Fierce public consultation concerning the proposal to reduce the snapper catch limit closes today with one advocacy group labelling the entire process as 'Letting the genie out of the bottle”.

Public submissions close at 4pm when advocacy group LegaSea, the fundraising arm of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, will submit their 45,000 online submissions collated during the six-week period.

Although the number is far greater, says LegaSea strategist Scott Macindoe.

'It's a tough one and we could do with another few days. It's a very important document; it's more than a submission to a fisheries management process this is a submission on the fish of Aotearoa.

'We have another 10, 15 maybe 20,000 coming through mail or email. The Ministry have made it quite clear they will regard those only through LegaSea as one submission.”

Released two months ago by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, the discussion paper explains there is pressure on the stocks and a new balance is needed between commercial and recreational catch limits.

The Ministry of Primary Industries' paper outlines three options for snapper regulations in SNA 1 –the fishing region covering the Bay of Plenty through the Hauraki Golf to east Northland.

Options under consideration include reducing bag limits from nine to three, increasing the minimum legal size from 27cm to 35cm, or opting for a combination of the two.

Snapper 1 is New Zealand's most popular recreational fishery and is the country's fifth-most-valuable commercial fishery by asset value. But Scott accuses MPI of grouping a severely depleted Bay of Plenty snapper stock with neighbouring regions, rather than separating them out.

'On paper according to the science they are very low but that's been taped over again by poor ministry process. They have merged the Bay of Plenty with the Hauraki Gulf on the basis of a few tagged snapper.”

Despite talk of the Government backing down on the proposals, Scott says MPI have scored an incredible 'own goal” by setting up Nathan with poor advice and at no point has he been advised of the controversial nature of the heartfelt policy proposal.

'It's the genie out of the bottle; the sovereignty of our fish is at stake. It makes a mockery of our democratic process.

'I've always had faith in our ministers but for many years we have been in an arm wrestle with the Ministry. They can't and won't get away with this policy.”

Nathan insists he has not made any decisions yet and it is 'very unlikely” the catch limit will be reduced to three snapper a day.