Linda Hall: Give fish a fighting chance

Fishermen on leisure craft still use fishing rods to catch their prey.

At last something positive is being done to help sustain our fish for future generations.

It is such a simple idea that it makes you think "why wasn't this thought of years ago".

It's as easy as changing the traditional fishing net from its diamond shape and moving it 90 degrees to a more square shape, allowing smaller round-profiled species, such as gurnard, red cod, kahawai and rig, to escape more easily through the wider open mesh.

Brilliant. That means fish which would otherwise be dead and no good to anyone have the chance to mature and breed.

The initiative is being driven by Hawke's Bay Seafoods and Ngati Kahungunu.

Good on them.

Hawke's Bay Seafoods, have said their eight trawlers and others contracted to them will all use the new nets. Installing them will cost the company an estimated $50,000.

Hopefully others in the fishing industry will follow their lead.

Hawke's Bay Today receives a lot of correspondence about the lack of fish in our waters.

At least this will give the small fry a fighting chance. After all, humans have the upper hand when it comes to fishing.

These days fishing boats, both commercial and leisure, have all sorts of devices to find the best fishing spots.

But at least fishermen on leisure craft still use fishing rods to catch their prey.

Unlike the latest electronic kontiki which doesn't call for any kind of fishing skill.

Just bait them up and send them out to sea.

Their motors are now so powerful they can "rip through surf and allow you to fish when others can't" , according to an advertisement for one I found online.

Personally I just can't see the lure of them.

I'm not what you would call a keen fisherman, however, I have been surfcasting a few times.

It was a lot of fun seeing who could throw the line out the furthest, holding the line and feeling the fish nibble, trying to snap the rod back and hook a fish.

I managed to catch nothing and lost a lot of bait but it didn't matter, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I can't see the fun or the sportsmanship of sending out an electronic device and then just sitting on the beach doing nothing.

The fish really don't have a chance.

Why do you need to catch 10 fish at once when one or two for dinner is all you need?

Early kontiki relied on wind and sea conditions but it seems nothing can stop these modern and powerful "torpedoes".

It doesn't matter if Mother Nature is trying her best to give the ocean a chance to replenish by whipping up winds and sending waves crashing to the beach.

Humans still manage to come up with more sophisticated fishing gear to overcome these obstacles.

When are we going to learn that we can't keep taking and taking.

If we are not careful the days of having fish once a week will be a luxury only the very affluent can afford.

-Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.