Latest updates


Fishcare – Looking after your fish

March 19, 2020 Sustainable inshore commercial longliner, Gavin Perry, demonstrates the principles of Iki Jime and how it is done in a commercial environment.  

Combating crayfish poaching

March 10, 2020 Poaching of fish is not new, it goes back centuries. In old England landlords refused to allow starving peasants to fish in the rivers and streams running through their properties. The peasants took their chances under the cover of darkness if they wanted to feed their family fish. Nowadays poaching operations are a lot more […]

Crayfish. How low can we go?

February 28, 2020 In just two generations we have managed to pillage our crayfish stocks to such historic low levels that in many areas there are few, if any, left for locals to enjoy. Taking more than 80 per cent of the original crayfish stock size then sustaining it at that low level is inviting disaster, by altering […]

New Zealanders deeply suspect fishing industry donations will influence MPs’ decisions

February 26, 2020 A huge majority of New Zealanders think fishing industry donations to Members of Parliament at the last election have the potential to “strongly influence” decisions the MPs make according to a poll conducted by Horizon Research. The poll, which asked more than 1,000 people how much they felt donations by companies with large fishing investments […]

Don’t get caught out on April Fool’s Day – UPDATED

February 25, 2020 UPDATE 2: Rules applying to recreational catch of rock lobster in CRA2 have changed as of 1 July 2020. We await information from Fisheries New Zealand and will advise details when these are available. UPDATE: MPI has advised LegaSea that the decision to change the crayfish bag limits in CRA2 not yet been ratified by […]

How much do we catch?

February 17, 2020 Snapper, kahawai and blue cod are the most popular saltwater finfish caught and kept by recreational fishers in New Zealand. As you would expect, snapper is the most common fish taken, representing nearly half of the national finfish landings. We now have two reliable surveys of recreational harvest using the same methods so the results […]

Bitter sweet times for fishers

February 15, 2020 When times are tough it’s great to have good friends around and Lily Alexander is one of those. For her 10th birthday, in late 2019, she decided to do something remarkable. Lily decided to forgo birthday presents. Instead of presents she asked all her friends to bring money so she could donate it to LegaSea. […]

Potential fishing closures in Northland

February 10, 2020 After years of bearing witness to declining fish stocks and inshore trawling a Maori Trust in the Bay of Plenty has taken the initiative to protect indigenous biodiversity. As a result of a complex legal process the Court of Appeal recently ruled that Regional Councils are obliged to actively protect indigenous biodiversity in the marine […]

Proactive management in the Bay of Islands

February 4, 2020 Local Kaitiaki [guardians] held a hui in December to discuss putting a ban on taking mussels from the northern area in the Bay of Islands, until they regrow. Consultation with the local community was largely supportive and now we await a Ministerial decision. LegaSea attended the December hui and expressed support for this initiative as […]

Cameras – what is there to hide?

February 1, 2020 In 2013 the government committed to 100% camera or observer coverage of all trawl vessels on the northeast coast, by October 2015. In June 2019 the present government promised us that 28 at-risk vessels on the west coast of the North Island would have cameras and monitoring by November. The roll-out to the remaining commercial […]