Statement annoys paua campaigners

Kees Meeuws
Kees Meeuws
The groundswell of opposition against a proposal to open up coastline in Otago and Southland to commercial paua harvesting is building strongly despite the ''smoke and mirrors'' of the commercial paua industry, Paua to the People spokesmen say.

Paua to the People spokesman Kees Meeuws (38) said Paua Management Area Council 5 chairman Storm Stanley was ''commenting outside his mandate'' and talking as if he worked for the Ministry of Primary Industries.

''Last week, Storm Stanley came out and said that he was willing to take the Otago Peninsula off the agenda but he has no right to say that.''

Only the ministry could change the proposal, he said.

The comment had infuriated Paua to the People campaigners, Mr Meeuws said.

Mr Stanley had misled the public, he said. They had been led to believe the peninsula was safe from inclusion, ''which it is not''. Mr Stanley's statement was ''smoke and mirrors'' from an ''old campaigner'', Mr Meeuws said.

The public had until April 19 to make a submission to the ministry, he said.

About 300 submissions in opposition had already been made and about 200 people had attended meetings from Dunedin to Bluff.

Mr Stanley (58) said he had never spoken on behalf of the ministry.

''I was simply stating the industry position.''

The industry would review the provisional boundaries it had initially put to the ministry, which would reflect the feedback it had received.

The feedback would be included in the submission of support to the ministry, He said.

Paua to the People spokesman Dave Hodson said about 25 people, including commercial paua divers and quota holders attended a meeting at Tokanui Hall on Wednesday night.

About 20 people, including a commercial diver, attended a ''relaxed'' meeting at Kaka Point Hall on Thursday.

At both meetings, everyone agreed that if proposed areas were open to commercial divers there would be fewer paua for recreational divers.

Paua to the People spokesman Jono Bavin said there were 25 people at a meeting in Invercargill on Thursday night.

There were 75 online submissions made in Southland on Thursday.

Submissions can be made on the proposal until April 19.

- shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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