Ministry for Primary Industries has rearranged its Fisheries Management Review roadshow schedule to include the Coromandel Peninsula.
Whitianga recreational fisherman Mark Eliott said he was astounded when he found the Ministry of Primary Industry’s Fisheries Management Review was not scheduled to visit the Coromandel Peninsula.
“The nearest meetings were Tauranga or Auckland, which is a long haul for anyone on the northern end of the peninsula, so I sent a letter saying so to the Ministry and got in touch with Coromandel MP Scott Simpson,” he said.
The upshot is an extra meeting has been organised and will take place in Tairua on Tuesday, December 6 at the Tairua & Pauanui Sports and Fishing Club.
Eliott, who was a Junior All Black in 1979 under coach Eric Watson, spent a great deal of time living in France before returning to New Zealand.
He went to France aged 22 and joined well-known French rugby club Begles Bordeaux then moved on to Cognac.
After his rugby playing days he forged himself a career in the French wine trade and lived in Bordeaux for the next 20 years.
Now based in Whitianga he said he had experienced tourism around the globe and saw many opportunities for young New Zealanders to advance themselves and their families provided New Zealand governorship allowed them to.
“I have identified the fishing industry as a major starting place for improvement to tourism with restaurants, local fresh fish shops and all small local business should be supplied by local commercial fishermen. It is absurd small port towns no longer have access to fish which is not subject to export values,” he said.
He said management of local fisheries was being run from central government and its model was dated and needed a complete overhaul.
2016 Fairfax New Zealand Limited