June 14, 2022
Environmental, fishing and marine conservation groups have joined to fight clauses in the Fisheries Amendment Bill. While seemingly harmless, they in fact smuggle through major changes that aim to remove public and ministerial oversight from future fisheries decisions. Instead it enables bureaucrats working closely with industry players to maximise their commercial fishing returns. The […]
May 27, 2022
In May 2022, the Government confirmed details of the roll-out of cameras onboard commercial fishing vessels. Details include a timeline and restrictions around what vessels have cameras, with the roll-out beginning and West Coast North Island inshore trawl and set net video footage becoming available from 30 November 2022. While it’s awesome to see a […]
March 1, 2022
With scallop numbers in the Hauraki Gulf declining, support to protect the last remaining beds continues to grow. Many local organisations showed their support for a rāhui placed on all scallop harvesting by Ngāti Manuhiri down the east coast of North Auckland. The Ngāti Manuhiri rāhui area spans from Bream Tail down to Okura River […]
February 25, 2022
It’s 22 years since the government came out of hiding and into the public arena to snatch our fishing rights and interests. Thankfully there were a handful of people alert to the threats and two of them tower above them all, Paul Barnes and Bill Cooke. Paul and Bill were men of insight and principles. […]
February 20, 2022
When science and decision-making collide in the world of fisheries management, conservation is most often the loser. Fisheries New Zealand recently proposed a 5 to 15 percent cut to commercial catch limits in the northern crayfish fishery and catch increases in southern areas. LegaSea worked with our New Zealand Sport Fishing Council fisheries team and […]
February 9, 2022
When science and decision-making collide in the world of fisheries management, conservation is most often the loser. Fisheries New Zealand recently proposed a 5 to 15 percent cut to commercial catch limits in the northern crayfish fishery and catch increases in southern areas. LegaSea worked with our New Zealand Sport Fishing Council fisheries team and […]
February 7, 2022
After nine years of resistance the government is on track to finally get cameras on-board commercial vessels to monitor fishing activity. Installations are expected to start at the end of 2022 and finish in 2024. We’re encouraging the Minister to initiate the camera rollout as soon as possible. We know from previous compliance reports and […]
January 25, 2022
LegaSea Hawke’s Bay has said an outright no to the proposal by their Regional Council to dump more than 50,000 cubic metres of dredge material onto the foreshore south of Napier. Instead, LegaSea Hawke’s Bay is urging the Council to dispose of the Clive River dredgings on land. And they are not alone in advocating […]
December 20, 2021
Action is finally being taken to stop the sale of vulnerable marine fish not protected by maximum daily bag limits. Currently no bag limits apply to pink and blue maomao, grandaddy hāpuku, pigfish and wrasses. We’ve sent the Minister our recommendations for a 3-daily bag limit for each of those species and for the regulations […]
December 17, 2021
Today we’re celebrating one year since the successful launch of the Coromandel scallop restoration programme. On 17 December 2020 representatives from the Coromandel community, iwi and recreational fishing organisations all stood together at Opito Bay to call for protection of our scallop beds from the destructive practice of scallop dredging. The official launch was marked […]
