September 1, 2025
Scallop season once opened on 1 September in Coromandel. Today, the date is a stark reminder of what has been lost. Decades of mismanagement, overallocation, and the destructive use of Victorian box dredges drove the Coromandel scallop fishery to collapse. It was only after sustained pressure from the local community, led by Ngāti Hei, that ... Read more.
August 27, 2025
From Mahurangi Matters, August 2025. There was a time when packs of crayfish marched in their thousands from East Cape up the northeast coast. The seafloor hidden beneath a moving mass of antennas and limbs – a magnificent sight. Today these marches are rare. Instead, red rock lobster populations across east Northland are at crisis ... Read more.
August 7, 2025
In April, over 25,000 of you made it pretty clear via our submission form that you did not want the proposed ‘reforms’ to the Fisheries Act to go ahead. Unfortunately, your voices have been ignored. In an unsurprising turn of events, Shane Jones announced today that the government has agreed to his “reforms”, and will ... Read more.
August 6, 2025
Public consultation is one of the few times that everyday New Zealanders can have a say on the future management of our fisheries. It’s also when our team at LegaSea, the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council and representative organisations pull together decades of knowledge, science and lived experience to advocate for more fish in the ... Read more.
July 30, 2025
Published in The Adventurer Magazine Jack Mackerel – those slippery little fish you chuck on your hook as bait to catch something bigger – are far more important than they’re given credit for. These so-called baitfish are a fundamental food source for larger predatory fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Without them, our coastal ecosystems begin ... Read more.
July 30, 2025
Published in Mahurangi Matters. By Sam Woolford “The Ocean is not alive like it used to be 25 yrs ago where we moved from one workup to another”. A comment we often receive from Hauraki Gulf fishers who spend more time chasing the diving seabirds feeding on the schools of baitfish – referred to as ... Read more.
July 21, 2025
The fish in our waters don’t belong to quota holders – they belong to all of us. They are a public resource, not a private asset, no matter how entitled the commercial sector may act. Owning quota gives the right to harvest fish, but it doesn’t mean those fish are theirs. Each year, the government ... Read more.
July 18, 2025
Blue cod are a Kiwi icon. Sadly, due to years of mismanagement, blue cod stocks around the country are severely depleted. 3 blue cod fisheries are up for review and you have a chance to have your say right now.
July 3, 2025
It’s that time again. Fisheries NZ has just dropped proposals to change catch limits for 35 different fish stocks around the country, with two more review papers expected by the end of June.
July 1, 2025
Blue cod isn’t just another fish. It’s the fish of the South, as iconic to the lower half of the country as snapper is to the north. It’s the one families plan holidays around, the one sizzling in the pan at the crib, blue cod are embedded in childhood memories of casting a line off the ... Read more.
