Calls for fish inquiry to be broadened

The Auckland University fishing researcher whose report exposed decades of fish dumping and illegal practice says he's concerned a new industry inquiry will be too narrow. The Ministry of Primary Industries will bring in a top lawyer to examine why fishing skippers weren't prosecuted during operations in the Timaru and Oamaru ports in 2012 and 2013, despite video evidence they were dumping fish. The inquiry will also look into a second investigation called Operation Hippocamp, which shows an MPI investigator thought the ministry was putting prosecutions in the "too hard" basket. Dr Glenn Simmons was the lead researcher of the catch reconstruction for the 1950 - 2010 period.