Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over stability of the government, health minister throws top official under the bus, and concerns raised over dolphin protection plan. After several days of frantically knifing each other at parliament, you’d be forgiven for thinking the coalition government is on the verge of collapse. The … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Shane Jones confirms run in the crucial seat of Northland, Kiwifruit sales soar amid global pandemic, and questions on colonial monuments erupt around the world. The course of politics over the last five years was arguably set during the tumultuous Northland by-election of 2015. After the … Read more
By now, everybody should know about staying in their bubble and leaving the house only for essential services and exercise, provided social distancing rules are followed. Does this mean people can still take the boat out, or go surfing? “Staying at home will save lives,” said Jacinda Ardern in a question and answer session she … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New child poverty statistics show little change yet, Greenpeace call for fishing policy review over donations, and a focus on Covid-19 effects on forestry. New figures were released yesterday on one of the most important issues facing the country – how many children grow up in … Read more
Summer reissue: Toby Manhire spends a day chasing kingys – and PM-adjacent yarns – with Fish of the Day host Clarke Gayford. This story was first published on 19 April, 2019 and originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine Mid-week, mid-morning under a muddy grey January sky. We’re skimming into the Hauraki Gulf on a stupidly expensive boat, stacks … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New fishing quotas in effect today, it’s not to late to vote so go and sort it out, and Shane Jones vows revenge after gentle reprimand. New fishing catch limits come into effect today, particularly targeting the under-threat tarakihi. The details of that threatened status were … Read more
Kate Underwood shared some special seafood with Clarke Gayford and spoke to him about why the way we fish is so important. Even though he now has access to the ninth floor of the Beehive, Clarke Gayford is still a Gizzy boy at heart. He’s grown up on and in the sea. He has fond … Read more
We love it battered and served with chips, but tarakihi stocks aren’t doing well and another big cut to commercial catch limits is in the works. Ah yes, terrakee, that’s a fish, right? Well, first things first, let’s say it correctly. Pronounce every syllable, remember the Māori vowel sounds (A-E-I-O-U), roll the r and you’ll … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ Herald digital subscriber numbers reach first major milestone, Forest and Bird drop two major stories, and maternity wards lacking overnight cover. An exciting story broke yesterday for those who follow news about news. The NZ Herald put this one outside the paywall – releasing that the company had … Read more
A new generation of commercial fishermen is pushing for change, and chefs are helping to tell their story. “I used to be a little bit naive and think there was no end to anything – a good day’s fishing would always be the same,” says Nathan Smith of Gravity Fishing. “But it’s not the case. … Read more
Toby Manhire spends a day chasing kingis – and PM-adjacent yarns – with Fish of the Day host Clarke Gayford. Mid-week, mid-morning under a muddy grey January sky. We’re skimming into the Hauraki Gulf on a stupidly expensive boat, stacks of fishing rods wobbling away, and Clarke Gayford is getting technical. “So on the handle, as it comes … Read more
The Spinoff’s gaming journalist morbid_angel_69 still can’t tear himself away from RDR2. In this video he goes on a not-at-all stressful fishing trip into the hills to hunt for the Legendary Rock Bass. (NB: This video contains end story SPOILERS) morbid_angel_69 plays Red Dead Redemption 2: Watch more The Red Dead Redemption 2 hat shooting … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National plans approach to regaining government in 2020, fishing industry letter about onboard cameras to Stuart Nash revealed, and unemployment up. The National Party are off on their caucus retreat to start the year, and are already promising more policy will be rolled out well before … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fishing proposals hook controversy from those outside industry, provincial growth fund slow to create jobs, and Waitangi Dildo Thrower hit with trespass notice. A major overhaul of the way New Zealand’s fishing industry works has been proposed in a discussion paper put out by the government. Minister … Read more
Simon Day sat down for fish tacos, beers and yarns with spearo Ant Broadhead. Ascension Island is a chunk of volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s 2,250km from the coast of South America and 1,600km from Africa. Other than the island and its British air force base, there’s almost nothing anywhere … Read more
We’ve been telling the world our level of marine protection is world-leading when in fact, it’s tiny – about time we owned up, writes Livia Esterhazy of WWF In New Zealand, our Exclusive Economic Zone is enormous. Fifteen times the size of our country’s land mass, our EEZ is the fourth largest in the world. … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another leaked MPI report shows more fish dumped, meth testing scam dismissed by top scientist, and Christchurch residents turn to spring water to escape chlorine. Huge amounts of fish are being wasted and dumped, according to an MPI report leaked to Newshub. Almost 3000 tonnes of Southern Blue … Read more
Michael Field, whose book The Catch helped expose the labour and human rights abuses in New Zealand’s fishing industry, discusses his new investigation into illegal fishing practices in the Pacific. Journalist Michael Field has been writing about the Pacific for three decades. More recently, his investigations have led him into a dark world of foreign-flagged … Read more
Aquaculture has been touted as a panacea for collapsing fish stocks, but it comes with environmental baggage. Food futurist Dr Rosie Bosworth says ‘clean fish’ – grown in a lab – could be the most sustainable fish stock of all. A version of this article first appeared on Pure Advantage. Read Dr Rosie Bosworth on … Read more
Systematic overfishing and dumping has left numbers dwindling, and recreational fishers are demanding an urgent response from politicians, writes Scott Macindoe of LegaSea. The world is running out of fish faster than we thought. Since the late 1990s the consensus has been that fish numbers around the world are declining. Massive industrial-scale fishing activity is … Read more
Following a poll of readers, the tireless team behind the Spinoff Policy tool have added a bunch of extra categories. Close to 100,000 people have in the last few weeks visited our interactive tool Policy to compare key policies from all major political parties for election 2017. But are the team behind the thing, led by Asher … Read more
If Māui dolphins are a Threatened Species priority, why won’t the government act to stop their extinction, asks the WWF New Zealand’s David Tong. Kiwi, kakapo, Māui dolphins and white sharks all feature on a list of 150 priority species in a new draft Threatened Species Strategy that Minister of Conservation Maggie Barry launched earlier … Read more
Michael Field, whose book The Catch helped expose the labour and human rights abuses in New Zealand’s fishing industry, says a report out today reveals a decades-long abuse of our much-vaunted quota system, with more than twice as many fish caught as declared. New Zealanders know the power of national utterances; we live by “clean and green” … Read more
A kind of Barry Crump of the sea, AJ Peach has written a ripping memoir of his fishing life in his self-published book Roughy: Fishing the Mid-Ocean Ridges. The following excerpt sees our hero hook up with his old mate Stu, stop off at a stripclub in Wellington, and sign onto a Ukrainian fishing vessel. … Read more
Illegal fishing, much of it by China, is costing some of the world’s smallest and poorest nations hundreds of millions of dollars. Why isn’t New Zealand doing more about the blatant theft in its backyard, asks Michael Field. It would have been a tense moment or two for Captain Wang Chang Fu when, in the … Read more