March 19, 2020
Recent court decisions concerning waters around Motiti Island have surprised the recreational fishing public. The Court has essentially approved the ability for regional council’s to control fishing under the Resource Management Act (RMA). These decisions mean that there is potential for the closure of fishing areas in the Territorial Sea all around New Zealand. The […]
March 10, 2020
Poaching of fish is not new, it goes back centuries. In old England landlords refused to allow starving peasants to fish in the rivers and streams running through their properties. The peasants took their chances under the cover of darkness if they wanted to feed their family fish. Nowadays poaching operations are a lot more […]
February 28, 2020
In just two generations we have managed to pillage our crayfish stocks to such historic low levels that in many areas there are few, if any, left for locals to enjoy. Taking more than 80 per cent of the original crayfish stock size then sustaining it at that low level is inviting disaster, by altering […]
February 26, 2020
A huge majority of New Zealanders think fishing industry donations to Members of Parliament at the last election have the potential to “strongly influence” decisions the MPs make according to a poll conducted by Horizon Research. The poll, which asked more than 1,000 people how much they felt donations by companies with large fishing investments […]
February 25, 2020
UPDATE 2: Rules applying to recreational catch of rock lobster in CRA2 have changed as of 1 July 2020. We await information from Fisheries New Zealand and will advise details when these are available. UPDATE: MPI has advised LegaSea that the decision to change the crayfish bag limits in CRA2 not yet been ratified by […]
February 17, 2020
Snapper, kahawai and blue cod are the most popular saltwater finfish caught and kept by recreational fishers in New Zealand. As you would expect, snapper is the most common fish taken, representing nearly half of the national finfish landings. We now have two reliable surveys of recreational harvest using the same methods so the results […]
February 15, 2020
When times are tough it’s great to have good friends around and Lily Alexander is one of those. For her 10th birthday, in late 2019, she decided to do something remarkable. Lily decided to forgo birthday presents. Instead of presents she asked all her friends to bring money so she could donate it to LegaSea. […]
February 10, 2020
After years of bearing witness to declining fish stocks and inshore trawling a Maori Trust in the Bay of Plenty has taken the initiative to protect indigenous biodiversity. As a result of a complex legal process the Court of Appeal recently ruled that Regional Councils are obliged to actively protect indigenous biodiversity in the marine […]
February 4, 2020
Local Kaitiaki [guardians] held a hui in December to discuss putting a ban on taking mussels from the northern area in the Bay of Islands, until they regrow. Consultation with the local community was largely supportive and now we await a Ministerial decision. LegaSea attended the December hui and expressed support for this initiative as […]
February 1, 2020
In 2013 the government committed to 100% camera or observer coverage of all trawl vessels on the northeast coast, by October 2015. In June 2019 the present government promised us that 28 at-risk vessels on the west coast of the North Island would have cameras and monitoring by November. The roll-out to the remaining commercial […]
