January 24, 2018
Minister’s crayfish decision Stuart Nash, Minister of Fisheries, has announced there will be commercial catch reductions in two crayfish stocks including CRA 2, from April 1st 2018. There will also be commercial catch increases for the Wellington-Hawke’s Bay region (CRA 4) and the Southern – Fiordland (CRA 8) fish stock. Recreational fishers did not support […]
January 24, 2018
“There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know”. This quote from John Heywood (1546) nicely sums up where we are at with crayfish management particularly on the northeast coast of the North Island. The CRA 2 fishery from […]
January 20, 2018
LegaSea is pleased that the Minister Stuart Nash has agreed to review the crayfish fishery on the northeast coast after years of lobbying by thousands of individuals, the New Zealand Underwater Association, and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. Having the CRA 2 fish stock, between Waipu and East Cape, deplete to the point where […]
January 5, 2018
Fisheries is one of the few management areas where the Minister has sole responsibility to apply discretion when making sustainable catch and allocation decisions. This discretionary power is currently under threat by those wanting to privatise our fisheries and LegaSea is pushing back.Our fisheries are a publicly owned national treasure that must be properly managed […]
January 5, 2018
When LegaSea was first invited to have input into The Future Catch project by Dr Randall Bess we were excited because the project was described as a well funded study to improve recreational fishing. It didn’t take long to realise that this was yet another attempt to upgrade commercial rights to our fisheries and remove […]
December 31, 2017
As we close in on another year of fishing LegaSea is celebrating that in 2017 we have collectively spent about one billion dollars chasing our dreams. This recreational activity generated over one and a half billion dollars of economic activity in New Zealand. This is big bucks when you consider we take less than 3% […]
November 29, 2017
After 30 years of neoliberal free-market policies there are few public resources left that we can call our own, fresh water and fisheries are two that are currently under threat. Privatisation of freshwater aquifers for minimal returns has been one of 2017’s hot topics. The conversation around further privatisation of New Zealand’s saltwater fisheries has […]
November 24, 2017
For a long time we suspected that seagrass meadows were important to the life-cycle of fish, we just didn’t know how significant. A large-scale survey across New Zealand found regional differences in the species and numbers of juvenile fish hiding in amongst the seagrass beds. Undoubtedly further research will reveal more secrets over time. What […]
November 23, 2017
LegaSea welcomes the new government’s decision to appoint Stuart Nash as Minister of Fisheries, the first step in breaking apart the monolith that is the Ministry for Primary Industries. All the signals so far point to a fresh approach to fisheries management, more meaningful engagement and potentially the inclusion of recreational interests in future decision-making […]
November 14, 2017
A pilot scheme involving an Auckland boating club and local marae is drawing widespread acclaim for its conservation gains and the coming together of people from different walks of life. The joint project is underpinned by principles of sharing and caring for our environment and each other, and could easily be replicated in other parts […]
