Protect Our Crayfish – Have Your Say
Thank you for standing up for our marine environment. Crayfish on the northeast coast – from Te Arai Point to East Cape – are again threatened.
Fisheries NZ is proposing to increase to the commercial catch limit for crayfish, putting our taonga (treasured) species, at greater risk. Fisheries NZ’s proposal to close the inner Hauraki Gulf to crayfishing is meaningless because there are few crayfish left in those waters.
LegaSea are developing a formal submission recommending a recovery plan that includes –
- No increase to the total allowable commercial catch.
- Potential closed areas; and
- Investment in independent science to prove how many crayfish can be harvested sustainably.
Depletion is not new. Nine years ago crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf were declared functionally extinct. Since then an explosion of kina gorging on kelp has been stripping whole rocky reefs of all life. On the northeast coast kina barrens have taken over much of the seafloor.
Our crayfish are vital for restoring balance in our marine ecosystems, but again Fisheries NZ is using unverified data to justify giving away more quota to commercial interests.
This decision would benefit a few quota investors, while the environment – and our future generations – lose.
By submitting, you can help protect our crayfish and give them a fighting chance to recover.
Complete the form below to send your submission directly to Fisheries NZ. Together we can strive to protect our crayfish for generations to come.
Submissions close at 5PM, Wednesday 29 January 2025.
Related articles
September 2, 2018
Crayfish on the northeast coast is just one of a litany of fish stocks well below what ordinary Kiwis would consider abundant and available. This dissatisfaction was evidenced during LegaSea’s recent Crayfish Crisis campaign when so many divers, fishers, and the New Zealand Underwater Association stood up and had their say. LegaSea was grateful for […]
May 26, 2018
Stuart Nash, Minister of Fisheries, has decided not to close the crayfish fishery between the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty, known as the CRA 2 region. Instead, annual catch limits for commercial and recreational fishers were reduced as of April 1st. The new Total Allowable Commercial Catch has been reduced from 200 to 80 […]
April 23, 2018
In March the Minister of Fisheries Stuart Nash announced a raft of management changes for four crayfish stocks between the Hauraki Gulf and Southland. From April 1st there were commercial catch reductions in two stocks and increases for the Wellington-Hawke’s Bay region and the Southern – Fiordland fish stock. The joint submission from recreational fishers […]
April 4, 2018
If you were one of the thousands of people who completed the LegaSea Crayfish Crisis survey in the past few months, thanks a lot. LegaSea appreciates your time and the information you shared to help us build a picture of what has changed in the cray fishery between Pakiri in the north and East Cape. […]
March 29, 2018
Crayfish play an important role in the marine ecosystem. They are a target species for many people and a taonga, a treasure, that is important to the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of all New Zealanders. An alliance of the largest representative recreational fishing organisations in New Zealand has responded to the Ministry for Primary […]
March 27, 2018
LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council welcome the decision by the Minister of Fisheries Stuart Nash to reduce the allowable catch for crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty, known as the CRA 2 region. The Minister has set the new limits for commercial fishing at 80 tonnes per year, set […]
March 22, 2018
It’s competition time and the LegaSea team has been attending a raft of events around the country, presenting the FishCare programme and gathering responses to the Crayfish Crisis campaign. In the first seven weeks after the holiday break LegaSea has been involved in activities enabling us to engage with more than 2000 people. The opportunity […]
March 10, 2018
It is encouraging that so many recreational fishers have expressed a strong desire to conserve their crayfish catch in the interests of rebuilding the CRA 2 fishery between Te Arai Point in the north and East Cape. The MPI review of four crayfish management areas is now over and we await the Minister’s decisions that […]
February 28, 2018
LegaSea awaits the Minister’s decision for the future management of four crayfish stocks by the end of March. The new catch levels for two North Island and two South Island stocks will apply from April 1st. In February our submission to the Ministry supported a major catch reduction in CRA 2, the status quo in […]
February 5, 2018
Crayfish stocks are in crisis and recreational fishers are calling for an independent review of the fisheries management system. Currently, crayfish in the CRA 2 region (which extends from Pakiri through the Hauraki Gulf to the East Cape) are at an all-time low. The latest official assessment shows that the crayfish population has been in […]
