October 31, 2019
What is trawling? A trawl is a tunnel shaped fishing net which is towed through the water by a vessel on the surface of the water. As the net is towed through the water strains out through the mesh entrapping the fish and retaining them in the cod end of the trawl bag. The […]
October 31, 2019
Bottom trawling is an indiscriminate fish harvesting process, capturing all in its path and scraping vital marine growth off the seabed. The damage is unseen as it’s underwater and out of sight. The environmental impacts from the agricultural sector is attracting increasing attention and public concern about the damage caused by some commercial fishing methods […]
October 30, 2019
Bottom trawling is an industrial fishing method that involves dragging a large, weighted net along the seafloor with the intention of mass collection. In this short video, Dr Simon Thrush, a marine scientist from Auckland University, discusses how bottom trawling works and why it is so destructive. LegaSea believes bottom trawling needs to be stopped […]
October 17, 2019
Seventy percent of New Zealanders want the commercial fishing quota for tarakihi cut dramatically to help the country’s fish and chips favourite to recover, a new survey has revealed. The survey conducted by Horizon Research for LegaSea, a not-for-profit organisation raising awareness of issues affecting the marine environment, found 70% want a cut of between […]
October 8, 2019
LegaSea is intrigued by MPI’s reaction to the most recent report of recreational harvest estimates. Since 2012 total recreational catch of finfish is down by 19% and shellfish and other non-finfish species catch has reduced by 41%. On the day the harvest estimate report was released MPI ignored those details and instead made out that […]
October 4, 2019
There have been several government-led attempts in the past to force recreational fishing into the Quota Management System, all have failed. More ominous are the recent catch share proposals funded by big business interests, local and international. The common theme is that recreational fishing is an out of control sector requiring “management” via a fixed […]
September 30, 2019
Fishing on the west coast is not for the faint-hearted and future prospects are about to change for many people. There are some disturbing aspects to the recent joint proposal by Sanford, Moana fisheries and WWF-New Zealand to protect Maui dolphin on the west coast of the North Island. We all agree on the need […]
September 27, 2019
A ten per cent cut to commercial catch limits of tarakihi will not be enough to save the species from its depleted state, says LegaSea. On September 27th the Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash announced his management plan to restore the East Coast tarakihi fishery by applying a ten per cent cut to commercial catch limits […]
September 13, 2019
Decisive action needs to be taken to protect our fish stocks from collapse. That means putting the handbrake on catch increases until we know more about how many fish are in the water. No such restraint is evidenced in the latest management proposals from Fisheries New Zealand for several South Island stocks including gurnard, rig […]
August 28, 2019
LegaSea recently worked with the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council’s fisheries management team and the New Zealand Angling & Casting Association to develop and submit eight responses to proposals from Fisheries New Zealand. These submission are briefly summarised below. Tarakihi East coast North and South Islands. Minister’s decision – decrease the Total Allowable Commercial Catch […]
