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.
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