July 31, 2020
We always knew Kiwis were passionate about their fishing. The reaction to the Rescue Fish policy has confirmed that we also care about prioritising the health of our marine environment. Rescue Fish – Ika Rauora is a policy developed by LegaSea and New Zealand Sport Fishing Council to remedy depleted fish stocks and address the […]
July 29, 2020
Kiwis have had enough of indiscriminate bulk harvesting fishing methods and are refusing to tolerate the fish depletion and habitat destruction that follows. Bottom trawling and dredging in sensitive inshore waters damages important juvenile fish habitat and kills seabed creatures. Purse seining removes layers of life important to foraging seabirds and marine communities. Fundamental change is […]
July 15, 2020
A report to the international Sea Around Us project in 2016 found New Zealand dumped an estimated 14 million tonnes of fish between 1950 and 2010. That’s enough fish to feed New Zealand for 125 years. While much of the dumping occurred in the deep water fisheries, it is still occurring in the inshore fisheries […]
July 1, 2020
Small scale fishermen are the tradies of the sea. These guys and girls head out to sea, rain or shine, to bring back fresh fish. Many of these small scale fishermen don’t own any quota so they end up leasing access rights, fishing for someone else’s benefit. Quota is king under the Quota Management System […]
June 2, 2020
As fish stocks deplete and the inshore environment degrades the calls for marine protection grow louder. Most often this translates into a demand for more marine reserves. However, a reserve is no protection against wider biodiversity loss, as we have witnessed with Goat Island marine reserve. There are now fewer crayfish in the reserve than […]
June 2, 2020
Rescue Fish requires the Crown to buy back existing commercial quota shares in the inshore fisheries at fair value. The combination of the initial buy-back and an equally large ongoing revenue stream from selling fishing permits with attached resource rentals means this would be at least fiscally neutral to the Crown over the long term. […]
June 2, 2020
The management and governance of our fisheries is in crisis. There is widespread concern about declining fish stocks and biodiversity loss in our marine environment. The Fisheries Act 1996 has not been adequately applied to achieve its primary purpose of sustainable use of fisheries resources to provide for our collective well-being. Management has descended into […]
June 1, 2020
Recent court decisions concerning waters around Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty have surprised the recreational fishing public. The Court has essentially approved the ability for Regional Councils to control fishing under the Resource Management Act (RMA), to protect indigenous biodiversity. These decisions mean there is potential to close many fishing areas in the […]
June 1, 2020
Kiwis care about fish depletion and habitat destruction. Concerns about these problems have been a driving force behind the development of the Rescue Fish policy. LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council have released the policy to generate public discussion and consensus on the need for reform of fisheries management in New Zealand. The […]
May 30, 2020
“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change.” Milton Friedman. The oft quoted definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Equally bizarre is the expectation that bulk harvesting our precious fish stocks will deliver the wealth and prosperity we need to get our economy back […]
