July 26, 2021
Peter van Eekelen is the President of the Pegasus Bay Gamefishing Club, Canterbury. Q. What’s the problem? A. Blue cod is an iconic fishery providing for the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of thousands of South Islanders. There are around 35,000 people who fish for recreation and food off the east coast of the South […]
July 24, 2021
Back in the 90s when the Snapper 8 fishery was in deep trouble, recreational fishers voluntarily contributed efforts that would help bring back more snapper in the water. The first recreational daily bag limit set in 1985 was 30 per person per day, now it’s 10. In 1995, local west coast recreational fishers wanted to […]
July 23, 2021
Snapper stocks out west of the North Island have rebuilt to an abundance level beyond most people’s living memory. Fisheries New Zealand (FNZ) has proposed catch increases for commercial fishers, an increase to the overall allowances for recreational and Māori customary fishing interests, and no changes to recreational bag or size limits. Submissions are due […]
July 20, 2021
After 33 years of rebuilding, the Snapper 8 (SNA 8) fishery is finally in good shape, reaching an estimated biomass of 54% of the original population size. Fisheries NZ is proposing four potential options to increase the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) of 1300 tonnes. They propose to increase the TACC by either 25, 50, 75 or 100%. More commercial fishing in Snapper 8 means more bottom trawling, and this could jeopardise the recovery of snapper. LegaSea is supporting Option Zero. No TACC increase.
July 15, 2021
Local Hauraki Gulf communities are left feeling unheard after the Government has decided to take a cherry-picking approach in protecting and enhancing the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. We are disappointed by the recent changes proposed in the Government (Revitalising the Gulf) response to the Sea Change plan which includes decisions which will only protect pockets […]
July 7, 2021
Trawling and its effects on fish, people and future livelihoods has been a subject of debate for more than a century. A succession of Ministers have heard submissions, held meetings, drawn lines on maps and even established a commission of inquiry in 1918, yet we still have bottom trawling in many productive nursery grounds. Even […]
July 5, 2021
The long awaited consultation for Snapper 8 (SNA8) is underway and we are busily working through the government’s proposed changes on . SNA8 is a fisheries area situated along the west coast of the North Island from North Cape to Kapiti (see map). The fishery was almost trawled to extinction during the 1970s and 1980s, […]
June 25, 2021
SeaChange announcement; Land all catch regulations; Tarakihi court case decision. It’s been a huge week with three major announcements impacting our fisheries. This week the Revitalising Our Gulf Sea Change strategy was released in response to the 2017 Sea Change Marine Spatial Plan aimed at restoring the health of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
June 19, 2021
The High Court has ruled that in 2019 Stuart Nash, the then Minister of Fisheries, did not act legally when deciding on the management settings for tarakihi on the whole east coast. Tarakihi and the environment in which they live have been decimated by years of trawling, with the stock collapsing to just 16% of […]
June 19, 2021
A high court decision that protects tarakihi sets a precedent for protecting other fish populations and is a milestone in fisheries management, says marine conservation group LegaSea. “It’s a hugely important judgement that has run under the radar”, said LegaSea spokesperson Sam Woolford. “Firstly, the court affirmed that decisions made by the previous Minister of […]
