More fishing misinformation

I’ve blogged previously on the campaign to ban NZ hoki because a dolphin was caught in a net three years ago. It wasn’t one of the very rare Maui’s dolphon (pop 55) but a Hector’s dolphin (pop 7400).

But the misinformation is even worse than that, Cameron Slater points out:

Maui Dolphins are a coastal and inshore waters species. Further he would know that Hoki is caught in trawlers, using pelagic (medium depth, neither close to the bottom nor near the shore) and bottom trawling methods in offshore waters…in other words nowhere near where Maui dolphins live, eat and play.

And:

Moreover the Hoki fishery hundred of kilometres south of Maui dolphin’s normal range. Maui dolphins are a West coast species largely found  north of Whanganui and South of the Kaipara harbour. Hoki is caught off the West Coast of the South Island, Cook Strait and the Chatham Rise to the east of the South Island. They are hundreds of mile apart at their closet possible range. The report from the Germans and the emotive clap-trap being pushed by idiots like Trubridge and the Media party don’t even match the facts.

Today we have the campaign organiser admit they know that hoki is not fished anywhere near Maui’s dolphins – despite is being the centre of their campaign:

We are well aware that hoki is a pelagic fish whose range does not overlap with Maui’s dolphins.

I’ve yet to see many in the media seriously scrutinise the claims being made, or doing any independent research on the claims. They just report the propaganda.