Articles

Crayfish – the status quo is unacceptable

December 24, 2018 As we lurch our way into the silly season it is only natural that our thoughts turn to fishing and diving for the delicacies we have dreamt about all year. Crayfish is on the top of many people’s wish list, to say thanks to someone special, for sharing with the whanau or as a holiday […]

One little squeeze is all it takes

December 23, 2018 What are we talking about?  The amount of pressure or time it takes to crush the barb on your hook with a pair of pliers. In FishCare – The school of best practice LegaSea describes how one little squeeze with the pliers can have a profound effect on the success of your catch and release […]

Utilisation and conservation a winning combination

December 22, 2018 In just two years the Kai Ika project in Auckland has gone from being a simple exchange of food and cultures, to a full-on waste minimisation effort that has seen over 22,000 kilos of unwanted fish parts repurposed as nutritious kai and organic fertiliser. It is so successful that people and organisations from around Aotearoa […]

Showing off in the Bay

December 5, 2018 When it comes to putting on a show Hawke’s Bay knows when to turn it on, and they did that to the max on Labour Weekend. The sun shone on Hawke’s Bay Anniversary Day and into the long weekend enabling our LegaSea Hawke’s Bay crew to engage with the locals at the annual A & […]

Conservation worth celebrating

December 2, 2018 It is not very often we get to celebrate good news in fisheries management but it’s worth popping the corks for this conservation initiative. In September the 34,000 strong New Zealand Sport Fishing Council announced it was promoting a voluntary reduction of the recreational crayfish bag limit in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty. […]

Celebrating 40 years of friendship

November 23, 2018 In cyberspace we can lay claim to as many virtual friends as we like, but you soon find out who your real friends are when you hit troubled waters. And so it was for recreational fishers back in mid-2000. In July that year the Minister of Fisheries delivered Soundings, a package of proposals that would, […]

The emptiness of purse seining

November 10, 2018 Mentioning purse seining and depleted bait schools in the same sentence instantly raises the heckles of many fishers. There could be some good news on the horizon. Recently the Cook Island’s Court of Appeal upheld a challenge by locals to the way the Cook’s government permits purse seining in their waters. The Court said the […]

Kai Ika project a runaway success

October 26, 2018 When two worlds collide the results can be catastrophic, when it comes to the Kai Ika project it is an outright success. In just two years over 19,000 kilos of fish parts that were previously wasted have been rescued and shared with needy families in South Auckland. Kai Ika is so successful that LegaSea and […]

Shelving not legitimate management

October 15, 2018 As part of the recent tarakihi review corporate commercial interests supported the shelving of tarakihi catch in lieu of the Minister reducing the Total Allowable Commercial Catch. We submitted against the shelving proposal. It is pleasing to report that Stuart Nash has rejected the proposal and applied cuts to commercial catches in the stock spanning […]

Minister’s commitments signal change

September 30, 2018 A positive to come out of the latest round of stock reviews is the Minister’s commitment to change or revisit some long-standing practices that we have objected to for many years. These include truncated consultation timeframes, the inconsistency in setting aside allowances for fishing related mortality, and recognising that current fishing practices need to change. […]