With the government reviewing the Wildlife Act 1953 I got to thinking about our wild fish. The rules are pretty crazy.
- 39 native freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction. It’s legal to kill them all without a license.
- It’s legal to kill and sell endangered whitebait. Everywhere else in the world it’s illegal to trade in endangered species. Only one of our native freshwater fish* is protected, it went extinct last century. *Upokororo / New Zealand grayling.
- We have billions of introduced pest fish (that damage and destroy native ecosystems. It’s illegal to kill or sell them without a license.
- You don’t need a license to kill any of our native saltwater fish. Including those going locally or nationally extinct.
I definitely think its time for a review.
