keep going the way The service technician they are very soon we will Dear Sir explained that the radio was all be speaking mandarin. A Government’s job is to lisvoice activated. ten but also to lead in the best ‘Nelson,’ the technician said Brian Jones interests of New Zealanders. to the radio.

Auckland It’s to make decisions and to have the The radio replied, ‘Ricky or plans, policies and vision in place to Willie?’ improve people’s lives and provide ‘Willie!’ he continued and ‘On SEND IN THE CLOWNS The Road Again’ came from

By Frank Rowson, B.Vet Med., retired jobs and opportunities for families.

In their nine years in power the the speakers. veterinary surgeon.

Then he said, ‘Ray Charles!’, National government rather than and in an instant,’ Georgia This song ends with the words think about what they would to On My Mind’ replaced Willie “….don't bother they're here” improve kiwis standard of living, Nelson. and most of them are in MPI, focused on increased profits for I drove away happy, and for EPA, DoC, DHB’s it would seem; corporations, tourism and immigrathe next few days, every time but clowns are funny, the clowns tion which his bought increased I’d say, ‘Beethoven, we are dealing with are not. pressure on infrastructure to the ‘I’d get beautiful classical I was tempted to write about the in- detriment of our environment. music, and if I said, ‘Beatles,’ competence of the police, DHB and Since being in opposition they I’d get one of their awesome Department of Health in the deba- complained lots, and have done songs. cle of the Coromandel 1080 drop; little real work other than criticise.

Yesterday, some guy ran a the evil intent and lack of duty of The new government has axed red light and nearly creamed care by authorities in 1080 poison- funding for regional irrigation promy fabulous new truck, but ing in general and the evil intent jects which will help our damaged behind the decision to give exemp- rivers and sporting fish to recover.

I swerved in time to avoid tion to Vertebrate Toxic Agents This Government needs to get him...

(VTAs) from the RMA, actively con- in behind New Zealanders, not I yelled, “F*****g Idiot!” travening several sections of its own stand in their way, they need to Immediately, the radio empowering Act, the HASNO Act. listen to the cries to stop poisonresponded with: As an aside I would point out to all ing our forests and rivers un «Ladies and gentlemen, an political parties that NZ has already der the guise of pest control. address from the Leader of signed the UN treaty on the Pro- Our inshore fishery needs urgent New Zealand first, Winston tection of Indigenous peoples and consideration and we want cheaper Peters.» the flora and fauna on which they and better local trade fresh fish.

Damn, I love this truck... depend as food sources; we are Brian Smith also obliged to adhere to the UN Hamilton Convention for the protection of children and women and provide food and water that is free from pesticides of which 1080 is one.

Despite these temptations let us consider the toxicity of 1080 and all fluoride compounds which assault us daily in the water some of us drink, drinks and foods made using fluoridated water, in the antipsychotic/antidepressant drugs we take and the fluoridated toothpaste some of us use.

These all end up, along with fluoride from acidic fertilizers as part of run-off, in the rivers and streams and oceans with devastating effects on ALL life - fluorine in all its forms is one of the most ecotoxic compounds on the planet, having its effects at extremely low levels, like

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Anglers confused at Tongariro River “improvements”?

Anglers confused at Tongariro River “improvements”?

River management work is now well underway on the Tongariro River – Waikato Regional Council (WRC) contractors are working on flood prevention measures directly below the SH1 bridge, which is understandably attracting the attention of trout anglers.

From a fly-fishing perspective, the Taupo Fishery Management Team along with the Taupo Fishery Advisory Committee and the Tongariro and Lake Taupo Anglers Club, were involved in a consultation process aimed at reducing the impact of this work on trout fishing. The process was supposed to highlight the needs of anglers and trout and

open the door to ongoing community liaison but failed miserably.

While the initial work appears quite destructive, it is worth noting that WRC managers are adopting a phased approach, where later phases will reintroduce and maintain angler friendly features which have the capacity to hold trout. In the short term, safe trout passage has been maintained and sediment release has been minimised by working in dry conditions.

This important gravel management work serves to protect vulnerable areas of the town and the surrounding area by reducing the risk of severe flooding.

During high flow events the Tongariro River deposits large amounts

of gravel in this zone and the lower reaches. As a consequence the river bed has risen in places increasing erosion potential of the river bank and flood scheme assets. The objective of this gravel management work is to encourage a stable main channel and a more even distribution of flow down existing channels, therefore relieving pressure and increasing flood scheme capacity.

A period of consultation was undertaken with some key stakeholders, and involved site field trips, meetings and discussions.

Resulting considerations include an appreciation for high value locations, fish habitat and access.

They have admitted they should have done this around Dec - Jan before the brown trout spawned but couldn’t get the permissions in time.

The fresh run trout on their maiden spawning runs following cold snaps will not be so understanding. It could most likely drive them back to the lake.

It is unfortunate for anglers that the most popular pool on the Tongariro River is being reshaped. But that is what Waikato Regional Council call “progress”.

But rather than badmouth the Council let us take note that the consultation process involved anglers clubs and most anglers had chance for input.

The Tongariro River has a mind all of its own, as every angler knows. Nature will always win.

Previous WRC work on the river has resulted in one disaster after another.

A bigger issue is the Power Companies who raise and lower the river at will and cause chaos amongst anglers on weekends when they release large volumes of water without warning.

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Submissions open on variation to Healthy Rivers plan change Submissions on a variation to the plan to improve the health of the Waikato and Waipā rivers have opened.

The public have until Wednesday 23 May to make a submission on the variation. Further information, including the feedback form, is available at waikatoregion.govt.nz/healthyrivers.

The council received more than 1000 submissions to the plan

change when it was notified in 2016 –these remain valid and do not need to be re-lodged.

However, if there are changes specific to the variation that individuals and groups don’t agree with then they’re encouraged make a submission.

The variation to Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora: Proposed Plan Change 1 reinstates the area in the north-east of

the Waikato River catchment that was withdrawn in November 2016 to enable full consultation with Pare Hauraki as an impacted iwi.

The variation includes some amendments arising from consultation with Pare Hauraki, and also proposes extensions of 20 months to some dates to enable landowners more time due to the delay.

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Didymo Dave 100 trips to Lake O RESPONSIBLE DUCKSHOOTING As I write this column my duckshooting mates are all excited as there are only a few sleeps to go till opening day of the duckshooting season.

Already I’ve seen press releases encouraging shooters to practice good firearm safety and hopefully all the shooters, their sons and daughters that accompany them and the trusty dogs will return home safely, incident free!

But there is another side to duckshooting that I want to cover and that’s the environmental side.

I believe comes with being a responsible duckshooter. It’s my belief that all shooters should adhere to Clean In and Clean Out so let’s discuss what that means.

Arriving at the maimai on opening day should be no problem, dinghy’s, decoys, waders, dogs etc in most instances will be clean as and all is good and for the duckshooters who only shoot opening weekend at the same location the issues ends there.

So let’s look at an example

of a duckshooter who moves around n let’s call him Mr A. This bloke shoots from a maimai on the lower Waikato River with a good number of nice decoys out, all with string to sinkers to hold them in place in the slight current. After opening weekend he retrieves his decoys putting them in a sack but fails to remove all the alligator weed off the strings and sinkers and heads to a farmers maize paddock. There he places his decoys out in the paddock, has a night shoot then retrieves his decoys and heads home, leaving fragments of alligator weed in the paddock which germinate and grow. Or maybe it wasn’t a maize paddock, maybe it was an effluent pond that he shot one night or maybe a small pond that wasn’t shot opening weekend but that he shot the following weekend? Get the picture?

Now I could give you other examples but I’m sure you are smart enough to get the idea so let’s look at the results of what is likely to happen if duckshooters spread aquatic weds around.

Firstly, the weed gypsy wort was dis-

Game Birds and 1080 The subject of 1080 and eating trout that might have 1080 residues has been hotly debated over the last year or two. Fish and Game showed some concern but other than that do not want to discuss 1080. But they should. Predator Free NZ with its unattainable goal is pro-poison. Stakeholders in Predator Free NZ others which include DoC, OSPRI (the two

big 1080 users) and among other stakeholders is Fish and Game NZ. Okay, I will put trout and 1080 aside.

What effects of 1080 other than trout, should concern Fish and Game NZ? Birds and particularly game birds.

As a game bird shooter I have been saddened by the extermination virtually of the Himalayan partridge the chukar or chukor.

covered in a lagoon in the far north last year and the Northland Regional Council and DoC, wanting to contain it banned all access for shooters and dogs to the lagoon. Now that was very sad, because in essence what they were saying was they didn’t trust the shooters to Clean in and Clean out and after doing Check Clean Dry advocacy for 11 years. I believe they were right! Secondly, if alligator weed or any other nasty showed up on the farmers maize paddock, effluent pond or other pond I mentioned in the example what is his reaction going to be? I suggest Ile will be very unhappy and I’ll leave it you to guess what his likely reaction to granting access to shooters in the future will be? Thirdly, some weeds currently in New Zealand are capable of forming mass density and ducks don’t tend to land in that situation, they like a spot of clear water.

So for the future of good duckshooting over clear water and farmers who are happy to grant access to shooters Clean In and Clean Out is the only way to go and you do that by adhering to the Check Clean Dry programme. Good shooting!

In the South Island high country there used to be chukor and quail galore with large coveys. They were great sport. Then came 1080 drops.

We never saw chukor again and quail coveys were few and far between with less numbers in each covey.

There were dead deer everywhere.

Is Fish and Game NZ concerned about game birds killed by 1080? I know I am.

“12 gauge” Canterbury

Lake O is such a fascinating lake and many anglers are hopelessly happily addicted to Lake O. Others find it a strange enchanting yet forbidding environment, as it is such an isolated alpine location exposed to all the worst weather and alpine elements. But many still love that rugged manly raw environment.

It was originally created as part of the Tongariro hydro power scheme by a dam at the top of the Wanganui River providing a shallow lake – more like a large puddle. It traps the water flowing via a tunnel from the Whakapapa River, from snow melt off Mt. Ruapehu, then spews it through a controlled canal to Lake Rotoaira from where another tunnel sends it to spin the turbines in the Tokaanu Power Station, then via the tail race into Lake Taupo.

For many purist anglers it provides their complete trout fishing package.

For many others, it confirms the wacky eccentric characteristic of trout anglers is justified.

It has been established as the Taupo trophy lake for about 40 years. Many did not think it would last. But it just goes on and on producing huge fat wild trophy trout season after season.

DoC appear to have given up on managing their fish trap out there, previously used to keep records of numbers and size of breeding stock.

Then last year the road access around the top of the lake was blocked off.

Fortunately they saved their reputation by the recent addition of a much needed loo at the launching ramp and plans recently announced to develop angler access walking tracks from the boat ramp to the canal and along the lake

edge, to more than make up for the loss of the fish trap statistics.

Lake O has a well-earned reputation for being very hard fishing.

You can fish for hours without a touch and then catch your limit in the next half hour when the trout start feeding.

It is very hard water to read as there is no definite pattern. The weed beds drive anglers to despair.

On some days over 20 boats of all descriptions may be on the lake and it only needs one idiot to speed and create a wake that ruins the fishing prospects for all the others.

It can be so frustrating to see big trout feeding but ignoring everything you cast at them.

Meanwhile, in the absence of DoC stats we have produced our own, stolen from the Tongariro facebook page courtesy of ‘K’.

‘K’ kept a diary of every trout he landed since 2012. A tremendous dedicated effort for a quiet achiever, with over six years of daily catch records.

It is called Lake “O” because often that is what you will catch – Zero.

Or it may be because that is often the usual air temperature – zero! So you have been warned.

K, is primarily a holiday angler who turns up at the worst most crowded and busiest times each year. Despite that he remains an easy going relaxed type of individual who simply thrives on his trout fishing.

His experiences have been confined to Christmas, New Year, Easter and Labour weekends – i.e. during the busiest most crowded times of the fishing calendar.

As such he usually has to compete with many other boats and rafts and canoes/kayaks on the lake when

angler pressure spooks most trout.

His boat is a simple cheap siton surf ski type of kayak not designed for fishing at all. Very basic. No big investment necessary.

All it needs is never-give-up attitude and perseverance.

K’s strategic method varies from drifting over the weed beds looking for rising fish to targeting certain honey pots – holes in the weeds around the lake edge. Just the usual reading and adjusting to the conditions.

We tried to prepare a classy sophisticated “spread sheet” to identify any trends but it was too much info for any fishos quick simple blog analysis.

As the “averaged” result did not vary much, season to season, (Lake O is closed off during winter spawning time) and no pattern emerged to support any one time of the year over another, the schedule below should be adequate.

Hence it is presented in a simple annual survey instead.

2013 – 53 landed in 10 days = 5.3 per day.

2014 – 103 landed in 20 days = 5.15 per day.

2015 – 122 landed in 26 days = 4.69 per day.

2016 – 285 landed in 34 days = 8.38 per day.

2017 – 66 landed in 10 days = 6.60 per day. (up to November 25th) Overall – 629 in 100 days = 6.29 per day…

It is difficult to find a suitable comparison to indicate how good his catch rate is.

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Well folks I’m planning to be in Coromandel during May, or in my words ‘paradise.’

Where else in New Zealand can you go where the weather pretty much always brilliant. Coromandel has its own little micro-climate which means it can be sunny here when everyone else is getting a wet butt.

What a place there is none like it anywhere.

I was very successful in March picking up fifteen snapper on

and won the 2018 Lake Championship; with Dan Comer finishing 3rd.

Cory appreciates his supporters for another epic year full of hard earned wins and good times with a big thanks to the organisers Johan Venter, Christopher Young and Lloyd Struthers

as well as Methven for the prizes.

John Gummer claimed the 2018 Lake Championships, with Lloyd Struthers 2nd and Cory Scott 3rd, and crowned overall National Champion.

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only three trips on Tom and Lorraine’s – Coro Fishing charter boat.

What a great couple they are, nothing is too much trouble for them and the boys that run the boats.

This will probably be my last trip for a while I say that but I can’t keep away.

Don’t forget to take your salt ice with you when you go out for a fish.

It’s always good to see Hank and Jeremy at Salty Towers, they are the boys that support the best flaky salt ice and bait on the Peninsula. If you drop in and have a yak they will tell you where the fish are and what bait is working for this time of the season.

Farmers urged to take their environmental responsibilities seriously A Te Kowhai dairy farmer has been convicted and fined $35,625 in the Hamilton District Court for allowing large volumes of dairy effluent to overflow into the environment.

The contamination was identified during a routine inspection by Waikato Regional Council in March 2017 as part of its compliance monitoring programme.

The prosecution against Edward Smith, brought by the council, related to an overflowing effluent

holding pond and a blocked effluent drainage pipe, each resulting in overland flows of dairy effluent.

In sentencing Mr Smith, Judge Melanie Harland commented on the inadequacies of the effluent infrastructure on his farm, saying it was “barely adequate” and concluding that the management of the system was “woefully inadequate”.

The council’s investigations manager, Patrick Lynch, agreed with the judge that “investment in

the effluent infrastructure, and the management of it, needs to be afforded a very high priority”.

“The judge’s comments reinforce the message that both the council and the industry itself have been promoting for years,” Lynch said. “It is very disappointing to find that some farms continue to operate with inadequate storage.

“This fine is yet another clear message from the court that people who do not take their environmental responsibilities seriously will be heavily penalised.”

14

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visit us on facebook is no legal recourse for the SPCA as no offences have technically been committed even though the poison has likely caused pain, distress and suffering to the animal.

If however, a poison was used and killed a non-target species, then this is something that the SPCA could potentially investigate as there may have been offences committed under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

However, to do this there would need to be a specific case and good evidence of a non-target species being killed by 1080 out-

side the allocated 1080 ‘drop zone’ but so far no one has been able to provide the SPCA with a case that provides the evidence they could use to prosecute.

Otherwise, they cannot prosecute as the poisoners are operating within the law.

The SPCA would also like to see the use of 1080 banned and their advocacy arm is always working where it can to try and achieve this but so far their efforts have not been successful.

If this is something you care about,

the best thing you can do is to lobby your government representatives for an end to 1080 use.

The SPCA will continue to do the same. Hopefully, if enough people and organisations do this, the law will be changed.

Unfortunately, until then the SPCA is unable prosecute the user if 1080 was used for the target species and the poison has been used, distributed and monitored according to the label conditions of that poison.

Good evidence of a non-target Coromandel Seafood Festival species being killed by 1080 Currently under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 section 181 deals with agricultural compounds and hazardous substances and effectively provides an exemption for the use of poisons used on animals as long as they are: 1) registered under the Agricultural

and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997 or approved under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act 1996 and 2) are used in accordance with the conditions and controls to which the poison is registered or classified.

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Therefore, if a poison is used to romandel Harbour is renowned shucking, food demonstrations, live kill an animal and it is the target for its mussel and oyster farms, as local bands, fish filleting demonspecies for that particular poison and the poison has been used, distributed and monitored acView the newspaper online at www.fishingoutdoors.org and advertise online with us. cording to the label conditions of Visit us on www.facebook/Fishing And Outdoors Newspaper that poison, then currently there

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Fishing: Councils’ forgotten priority for kids

By Rex N. Gibson

have ensured that these ponds were stocked for the annual takea-kid fishing day, and on a regular basis throughout the season. That is now on hold.

Why? The ponds are currently too neglected by the council to harbour trout or salmon.

Volunteers weed clearing at the Groynes On a Saturday and Sunday, esI recently put in my submission pecially in summer, you will observe for the local council’s Long Term around 200 people (mainly families Plan (LTP). I was disappointed with young children) enjoying the to see that once again the rec- outdoor experience of fishing. Unreation focus in the LTP was on der 12 year-olds fish for free, and team sport grounds and facilities. those under 17 need only need Fishing does not seem to “cut it” an inexpensive youth licence and and yet it ranks up there as the adults cannot fish there. Daylight number one sport of New Zealand- saving has meant that families can ers. In recent years many places often also use the “groynes opporhave developed “fish out” ponds for tunity” in the early evening, and do! children to catch trout and salmon. Sadly the ponds have been hit in Christchurch has the Groynes area three ways; siltation has reduced on its western fringe. North Can- the depth of the ponds by an estiterbury Fish and Game and the mated 600 mm, willows have enIsaac Conservation & Wildlife Trust croached significantly, and the invasive pond weeds have choked the ponds to such an extent that the fish releases have had to be stopped. Clearing the areas is not a priority for the council.

What upsets many fishers is that many local parks will get mowed, repaired, lines reTimaru wharf in the good old days painted, etc, every

week, to be used by perhaps just 22 players on a Saturday. The highly used children’s fishing areas do not even get a look in for maintenance more than once or twice a year; and then it is a token effort.

Last year I joined a group of other fishers to help clear weed from the ponds prior to the take-a-kid fishing day. Despite our efforts the ponds were just barely fishable on the day and the weed grew back in a very short time. The interesting aside was that the Periodic Detention boys and girls were given the task of loading and removing the weed once we had leared it.

Puns about “weed” flowed that day.

I suspect the LTP in Christchurch will be similar to other localities. Only team sports seem to matter. Many of the sports that councils support are those with very expensive entry, participation, uniform and gear costs. In contrast children can, and do, enter fishing as a sport at minimal cost. Mentoring by parents and grandparents is a significant part of this sport. Another positive is that unlike some team sports you do not see that parent support-team yelling abusively at the youthful participants or their competitors.

Those of us who have many years in the sport know that it presents a lifetime of opportunities for learning and for refining of our skills.

Any suggestion that fishing is just about flinging a line out and waiting for the fish to hook itself, is like saying that golf is just about slogging the ball as far as you can and waiting for it to roll into the hole.

Like golf, fishing is an opportunity get into the “outdoors”. We can all wax lyrical about the lack of outdoor experiences that many of our youth get in the 21st Century.

I have some experience of the process by which council funding is

allocated to sporting, charity and community groups for projects.

It can be best described as “horse trading’. Council staffs vet the applications and then sit around a table and argue for the applications in their area of responsibility within the bureaucracy. The arguments being necessary as the fund will never be enough. Some of these staff have years of association with groups in their area and have close relationships with the applicants. Others are “green-horns”. Status within the bureaucracy will no doubt also affect the “power” of the staff member, and thus their pet project.

For accountability reasons most project money goes to well established organisations leading to operational inertia. Sir Humphrey Appleby of “Yes Minister” fame would be proud of most council’s staffs.

The same happens within the parks and recreation area when the budget allocations are made.

I strongly suspect that an “old boys” network exists that has precluded significant funding allocations for fishing. The council staffs seem to have a blind spot here.

Throughout New Zealand several local councils have abdicated their responsibility to allow children to fish off wharves. Port companies, even those owned by councils, have used the health and safety regulations to turn our port areas into fortresses with more barbed wire than concentration camps. I have never seen “horrific” statistics to show the children come to grief on unused wharves. I suspect that port companies have not either.

When the Health and Safety at Work Act first came into force in 2015 many of us were confronted by worried farmers who had detailed sheets that they wanted us to read and fill out when we asked

to crossed their land. Some farmers found it so daunting that they just closed access.

Federated Farmers led their concerns.

Clarification, led by the Walking Access Commission, subsequently pointed out that nothing had really changed since the 1992 Act. Kids at the Groynes Farmers only had an obligation to point out major hazards to recreational One only has to look at the ongousers; such as blasting, tree-felling, ing success of the Mackenzie caearthmoving machinery operating nal fishery to see why restricting and pest control (1080?). Natural access to fishing spots on H & s features are excluded like rivers, grounds can be a “bit over the top”. landslips, bluffs and wasp nests, I feel that I have an obligation to pass along with normal farm features on to future generations the opporlike barbed wire and electric fenc- tunities to catch fish and become es. If the farmer is charging a fee, immersed in a sport that has a rich then the whole thing changes as history, literature and culture to go the user is then in the same cat- with its fellowship that unites genegory as staff and contractors. erations. I hope that I am not alone.

Where are our councils when it comes to access to the wharves that for 150 years were the mainstay of kids fishing? While a ship is being worked the restrictions are reasonable, but since containerisation so many wharves are empty of shipping much of the time; and still the kids are kept away. There is hardly an adult fisherman over 40 who did not enjoy days on the wharf as a child. With so many “experts” now waking up to the negative effects of wrapping kids in cotton wool, fishers now need to pressurise their councils and port companies on this issue. What happened for farmers is the precedent and ACC picks up the Intergenerational fishing at the Mackenzie canals tab for injuries anyway.

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SNOWBEE POLARIZED SUN GLASSES

$29.90

UNDER HALF PRICE!

MARIA RAPIDO STICK BAITS

FROM

WAS $59.90

$49.90

N E W!

WAS $119.90

EVA KOOL 100-LITRE TWIN TUB CHILLY BIN

$349.90

WAS $499.90

| 0800 438 556 | 7 Somerset Street, Frankton, Hamilton | sales@fullonfishing.co.nz

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KILWELL RXB85 BAIT RUNNER REEL