LegaSea believes the ‘land-all catch’ policy proposed by Fisheries New Zealand fails to achieve its primary purpose – that landed commercial catch will equate to what is actually caught at sea. This is a misdirected attempt at curbing the damage inflicted by inshore trawlers.

Our latest submission on a land-all catch policy was made in March 2019. This submission was sent to Fisheries New Zealand. It detailed a raft of concerns about FNZ’s latest proposals.

It is a fallacy to suggest that a land-all catch policy to legitimise the capture of small fish will provide managers with “better information”. That is because the the economic incentive to dump fish will remain and the Ministry’s ability to enforce the rules at sea is pathetic.

Our fisheries are precious. They belong to our kids and theirs. What we do now matters. We want effective policies and measures to stop both the wanton waste of small fish and destructive trawling inside the 12 nautical mile zone.

There are fundamental policy changes required to achieve higher standards, to reduce fishing mortality, and to restore abundance and marine diversity. Read more