LegaSea held its Annual General Meeting in mid-September and the presentation of the Annual Report was well received by over 100 attendees. It has been a year of growth and outreach for LegaSea.
Outreach
It is exciting and encouraging to have Yachting New Zealand and the New Zealand Underwater Association stepping up to support our work. In the past year LegaSea has launched two new projects: FishCare – The school of best practice and Kai Ika, ‘He ika he taonga – the gift of fish’.
Projects
FishCare is a public awareness initiative designed to educate recreational fishers on how we can reduce our impact on the marine environment. Kai Ika is a pilot scheme involving the Outboard Boating Club of Auckland and Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae of Mangere, Manukau.
Until recently OBC members had disposed their unwanted fish heads, frames and offal. Now, these parts are carefully sorted and refrigerated. The marae coordinates the collection, quality control and distribution of these fish parts to South Auckland families while the offal is used to fertilise the marae’s community garden.
In less than 12 months over 6000 kilos of fish heads and frames have been collected and redistributed to local hospitals, clubs, churches and families. Thanks to the generosity of our LegaSea Partner, Kiwi Sizzler, the marae now has two smokers to cook the fish before distribution.
LegaSea thanks the Guardians of the Sea Charitable Trust, The Spark Foundation, Foundation North and the Lion Foundation for their financial support and help to make these two projects possible.
Public awareness
As our supporter engagement team grows we are able to attend more events and fulfil speaking engagements. In the past 12 months LegaSea was present at 76 events, engaging with around 32,000 people. Our regular annual events are the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show (Auckland), Eye on Nature (Manukau) and Hawkes Bay A & P Show (Napier).
Thanks to the support of ITM, LegaSea attended our first New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays this year. LegaSea is grateful to both ITM and Hunting & Fishing for supporting our team with supplies and manpower to erect a seawall at the Hawkes Bay A & P Show and at Fieldays in Mystery Creek, Hamilton.
Our major campaign in the past year focussed on the dire state of the CRA 2 fishery, extending from Pakiri in Northland to East Cape. The Crayfish Crisis campaign included a survey, a social media programme, a hard-hitting video and the development of tools to enable people to email their concerns to Nathan Guy the Minister for Primary Industries, and their local MP. Around 780 responded using the tools provided by LegaSea.
Finances
Since April 2015 each month 100% of public donations made via the LegaSea Legends programme is transferred to the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, funding the necessary fisheries management and advocacy work required to protect our fishing and marine environment.
We are pleased to announce that for the first time LegaSea Legends contributed over $100,000 towards the NZ Sport Fishing Council’s sterling work. LegaSea is celebrating because this is the public stepping up and acknowledging both the need to restore our fisheries to abundant levels, and the vital work being done by the Council to provide healthy fisheries for future generations of Kiwi kids.
LegaSea AGM
The LegaSea AGM preceded the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council’s annual meeting held at the Tauranga Sport Fishing Club on the 15th of September 2017.
