Fishing spokesman hits a new low blaming dolphins for tragic drownings
Last night’s One News item, which featured a member of the recreational fishing council blaming set net bans for a tragic drowning, shows the depths to which some will sink to protect their own interests.
Fishing council spokesman Keith Ingram was commenting on the WWF Colmar Brunton survey which showed overwhelming public support for a set net and trawl net ban in order to save the few remaining Hectors and Maui dolphins. He went on to say that if the ban was extended, fishers who used methods other than set nets, would be a greater risk of drowning and referred to a very tragic case.
Is the Recreational Fishing Council suggesting that fishing methods other than set-netting are lethal? People fish in a multitude of ways, off rocks, in boats, from the shore, some with their credit cards at the local supermarket. Are they all reckless fools?
It’s time for the fishing council to get real.
Fishing is always a balance between effective preservation and exploitation of the resource. For as long as people go near the sea, there will always be tragedies. It is gross to use these tragedies for any campaign to justify the continued slaughter of critically endangered dolphins.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318241/1728748
Note: According to Water Safety NZ drowning is the third highest cause of unintentional death in New Zealand, surpassed only by road vehicle crashes and accidental falls. And New Zealand has one of the highest rates of drowning in the developed world.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Speaking of drowning… It’s frogs that are drowning around here, in the polls that is. Put up a topic on the LOUSY poll ratings so we can discuss in context please…
April 21st, 2008 at 10:57 am
Surely this is a non-partisan issue?
samiam is it really worth discussing every poll, esp this far out from the election? Margin of error for small parties and all that…
April 21st, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Which is why I ask for a seperate topic to discuss in context..
April 21st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
samiam - I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about the polls. There were two over the weekend, with very different results and all the blogs/news sites have covered them to death. I cannot be bothered picking through the tea leaves. I am much more interested in the running average of polls, for which there is very little change for the Greens. I’m speculated out about the LabNats. They are much the same in any case.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
i was disgusted by this new low set by the rec fishing folk. That family is likely still grieving, and that sad event had nothing to do with dolphins. a sad and desperate blow indeed.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm
So is set netting only used in recreational fishing then?
April 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
unintentional death? how many intentional ones are there?
& where does medical misadventure come in that scale?
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 am
Is the drowning rate per capita or per km of coastline? We seem to have a bad record for drownings. In 1870 the problem was so bad that Parliament resolved to table an annual report naming every person drowned in a river or stream, to remind members why bridge building was included in the new Public Works Fund. The first report included earlier years. Over 160 victims were named for 1869…there were fewer than 500,000 settlers in the country then. Assuming that only two-thirds were fording rivers or streams then that is 24 deaths per 100,000 population killed in “road” accidents. The official road toll of 800 in 1973 was only slightly higher at 27 deaths per 100,000 population. Unfortuantely today we do not have someone of Vogel’s calibre and character insisting that money be spent reducing the road toll.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
According to the Parliamentary debate of the above mentioned resolution drowning was becoming known throughout the Empire as “The New Zealand Death”