Whitebait – would you eat a kiwi?

Do you know that in New Zealand, there are many regulations around fishing – such as restriction of fishing hours for white baiting. Longfin and shortfin eels have commercial catch limits. However, no native freshwater fish is protected by commercial, sport fishing or government regulations – other than the extinct grayling. This is a shocking state of affairs. We have to get a permit to translocate our native mudfish not because the species has any protection but because DOC wish to control the movement of species, to ensure species that are unique to one area are not translocated to an area where they have never existed or could mix with a sub species. This does not go far enough. We need to move to give full protection to our fresh water fish species, all of which have declining populations, protection similar to that of our native birds.