Manifesto for New Zealand’s marine inshore fisheries

New Zealand’s fisheries are owned by the public of New Zealand and managed by the Crown on our behalf. The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, LegaSea, and its supporters are opposed to attempts to privatise this public asset and believe we must take a stand to protect the public’s access to their own fisheries.
About this Manifesto
This document outlines the policies required to restore New Zealand’s inshore fisheries to abundant levels and return the marine environment to a more productive ecosystem.
Those policies are:
- Establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into fisheries management and the Quota Management System.
- Amend the Fisheries Act 1996 to include an Allocation Principle.
- Remove industrial fishing methods such as trawling, seining and dredging from the inshore zone.
- Establish a separate, well-resourced Ministry of Fisheries.
- Amend section 13 of the Fisheries Act 1996 to replace the minimum stock target of BMSY with a minimum biomass target of B50, that is 50% of the unfished stock size.
- The underlying objectives of fisheries management.
- Blockages to restoring inshore fish stocks to abundant levels.
- Structures that perpetuate monopolistic and rent-seeking behaviour by quota shareholders.
- Barriers to innovation in fishing methods and technology.
“Government’s position is clear, where a species of fish is not sufficiently abundant to support both commercial and non-commercial fishing, preference will be given to non-commercial fishing.”Given this earlier Government commitment we need to do the following – Amend Part 2 of the Fisheries Act 1996 by inserting the following Allocation Principle – Section 10A For the purposes of providing for utilisation, the Minister will afford non-commercial users a clear preference in any allocations. Doing so will:
- Encourage fisheries to be managed at higher, more abundant levels.
- Demonstrate a clear disincentive and consequence to commercial overfishing and depletion, while providing an incentive to maintain healthy stock levels.
- Guide Ministerial decisions so a more precautionary approach can be taken.
- In the Barents Sea, Norwegian and Russian officials recognised the large catch that was coming from the stock was unsustainable and jointly agreed to rapidly reduce fishing pressure. The stock recovered quickly and now has a total allowable catch of 1 million tonnes per year and appears reasonably stable.
- In Canada, the true state of the stock was masked by relying on catch per unit of effort (CPUE) analysis that failed to account for increased efficiency in the catching vessels (this system is used today in New Zealand). In Canada, the stock reduced to only 1 or 2 percent of the original biomass. In 1992 the fishery was closed. More than twenty years later there are signs of the beginnings of a recovery in the cod fishery but there is still no commercial catch.
Manifesto marine fisheries in New Zealand PDF download
[i] https://www.legasea.co.nz/about/
[ii] http://www.nzai.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-research/new-zealand-catch-reconstruction.html
[iii] https://www.mpi.govt.nz/document-vault/4719
[iv]
[v] http://www.option4.co.nz/Your_Rights/moyles.htm
[vi] MacDiarmid, A.B.; Abraham, E.; Baker, C.S.; Carroll, E.; Chagué-Goff, C.; Cleaver, P.; Francis, M.P.; Goff, J.; Horn, P.; Jackson, J.A.; Lalas, C.; Lorrey, A.; Marriot, P.; Maxwell, K.; McFadgen, B.; McKenzie, A.; Neil, H.; Parsons, D.; Patenaude, N.; Paton, D.; Paul, L.J.; Pitcher, T.; Pinkerton, M.H.; Smith, I.; Smith, T.D.; Stirling B. (2016). Taking Stock – the changes to New Zealand marine ecosystems since first human settlement: synthesis of major findings, and policy and management implications.
[vii] Baird, S.J.; Hewitt, J.E.; Wood, B.A. (2015). Benthic habitat classes and trawl fishing disturbance in New Zealand waters shallower than 250 m.
[viii] https://youtu.be/89x-62qboTY
[ix] https://youtu.be/RwEO8WdCAAU
[x] http://www.regimeshifts.org/item/585-collapse-of-newfoundland-cod-fisheries-northwest-atlantic