Latest updates


LegaSea newsletter #99 – Change is coming so why hide the truth?

November 12, 2020 Today’s good news is undermined by the fact that we know so little about our fish stocks. While a lack of information is supposed to lead to more precautionary management decisions, our reality is much different. Fisheries New Zealand continue to withhold a raft of reports, and bottom trawling in inshore waters is still killing […]

A lack of data is obscuring serious failings of fisheries management

November 1, 2020 Recreational marine fishing groups including LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council are calling on the newly elected government to address serious issues such as fish dumping, environmental damage from bottom trawling, and the need to restore fish stocks to healthy levels.

Let’s aim to protect 100% of marine areas

October 26, 2020 Calls are getting louder for 30 percent marine protected areas out to 200 nautical miles, including a network of no-take zones. There are major concerns with this set-and-forget strategy. Applying MPA fishing closures to some of our most productive areas will inevitably displace effort, intensifying depletion and biodiversity loss in the other 70% of the […]

Whitehaven relaunches Kōparepare in support of LegaSea

October 19, 2020 On Monday 19 October Whitehaven Wine Company will launch its refreshed Kōparepare wine brand. The company will acknowledge the relaunch with a campaign donating 100% of the revenue from the first 125 cases sold online at koparepare.co.nz to LegaSea. After that the family winery will continue to fund the work of LegaSea by donating $1 […]

LegaSea newsletter #98 – Counting Down and Gearing up

October 1, 2020 We are officially in the election countdown now and it’s interesting to see how COVID-19 is affecting the political parties’ policies. Sadly, fisheries issues have largely been ignored as the big parties fight it out over the best way to recover from the economic and social impact of the pandemic. Given the interesting political landscape […]

Fishing for every Kiwi

September 25, 2020 “Before there were freezers, the fish were left in the ocean until they were needed.” An insightful comment from Dr Davianna Pomaika’i McGregor, director of the University of Hawaii’s Centre for Oral History. She has a deep interest in the indigenous Hawaiian ethos of only taking what you need. Closer to home Maori often express […]

Recreational fishers vote in favour of scallop dredging ban

September 23, 2020 Recreational groups have come out strongly in support of the need to ban fishing techniques that damage the seabed in coastal marine waters. Increasingly, science shows that damage to the seafloor caused by fishing is having an exponential impact on the overall health of our marine ecosystems. At the Annual General Meeting of the New […]

Cameras on boats. Is it just another election promise?

September 9, 2020 The process to get monitoring cameras on board commercial fishing vessels is a debacle according to public awareness group LegaSea. The reality, it’s another promise made weeks before an election that won’t be initiated until after the following election cycle. “Cameras on board fishing vessels have been promised by fisheries Ministers since 2014, and last […]

Fishing in abundance

September 1, 2020 Rescue Fish is aimed at increasing the numbers and size of fish in our coastal waters, and in doing so, restoring biodiversity in the marine ecosystem. It will take a collective effort and behavioural changes by all of us to achieve success. A major change will be learning how to fish in an abundant fishery. […]

NZ Underwater signs MoU

August 30, 2020 The New Zealand Underwater Association (NZUA) has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. The Association is the latest organisation to commit to working alongside LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council to create more abundant coastal fisheries. These groups have committed to working together to […]