The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/119485
L E T TERS CONTINUED��� Imagine if pig and deer hunters hunted and caught their animals, only to immediately let them go so they can be hunted again. What would the public think of that? What if we caught birds on fishing hooks and played them like kites for fun for a few hours? I suppose as long as they were tagged and released it would be okay eh, Mr Jorion? Because that is exactly what recreational fishers do to marlin! The tagging of marlin is nothing more than an excuse to keep catching and releasing these fish over and over again, so please spare me the nonsense about all the, ��� work undertaken in tagging, research and releasing this wonderful game fish���. It���s all done in the interest of the fisher���s ego, not the fish���s welfare. Stu Morrison, Altair Fishing Ltd, Nelson Dear Sir I have just received the draft documents for the QOL review. The fee structure makes horrific reading. The percentage increase seems to bear no resemblance to the present fee or the new fee. It looks like anyone wanting to revalidate an LLO next year should get in smartly as the cost could go from $236 to up to $750, or $1300 if they have to be transferred to SRL. Perhaps you could alert readers of Professional Skipper mag who are LLO holders, and are mainly oyster farmers in the aquaculture sector, to revalidate now if they are going to need to in 2013. Darcy Ranger, Coromandel ���BRO��� QUOTA Dear Sir Your latest editorial is a bit rough but right on. You are correct in your statements, but it���s not all the fault of our elders as you suggest. It���s the fault of their advisors, the smart pakeha fellas in the flash fishing offices who are to blame. It is these fellas who come up with the deals and make the decisions on how the quota is fished. It is these fellas who are cutting the smaller fishermen out including many Maori. We Maori fishermen cannot get our hands on Maori quota because these fellas in the flash fishing companies say its all or nothing so our decision makers are stuck between a rock and a hard place in being suckered into giving them all the quota. When I read in your mag, bloody good mag too, I am concerned that we Maori are being seen to condone the bad fishing practices on many of these FCV���s. This is not true. Yes, there needs to be much korerorero on our marae amongst all Maori to resolve the problems you raise. Trouble is, easy money talks louder and local fishers can���t pay the bucks up front. Keep rattling the cage bro���, people will start to hear the message and make a change. D Milner, Bay of Plenty ACCIDENT REPORTS Dear Sir You asked readers to let you know if they see safety value in your reports? Yes! Yes! Yes! You might also want to publish how to match Vessel Identifier numbers with names. Have you shrunk the point size of the reports? I���m sure my eyes aren���t deteriorating that fast. Kevin McCready, Auckland ACCIDENT REPORTS 2 Dear Sir What is, Maritime New Zealand up to? The best educational tool they have and they are at risk of stuffing it up are your accident report summaries, which are one of the most read pages in Professional Skipper magazine, and I can say there but for the grace of God go I, and there are many others I would suggest. This is no laughing matter. The reports as submitted by those involved are a valuable education tool in giving warnings to mariners to be aware of similar situations and to take care. No, it���s not name and shame because we understand, but giving the facts and details keeps it honest and does not cast aspersions on others. To Maritime NZ: Before you make yet another monumental cock up, return these reports to the status quo and make a solid contribution to eliminating risk and saving lives. Greg Johnson, Auckland 4 Professional Skipper March/April 2013 LLO ALERT! ���SKIPPER��� REUNION Dear Sir This is proof that Professional Skipper magazine is a wellread publication. Team Mates Reunited after Forty Five Years: I and 24 other big game fishing enthusiasts plus some of their wives from the Bay of Islands Deep Sea Fishing Club made up six teams to fish in the 9th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament held at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in July 1967. Over the years I have lost touch with fellow team members, as my interests have changed over the years. Plus, many of them are now deceased with only about half a dozen of us still living. So I was wonderfully surprised to receive a letter from my old team captain Barrie Hopkins. Barrie had read one of my letters to the Professional Skipper magazine and tracked me down. The Bay of Islands Swordfish Club had six teams with four fishermen in each. There were 68 fishing teams in this tournament from all over the world. New Zealand had the largest number and there were 180 anglers altogether, so it made it a wonderful contest to be in. I was one of the lucky ones landing a 204lb blue marlin. Probably my best story I can tell you, is how Barrie Hopkins my team captain, being a lawyer, saved me from being arrested for selling fish without a license to do so on the Kona wharf. My memory I have is of Barrie Hopkins talking the authorities out of having me arrested for selling my marlin without a license. If you were unlicensed you had to sell to a woman agent, who only gave you four cents a pound for your fish. I found the man she was selling to and he gave me 10 cents a pound. I grabbed my $20.40 and went off with another team member Eric Judd, to have a good time. I was told the next day how Barrie had saved me from arrest. I have managed to keep out of trouble with the law ever since. Tight lines Professional Skipper. John Hunter, Papakura ASPASIA, AND QE2 Dear Sir I was delighted by Dave Fields��� article on Aspasia. I used to see her frequently when, as a member of the Waitemata Rowing Club, then at Okahu Bay, I would pass her on my way from the club. Occasionally when the tide was suitable, we in our training rows and club trials would row the mile or so between Aspasia���s moorings and the Hobson Bay sewer. I also knew Dave as a fellow apprentice at HMNZ Dockyard Devonport, though he was a year ahead of me, and, we were fellow inmates of the Public Service Hostel at Mechanics Bay until it closed in 1957 like a lot of other country boys. Your correspondent Tony Skilton���s experiences on QE2 were of great interest to me too, as I served in RMS Queen Elizabeth