ProWest News – What about the New Zealand marine parks we are hearing so much about?
No one knows the importance of looking below the surface more than a commercial fisher, but sometimes when you look beneath, you discover more than you ever expected.
And this was the case last week when WAFIC looked at the New Zealand Marine Park model, which has been mentioned by environmental scientists and even the Environment Minister, as an example of where the community soon embraces marine park sanctuaries after the parks have been established. In other words the inference is that WAFIC’s concerns are unfounded, there’s nothing to worry about folks.
Well yes, it turns out these marine parks are indeed quite popular in NZ, with commercial fishers also supportive, mainly because the sanctuary zones and no-take zones represent less than one percent of the total area. Compare this to the efforts of our conservation agency, DBCA, which seeks to place more than 25 percent of the south coast into sanctuary zones, effectively wiping out the viability of the commercial fishing industry at the same time. Can you see the difference?
You can read more about yet another DBCA inconvenient truth in the latest edition of ProWest here.