He urged people to make submissions against the proposal to open areas of Otago and Southland coastline to commercial paua harvesting because he wanted paua to be around for his children.
''Not just for my kids, but for future generations.''
The commercial paua harvest was exported offshore and not sold to New Zealanders, he said. The commercial harvesters gave back less to the community than recreational divers, Mr Meeuws added.
''As recreational divers, we buy petrol and equipment here, to get out in our boats and support local businesses.''
Commercial divers could continue to make a living from the fishery and recreational divers could continue to feed their families, Mr Meeuws said.
''There nothing wrong with it, so let's keep it that way.''
Paua Management Area Council 5 chairman Storm Stanley said he wanted to commercially harvest paua from some of the closed areas between Waitaki River mouth down to Te Waewae Bay, to take the pressure off the paua stock in the commercially fished areas.
The commercial paua quota was ''cut'' from 149 tonnes to 90 tonnes in 2003-04 and further regulations closed areas at Kaka Point, Moeraki and Curio Bay in 2008-09, which had provided the industry about eight tonnes of paua, he said.
The opening of closed areas would help rebuild stock in the commercially fished areas, he said.
About 165km of coastline was closed to commercial harvesting and another 20km was voluntarily closed by the industry, he said.
Mr Meeuws' concern that there would being no paua left for his children was ''nonsense'' because commercial divers harvested only bigger paua, he said.
''So there will be fish [paua] left behind for recreational and customary fishers and their grandchildren.''
Paua was a valuable export earner, like lamb or beef. Export prices for paua were worth about $60 million a year to New Zealand and paua prices at the export market were higher than what most New Zealanders would be willing to pay, he said.
''What kind of business is it that sells stuff at a discount, when they could make more and increase their export earnings?''
