"A lack of transparency encourages conspiracy theories."
Nash told the 60th New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen annual conference at the Rutherford Hotel that he would not hear bad things said as we go forward but I'm not going to defend some practices of the past.
"In the past this has been seen as the Wild West. That's not the way it is now.
"We all start from the same place. We all want more fish in the sea.
"The Government wants a successful, sustainable and profitable seafood industry."
In a wide ranging, lively address he quoted Karl Marx: "Sell a man a fish and you make money. Teach a man to fish and you ruin a great economic opportunity."
"We are not going to scrap the QMS (Quota Management System," he assured.
In a Q and A session, Wairarapa fisherman Richard Kibblewhite said his 30 years in the fishery had been marked by banging heads against the ministry with very little change. "It's been frustrating."
"I get that," Nash responded, "but don't give up. There will be change. Put your submissions in, don't just whinge to your mates. Your engagement is vital. We have got to get this right."
His reform targets included deemed values that "encourage perverse behaviour" and cameras on vessels.
"We are working on a range of options. No decisions have been made yet."
Taranaki trawlerman "Curly" Brown said how hard it was to be so misrepresented in the New Zealand media and by NGOs.
"This industry is so embattled. I know life was not meant to be easy, but life should not be cruel. We are so poorly judged, we are treated like pariahs."
Yet fishing involved the extraction of a natural high protein, low-fat brain food that involved no fertilisers, insecticides, herbicides or water use.
Nash praised the current Promise campaign and related code of conduct that embodies sustainability and guardianship.
"You've got great campaigns running that will change the narrative. It is beginning to happen."
He said NGOs had a part to play but he expected them to engage in a constructive way.
Seafood New Zealand has labelled the leaking of reports into 2011 and 2012 risk assessments in the hoki and southern blue whiting fisheries and misrepresentation of those as tantamount to economic sabotage.
The anti-fishing lobby is trying to discredit New Zealand internationally, undermine certification and close deepwater fisheries.
Nash added fisheries management had changed in other more light hearted ways.
He intended to hold a launch function for the new Fisheries New Zealand body on a Friday afternoon in Nelson, Australasia's biggest fishing port.
Officials had suggested a cup of tea.
Nash replied two kegs of beer were more like it.
"That is how New Zealand works, a couple of beers in a relaxed situation, chewing the fat."
The conference had its traditional fish'n'chip dinner last night (snapper, tarakihi and gurnard).
Auctioneer extraordinaire Richard Kibblewhite then led the selling of 90 items, from trawl doors to nets and paintings and mystery objects, in aid of shipwreck relief.