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LETTERS CONTINUED… and of course from our interest in our New Zealand fishing industry. We submit to you, that with the phone number as given, and the name of the said boat provided to you, your reply will be forthcoming because of the serious nature of this matter. Graham Walker, secretary/treasurer WBVCG Ass Inc We understand that the Maritime New Zealand safety inspector at Tauranga has been asked to visit the vessel when it is next in port and to undertake a safety inspection and check whether the crew are working to New Zealand legislation. Ed… SURVEYOR REPLIES Dear Sir I would be interested to see the areas that the Coastguard say the vessel is in poor condition and how they class their opinion. As the surveyor I am very aware of the vessel and also aware that it is far from a new boat and it does look old and shabby. Typically with a vessel of this age there are areas that need to be done up. These have been noted and explained and are listed in the maintenance plan. The worst area is the engine room where there is a significant amount of redundant equipment i.e. refrigeration, welding machine, etc. The writer has verbally requested for this to be removed to provide access to clean up the hull structure in this area. Since I took over the vessel early this year from SGS, I have inspected the vessel and had works carried out to increase the standard and integrity. All of this work was documented and design approved. A stability document was produced in the end. With regard to the hull I had the skeg opened and concrete removed finding the stern post was not substantially connected to the stern tube and there was no stern bearing boss. This was rectified and is all recorded in the file. The hull shell was ultra-sounded by Materials & Testing and found to be generally in good order with adequate plate thickness. All internal areas were inspected with the forepeak and an area under the accommodation floor being de-scaled inspected and painted. Structural work to the aft fishroom bulkhead was carried out to the approved plans. The deck was inspected and found in order. The anchor winch was tested and found in order after rectifying several defects. The surveyor may require further work to be done within certain timelines and this will be ongoing. Curly Hayter, MCMS Marine surveyor, Auckland TOO MUCH Dear Sir Can you please reduce the number of pages in Professional Skipper magazine. It took me nearly two weeks to read it as my eyes ain't what they used to be. Too much of interest. Good stuff. Your most humble reader. Lynton Diggle, Titirangi FISHING DEBATE Dear Sir A recent episode of 60 Minutes about New Zealand shark fishing was yet another example of what is produced when reporters pander to the interests of groups like Greenpeace by completely ignoring the truth and failing to let the fishing industry answer the assertions these idiots come up with. If they were at all interested in the facts the questions below would have been asked directly to the industry. Q: Are any shark targeted for their fins in New Zealand? A: No shark are targeted for their fins in New Zealand. Sharks like school shark and rig are (like all fish) targeted for their meat, the fins are a byproduct. Blue, mako and porbeagle shark are a bycatch from the surface-line tuna and sword target fisheries that we are involved in. They are finned but also trunked where possible or either released alive (small) or, when there is either no room or market for the meat, they are killed and finned only. Probably more than 90 percent of our shark bycatch is trunked and finned. Greeneye, spikey, carpet, shovelnose and seal shark are bycatches from trawling and bottomline and are treated the same as the surface sharks. As a pest. Q: Are the carpet sharks on the video that Danny Bolten was trying to deceive the public with caught for their fins? A: No Q: Would these carpet sharks have been released alive if not for their fin value? A: No. These sharks need to be killed or they will be caught again and again, greatly restricting the ability to catch the target species. If all carpet sharks were released alive, Danny would find it very hard to catch anything but carpet sharks for his punters. The work involved in finning carpet sharks is not worth the low value of the fins. Carpet sharks are also big eaters of small blue cod. Blue cod stocks in the Marlborough Sounds have been hugely affected by charter operations like Danny Bolten's, but carpet sharks are also a big part of the problem. Commercial fishermen are doing Danny Bolten a favour. Q: What happens when carpet, greeneye, spikey and blue sharks are not finned and released alive? 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