b'I ts the one families plan holidays around, the one sizzling in the pan at the crib, blue cod are embedded in childhood memories of casting a line off the rocks with your old man.Blue cod were once abundant, dependable, and central to coastal life. Now, after decades of limp oversight, commercial overreach (surprise, surprise), and political hand-washing, our blue cod populations are in crisis. And, true to form, its recreational fishers - the mums, dads, grandparents, and kids just trying to take home a feed - who are being punished, while the trawl doors keep swinging.BCO 3EAST COAST SOUTH ISLANDThis fishery has been mismanaged for so long that its hard to know where to start. Lets begin with - The Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) has been exceeded in 19 of the past 20 years. Thats not an oops - thats systemic failure. A target pot fishery should not be overfished year after year. Meanwhile, in many areas recreational fishers have gone from a 30-fish daily limit down to 2!Worse still, 20% of commercial catch in BCO 3 comes from bottom trawling, often just behind the surf break. Even worse still, these guys arent even targeting blue codtheyre scooping upBlue cod have been commercially everything in their path and takingoverfished for decades. Credit: Legasea/Ali Horsleythe cod that happen to be there.And now, Fisheries NZ is proposing to reduce the daily recreationalrecreational fishers to cop deeperagreed. The result? A system that limits between Taiaroa Headcuts - again - just so commercialshouldve been collaborative for and Slope Point from 15 to 10quotas dont have to budge?Canterbury fishers became another per person. Sure, theres also aThats not sustainability. Thatsslap in the face from bureaucrats.proposed commercial cut, butexploitation wearing a green hat. To add insult to injury, were flying lets be honest, Fisheries NZAnd then theres the traffic lightblind. No one actually knows how have turned a blind eye for twosystem specifying area-basedthis fishery is tracking, but officials decades before even consideringdaily bag limits. Designed withhave admitted that overfishing is constraining commercial pressure. working group input, then quietly90% likely. Decisions are being made Recreational fishers haverewritten behind closed doorsbased on commercial fishing data always stepped up when stocksduring COVID. What rolled outyet somehow, recreational fishers are in trouble. But askinglooked nothing like what wasare the ones carrying the burden. /FISHINGINGODZONE39'