Editorial: We must stamp out poaching

Why would people take more than their quota of seafood? The Department of Conservation has set limits of collection in place for a reason - to conserve wildlife for future generations.

It is hard to believe that anyone can live in the world we do and not be concerned about the future of our planet.

The days of allowing toxic fumes to billow into the sky or over-fishing our seas are over (or should be).

It still boggles my mind that as a young boy in the 1970s I used to happily run across and play on asbestos garage roofs, not realising what lay below.

We did not know what we did not know.

Nowadays, we should know everything and there are even some things that we don't need to know, even if we think we need to know it.

Take the relentless rape of our coastlines. We should all be able to go out and enjoy a day of fishing or collecting paua. But, like anything else in life, we need rules.

If I am in a hurry and want to get from A to B without skipping a beat, I don't just drive through a red traffic light. I know the consequences, so no matter how much it sets me back, I wait for a while for the lights to change.

So, why would people take more than their quota of seafood? The Department of Conservation has set limits of collection in place for a reason - it wants to live up to its name and conserve our wildlife for future generations. That is why the recent anti-poaching operation along 300km of Hawke's Bay coastline was so good.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force A109 light utility helicopter completed patrols last week, resulting in the arrests of six groups taking paua illegally. Although part of me wonders why we have to go to such great lengths to catch the poachers, at the end of the day at least they were caught.

We all need to play our part - the Ministry for Primary Industries urges people to report any suspicious fishing activity to 0800 4 POACHER (0800 476 224). All calls are confidential.