frogblog

National Party MP Phil Heatley seems to have caught a case of verbal muddle-itis from his leader. In a press release this afternoon he appears to have gone on the defensive on behalf of Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton.

In it he demands that Anderton seek an apology from Forest and Bird over assertions made in its Best Fish Guide.

Now it seems that what Heatley actually wanted to say was that Anderton should seek an apology for the Fishing Industry from Forest and Bird, not for himself, but if that’s what Heatley meant he should say so.

Never-the-less the release is about as blinkered as you can get.

Heatley has completely missed the point of why the guide is issued. It’s written on the guide; to make “it easy to see at a glance which seafood to choose”.

It does not as Heatley put it: “Insist that nearly all the fish caught in our waters shouldn’t be eaten”.

The guide is designed to help consumers make informed choices, something the Fisheries Ministry itself does not do well.

It is not designed to damage the fishing industry, as Heatley claims. It simply points out things that the fishing industry would not like the general fish purchasing population to know: that thousands of seas birds each year are accidentally killed on long-line hooks, that sea lions, dolphins and seals die in fishing nets, and that some of our fisheries are not as well managed as they could be.

The Green Party has called for a boycott of orange roughy and deep-sea dory (oreos) because they are caught in bottom trawlers. These huge scoops cut a swathe of destruction across the sea floor, felling everything in their paths. Whichever way you coat that, in crumbs or batter, bottom trawling for fish is bad.

So why has Anderton not demanded an apology? Well my guess is that it’s because one is not justified.

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