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
April 6, 2017
LegaSea has responded to the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) annual review of rock lobster sustainability measures. MPI’s January discussion paper proposed the following changes to the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) – 9% decrease to the commercial catch level in CRA 3 (East Cape, Gisborne) 23% or 27% reduction to the commercial catch level ... Read more.
March 31, 2017
New Zealand Sport Fishing Council March 2017 Between January and March 2017 a survey was conducted to measure people’s perceptions of the state of the rock lobster (crayfish) fishery on the northeast coast of the North Island, known in management terms as CRA 2. Over 800 responses were received, with many respondents having dived or ... Read more.
March 20, 2017
A landmark survey of people who pot and dive for crayfish on the northeast coast between Pakiri and East Cape defies Ministry for Primary Industries’ assurances that the fishery is doing well. More than three quarters (78.6%) of the 822 survey respondents described the size and availability of crayfish in this popular fishery as 1 ... Read more.
March 3, 2017
LegaSea has responded to the Ministry for Primary Industries’ annual review of rock lobster sustainability measures. The MPI discussion paper proposed the following changes to the Total Allowable Commercial Catch from April 1st this year: 9% decrease to the commercial catch level in CRA3 (East Cape, Gisborne) 23% or 27% reduction to the commercial catch ... Read more.
February 14, 2017
LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council have responded strongly to proposals from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) relating to the future management of three rock lobster fisheries around the coast from East Cape to Wellington and up to Foxton, and Otago in the south. Unfortunately, MPI wants to allow increased commercial fishing ... Read more.
December 6, 2016
In late September the Ministry for Primary Industries asked for public feedback on the health of the crayfish stock in the Gisborne area, officially referred to as CRA 3. There are mixed views on the stock status. Commercial interests, the Ministry, and scientists all advocate the fishery is in fine fettle. Meanwhile, for people around ... Read more.
November 18, 2016
Kaikoura, seabed mining, Christmas is coming. Kaikoura The earthquake has really messed things up for central New Zealand and in particular for boaties and fisher folk heading out to sea. While the tsunami risk has gone for now, it’s never a bad time to make sure your planning is up to scratch. Let someone know ... Read more.
October 14, 2016
Seabed mining, LegaSea needs your help, remember crayfish? The KASM Around 1.6 tonnes of seabed could be extracted every second under new proposals to mine the seabed off the Taranaki coast. That seabed, rich in nutrients, home to many of our favourite species, gets pulped and then 90% of it is squirted back into the ... Read more.
September 29, 2016
Crayfish numbers are so low in the Hauraki Gulf and surrounding northeast coast that University of Auckland researchers are referring to them as “functionally extinct”. This means they are no longer fulfilling their role in the marine ecosystem. This is dire news for both the environment and the public. In 2014 the New Zealand Sport ... Read more.
September 9, 2016
Welcome to the FryUp – a regular look back at the week of fishing in the news. Crayfish ‘functionally extinct’ Crayfish numbers in the Hauraki Gulf have dropped to such a low level they’ve now being called “functionally extinct” by the director of a research marine ecology consultancy company eCoast, Dr Tim Haggitt. Haggitt and ... Read more.
