New section 227 and section 252

1. Section 227H – Official Information Act 1982 does not apply to camera recordings.
2. Section 252(5AA) – Persons knowingly disclosing camera footage or knowingly contravening conditions on use, storage or destruction of footage fined $50,000.

1. The public will no longer have access to footage from onboard cameras.
2. The public paid for the cameras and is now being denied access to footage.
3. There will no longer be independent verification of compliance.
4. Onboard camera footage has historically highlighted the flaws within the commercial self-reporting regime.
5. The hefty fine reflects officials’ desire to maintain secrecy.

New section 313A

Relevant articles:

1. Fast-tracking marine depletion while silencing our voices. LegaSea. March 4 2026.
2. The gloves are off. LegaSea. September 16 2025.

1. An application for review under the Judicial Review Procedure Act 2017 that relates to statutory powers made under the Fisheries Act must be filed with the High Court no later than 20 working days after the decision is notified.

1. Unreasonably short timeframe for the public.
   The 20 working day deadline applies to all Ministerial decisions despite how complex they may be.
2. Systematically disadvantages under-resourced groups and members of the public.
3. Significantly less time than international jurisdictions which are generally 3-months.
4. Undermines obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi. Tikanga processes are incompatible with an arbitrary deadline.
5. Goes against the advice by Officials who recommended a 3 month or 6 month time limit depending on the decision.

Amend Regulation 31 Fisheries (Commercial Fishing) Regulations

1. Remove the commercial minimum legal size for blue cod.
2. Remove the commercial minimum legal size for blue moki, butterfish, flatfish, sand flounder, kingfish, red cod, snapper, tarakihi, trevally.

1. Permits fishers to land and sell juvenile fish before they have had a chance to reproduce.
2. Removes incentives for commercial fishers to transition away from bulk harvest, non-selective fishing methods.
3. Being sold as an amendment to “resolve wastage”. Increases wastage. Doesn’t fix the core issue of bulk harvest, non-selective fishing methods.

Amended section 11

Relevant articles:

1. Minister’s proposal weakens fisheries law

1. Redefines the current “section 11 Sustainability Measures” to now exclude catch limits as a sustainability measure.
2. Permits the Minister to set a high Total Allowable Catch whilst ignoring broader environmental context.

1. The Minister’s decisions on catch limits will now be managed independently from where and how fish are harvested.
2. The Minister will set the Total Allowable Catch under an amended section 13 which requires minimal environmental consideration.
3. Catch settings can be made in isolation from broader marine management. The Minister can ignore marine spatial plans set under the Resource Management Act and Conservation Act.

Amended section 13

1. Introduces six “standard factors” the Minister must consider when setting catch limits.
2. Replaces the current requirement to consider “effect of fishing on any stock and the aquatic environment”.

1. Makes it easier for the Minister to set higher catch limits.
2. Reduces environmental considerations when setting catch limits.
3. When setting a catch limit the Minister only considers the 98 species within the Quota Management System.
4. The Minister only considers the effect of catch limits on predator and prey interaction at the Quota Management Area level, this disregards localised management and will affect rocky reef ecosystems.
5. Removes the Minister’s requirement to consider the needs of future generations.

New section 13D

1. Introduces new rules for when setting catch limits for low, medium, and high information stocks.

1. Requires less information when setting catch limits.
2. Makes it easier to set and maintain high catch limits even when information is uncertain or unavailable.
3. Inherently risky for low information stocks.
4. Ignores international best practice which requires greater environmental protection for low information stocks.
5. Most fish stocks in New Zealand would be classified as low information due to lack of reliable data.

New section 13E

1. Allows the Minister to increase catch settings in the middle of the fishing season.
2. In-season increase for highly variable stocks as listed in Schedule 2 of the Fisheries Act or stocks classified as high and medium knowledge stocks.
3. Fish stocks classified as “highly variable” include flatfishes, red cod, and scallops.

1. Creates more opportunity for the commercial fishing sector to lobby for a Total Allowable Commercial Catch increase.
2. More work for everyone, more public consultation, more submission writing.
3. Additional ACE created, with no benefit for recreational or customary.
4. In-season increase based on incomplete, potentially misleading data, with minimal environmental consideration.

New section 13F

1. The Minister must take into account the adverse effects of fishing for the stock on the aquatic environment and the environmental principles only to the extent that they are relevant to the standard factors.

1. Makes it easier for the Minister to set higher catch limits.
2. Environmental effects and environmental principles can be considered but only “to the extent relevant to standard factors”.
3. If an effect doesn’t fit within these factors, it can be ignored.
4. Reverses current legal requirements to assess the effect of fishing on the marine environment.
5. Dismantles decades of environmental safeguards built under the current Fisheries Act.

New section 14F

1. The Minister can set a Total Allowable Catch for the upcoming fishing year and subsequent years for a specified period, up to 5-years.
2. The Minister may set a different catch limit for each fishing year within the specified period.
3. Can set increasing or decreasing Total Allowable Catch trajectory dependent on the state of the fishery.

1. Allows the Minister to ignore signals of depletion.
2. Total Allowable Catch can be locked in for up to 5-years. No annual review required during that period.
3. Provides long-term certainty for industry, long-term risk for the environment.
4. Only one opportunity for public consultation before the multi-year catch settings are implemented. No opportunity for public input over the specified period.

New sections 14I, 14J, 14K

1. Application to have non-regulatory measures considered when setting catch limits.
2. One or more quota owners can apply for voluntary measures to influence the Total Allowable Catch.
3. Non-regulatory measures include voluntary reduction in harvest, not fishing in certain areas or at specified times of the year.

1. Self-regulation rewarded with increased catch limits.
2. Requires sufficient information, however, there is no minimum standard for sufficient details.
3. No enforcement measure. These measures are voluntary; the Minister can observe non-compliance but can’t punish it.

New sections 14L-14T

1. Management procedures are pre-set decision rules that operate for up to 5 fishing years. They automatically adjust catch limits based on data inputs.
2. The Minister sets a management procedure, in subsequent fishing years the Chief Executive implements the management procedure automatically.

1. Reduces public input, the public only has one opportunity to have their say.
2. No annual Ministerial review during the operation of the procedure, powers are passed on to an appointed official.
3. If the Chief Executive thinks a decline in the fishery is due to natural fluctuations they are not required to reduce catch limits. Completely disregarding growing uncertainty in environmental conditions.
4. Makes it easier to increase and maintain high catch limits and harder to reduce them.

New section 14L

1. The management procedure must include operating rules that prescribe the levels to which the Chief Executive must vary the total allowable catch and total allowable commercial catch for the stock.

1. States that a management procedure can apply to recreational and customary allowances, therefore introducing proportional allocation.
2. Public interests are no longer protected by the Minister and are treated on par with the allocation of commercial catch.

New section 67C and section 67D

1. New provisions allowing quota owners to apply for extra fishing rights when “exceptional circumstances” prevent them from catching their full allocation.

1. Under the current Fisheries Act, up to 10% of uncaught  Annual Catch Entitlement can be carry-forward to the second year.
2. Amendment will allow for a greater carry-forward. Industry self-determines how generous the relief for an “exceptional circumstance” should be.
3. No requirement for public consultation, scientific review of sustainability implications, independent assessment of whether circumstances are exceptional.
4. Could be used as a means to lock out small-scale operations.

Amendment to section 72(3A)

1. A commercial fisher who takes any fish or other animal that is aquatic life subject to the quota management system may return it to, or abandon it in, the sea or waters from which it was taken if observed by an onboard observer or onboard cameras.

1. Discards of fish must be recorded and reported against catch.
2. Camera monitoring is not reliable enough to determine species or quantities of fish.
3. Still heavily reliant on self-reporting which is flawed due to economic incentives to only land high-value fish and dump others overboard.

New subpart 4(23)

1. The Minister may increase the total allowable commercial catch for a quota management stock for its next fishing year to reflect the removal of a permission or requirement to return or abandon the stock.

1. Grants the Minister broad, unchecked power to increase the catch limits without further public consultation.
2. Relies on self-reported, poorly identified data with no verification. Increases can be driven by manipulated commercial reporting.
3. High risk to low-information and inshore fish stocks.

New section 75(5A)

Relevant artlices:

1. A fine is meant to change behaviour. At sea, that principle is being abandoned.ink

1. The Minister may set an annual deemed value fine for an inshore stock that is taken by a deepwater freezer vessel that is different from the fine for the same stock taken by another vessel.

1. This amendment is inequitable and favours deepwater quota owners at the expense of inshore small-scale ACE fishers.
2. Incentivises bulk harvest fishing methods.
3. Increases pressure on inshore fish stocks.
4. This change is particularly relevant for the west coast jack mackerel fishery and will affect gurnard, snapper and kingfish.