Recreational fishers urge action on massive in-shore decline

New Zealand Angling and Casting Association, Legasea Hawkes Bay, Hawkes Bay sportsfishing club and the Pania Surfcasting club have been gathering data on their catches in Hawkes Bay for the past 8 years. They say this shows declines in snapper of around 70 percent over that time, a 77 percent decline in groper, and a 96 percent drop in gurnard catches. Jim Yeoman is the president of the New Zealand Angling and Casting Association; and Glenn Simmons is a research fellow at the University of Auckland business school - he specialises in the Seafood Industry.