Tauranga resident and keen recreational fisherman Adam El-Agez says he has noticed a marked decline in his fish catch, particularly over the last few years.
"Well there's obviously a problem. Everyone knows there's a problem. And it's really a matter of whether they're going to fix it or not, and
who's going to take the sacrifice in order to rebuild the fishery," Mr El-Agez said.
Mr El-Agez is talking about the Ministry for Primary Industries, which is currently touring the country holding meetings about the future of sustainable fishing.
Amongst the proposals are new regulations for catch and location reporting, and the installation of automated cameras on commercial boats.
Whakatane based longline commercial fisherman Steve Haddock says he is expecting changes within the commercial fishing sector.
"Right now, there's trials being done with snapper vessels, trawlers and gillnet vessels... I can see it coming into the surface long-line industry. I think it's inevitable that it does. And at the end of the day it will go a long way to answering a lot of the questions that have been in doubt," Mr Haddock said.
The new proposals follow an admission by MPI that commercial fish dumping was out of control.
Greenpeace investigator Tim McKinnel says they are worried MPI is too close to the commercial fishing industry.
"One of the concerns we have around the transparency of this consultation process is that we've asked for information, lots of information over recent months, and MPI have been either very slow or have failed to provide that information," Mr McKinnel said.
Greenpeace says the entire system needs to be overhauled.
"The way the Quota Management System [QMS] works motivates fishing companies to dump. And if they don't dump they're unable to make decent profits. So, the system as it stands is a system that encourages dumping and discarding," Mr McKinnel said.
Adam El-Agez says recreational fishermen and women have been complaining about commercial dumping for years.
But it's fallen on deaf ears at MPI.
"From a recreational fisherman's point of view, we're getting hammered with bag limits cuts, and you know reductions in what we can take, yet there's widespread dumping happening in the commercial sector. And it just doesn't really seem fair that recreational fishermen should be the ones that have to take cuts," Mr El-Agez said.
Mr El-Agez says he wants to see more transparency around the management of fishing in our waters.
But he says he fears the current round of engagement is simply 'box-ticking' by MPI officials.
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