Mr Moyle declines offer to buy fish shop

Press, 13 April 1987, Page 17

Mr Moyle declines offer to buy fish shop

PA Tauranga The Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle, will reply to a protest by a fish retailer, of Mount Maunganui, but will not make an apology.

The Government would not buy Mrs Eisma Buckman’s fish shop, said Mr Moyle’s press secretary, Mr Allan Hope.

Mrs Buckman had written to Mr Moyle protesting against Government policies on fishing quotas and offering her business for sale at $30,000. “As the Government appears to be buying boats and quotas and paying out considerable sums of

money to stop fishing, I am offering you this business,” she said. Mr Hope said this was the first protest of its kind the Ministry had received, though there had been many protests from individual fishermen about quota reductions. “The fishing industry as a whole has accepted that there had to be reductions in the quantities of fish caught round the New Zealand coast, especially species like snapper,” he said.

In Bay of Plenty, snapper had almost been reduced to an endangered species. The Government

was obliged to reduce pressure on particular fish.

Until the numbers of fish had been built up, fish would remain scarce. While overseas prices for New Zealand fish were high, prices on the local market would be high, he said.

“The problem is not of the Government’s making and we have devised a system to rebuild the market.

“Mr Moyle has said the days of cheap fish are over, especially for the popular species,” he said.