David @ Tokyo

After getting wind of anti-science campaign back home in New Zealand I decided to take the opportunity, not to brainlessly send a pre-formatted email to Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton, but to send him some words of encouragement:

Dear Mr Anderton

You must be receiving an awful lot of emails in relation
to sealions from people who have far less of a clue about
fishieries management than you do, in your ministerial
position.

I urge you to continue to make your decisions based not on
what a generally misinformed populace, spoon-fed
propaganda from "environmental" groups might have to say,
but in full view of all the information you have received.


Yours Faithfully

David

And it didn't take long to get a reply back from Mr Anderton's advisor:

Dear David

Thanks for your message to Jim Anderton to which I am responding although I
will also make sure he sees it.  Yes, we have had an awful lot of messages
about this.  We have sent our standard response setting out the facts which
are at variance on some counts with the information on the website from
which the majority of emails we are getting are 'flick ons'.

You can certainly be assured that what the Minister does will be based on
the facts and on professional advice, and driven by his statutory
obligations under a number of Acts.

Thanks for your input
[Jim's Advisor]

Jim seems to have the right idea in this particular instance.

Here is a related press release regarding the issue.