Fisheries Management FAQs
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Customary Fisheries | Fisheries Management | maximum sustainable yield | QMS | Economics | Fishing | Rescue Fish | Environment | Fishing methods | Recreational Fishing | Fishcare | customary | Kahawai | Reform scam | Baitfish | Scallops | Crayfish | WRC decision | Marlin | Reef fish | Deemed value penalties | Judicial Review | Kill the Bill | Tarakihi
July 15, 2026
The environment must come first. Under the Fisheries Act 1996, the Minister must first ensure the stock and the wider marine environment are sustained, before deciding how much can be caught – and where a fishery has fallen too low, the law requires a genuine plan to rebuild it. On that basis, there needs to ... Read more.
July 15, 2026
Tarakihi is mostly targeted by bottom trawling. Around two-thirds of commercially caught tarakihi is taken on fishing trips where tarakihi is the target species, with the rest coming up alongside other species in mixed trawl fisheries. Most of the catch is a choice about where and how to fish, not something unavoidable which means catch ... Read more.
July 15, 2026
Very little. Tarakihi is one of New Zealand’s staple table fish. Around 95% of tarakihi caught is sold and eaten right here in Aotearoa, not shipped overseas. That’s why the state of the stock matters so much to ordinary Kiwis, this isn’t a distant export commodity, it’s a fish New Zealanders catch or buy to ... Read more.
July 15, 2026
Fisheries New Zealand now assesses and manages tarakihi as two stocks, eastern and western. The science has indicated the two coasts have different nursery grounds, spawning areas, age patterns, and catch trends, and both age-composition and genetic studies point to fish being largely distinct. On the east coast, juvenile fish grow up mainly around Canterbury ... Read more.
April 15, 2026
There are only 98 species in the Quota Management System. These are divided into 642 separate fish stocks i.e For snapper, there are six different snapper stocks across the country – SNA 1 (Northland, Hauraki Gulf, Bay of Plenty), SNA 2 (Hawkes Bay, East Cape)…
April 14, 2026
Courts have repeatedly confirmed that fishing can continue, but only in a way that ensures sustainability. These rulings help secure the long-term future of fishing rather than undermine it.
February 19, 2026
No. LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council have submitted many times that the deemed value system is not working. It’s not fair on smaller operators if larger operators, who hold a lot of Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE), will not release it. This encourages dumping, which is not good for the small-scale operator, nor ... Read more.
February 19, 2026
Deemed value penalties are supposed to be a deterrent to prevent commercial fishers from exceeding lawful catch limits. If these penalties are reduced, it will encourage ongoing catches beyond sustainable limits, weakening protections for fish stocks. The cost of commercial fishers catching more than they are legally allowed would instead be treated as an acceptable ... Read more.
February 19, 2026
No. The money collected from deemed value penalties goes into the Government’s Consolidated Fund. There is no requirement that deemed value revenue is reinvested into fisheries management expenses such as enforcement, monitoring, stock assessments and fisheries science.
February 19, 2026
Deemed value penalties are meant to work like a fine, a financial incentive that encourages fishers to stay within lawful catch limits. The penalty is supposed to be high enough to encourage responsible fishing, but low enough to discourage dumping of unwanted catch overboard.
