17/11/2025
Apologies that this is a bit long but you really do need to be aware….. This is a heads up on what’s happening to your fishery, details of the One Ocean Protest this Saturday, and how you can easily make a submission to the Govt via the LegaSea website. So…
Right now we are seeing the biggest assault on the public of NZ’s rights and access to our fisheries in the past 35 years that I’ve been involved… It’s time to stand up and show numbers…if this flops we’re f # !.
Wake up!…As you slept, the doors have closed, you’ve been shut out of your traditional inshore fishing grounds around the Hauraki Gulf and many other areas are being closed because of the mismanagement of fisheries. (North Island Crayfish & Scallops)
Now the heist is on! Minister Shame Jones is set to allow the commercial catch & sale of, up until now, 19 protected reef fish species and marlin… 35 years after closure to rebuild our commercially decimated world class fishery.
HAURAKI GULF
It’s all over - 19 New Marine Protection Areas have been put in place. The public of NZ are now forever locked out of traditional inshore fishing grounds and around many islands in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park…
It started as SeaChange. A groundbreaking collaborative multistakeholder working group convened in 2013 by the Auckland and Waikato Council to address the supposedly dire state of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park for future generations. It was agreed by all that there’d be no cherry picking of aspects of the completed plan that were agreed by all.
What happened? Central Government got involved is what happened. Shane Jones has smashed the public outa the park and left his commercial fishing quota owning mates to continue business as usual.
The Greens have been appeased….loving their marine reserves. While outside of the line goes to hell in a hand cart.
There’s NO ALTERATION TO COMMERCIAL CATCH METHODS OR LIMITS.. …Throw in some customary take and commercial gill netting in supposedly essential high protection areas as smoke screens and call it fisheries management🤷♂️🤦♂️🤯🤬 its like something invented by Blackadder - a plan so cunning that you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel!
I’ve posted it before..
The late Elinor Ostrom conducted global research and wrote extensively on privatisation of rights. Short answer - the rights / quota holders always get their way. Ostrum got a Nobel prize for her work, all we get in NZ is a headache and more marine reserves.
Marine reserves aren’t fisheries management. If all you do is shift the effort across the line on a map…or throw the dog turd over the fence onto your neighbour’s lawn. Marine reserves aren’t fisheries there to protect unique and fragile environments.
SALE OF REEF FISH
While the Govt is busy shutting the public out of inshore and coastal reef fisheries, with apparently necessary High Protection, Shane Jones (Previously Chairman of Sealord, one of NZ’s largest quota owning corporations) is about to announce regulation change to allow commercial fishers to target and land ALL CURRENTLY PROTECTED REEF FISHES. The contradiction only highlights the contempt for the NZ Public and the bureaucratic and regulatory capture by commercial fishing interests of our fisheries & marine lmanagement.
COMMERCIAL FISHING MARLIN
But Wait… There’s more!while you’re bent over with your cheeks parted and there’s no l**e in sight, Shane Jones is set to announce a change to commercial fishing regulations to allow the sale of Marlin caught in NZ.
Shane Jones is proposing to go back on a NZ First & near 35 year Government commitment, that Marlin caught in NZ waters could not be sold. Back in 1987, what had been a world class billfish fishery had been decimated to the point that charter boat catch rates had plummeted to catching one fish per ten days of fishing. It took a group of experienced and wealthy recreational fishers to threaten legal action to get the then Minister of Fisheries to act.
The Billfish Moratorium was agreed in 1987 which included all marlin & broadbill species. The banning of the sale of marlin was legislated in 1991.
What resulted was a steady and sustained rebuild to this day of what is now indisputably the world’s best & biggest striped marlin fishery.
What happened to broadbill was another diametrically opposed horror story. The 1991 legislation excluded broadbill, and enabled commercial fishers to land their “bycatch” to develop tuna surface longlining.
The rest is history… commercial fishers ignored the bycatch only agreement & surface longlined using light sticks to great effect targeting broadbill. (Having worked in financing their boats at the time, I’m aware that despite ongoing claims of “just bycatch”, 35% of their income was from broadbill.)
Annual commercial catches of broadbill quickly grew from around 60 tonnes per annum to over 900 tonnes a year.. It took the Govt over ten years to take any action …but then in October 2004, instead of protection, they legitimized the catch & created Quota, with an 885 tonnes allocated to commercial fishing, which was then tendered and sold to be fished by foreign boats.
Shane Jones now wants to empower commercial fishers to land marlin “bycatch” for what will initially be nominal commercial value. Until the catch increases. Which with $$$ as the incentive, it has never failed yet. …or if waste is the concern, why not continue having it with no commercial value an land the bycatch to Kai Ika for distribution to communities that really value it.
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE��With the Governments strong focus on unlocking the economic value of our fishery, rather than focusing on a handful of dead commercially caught marlin, why don’t they, like the rest of the world, invest some money and focus on marketing NZ and build investment in our charter boat fleet to fish our world class tourist fishing destination…
We now have a year round sports fishery for Marlin, Tunas, Broadbill & Kingfish, which will provide far greater and consistent economic return than a handful of dead marlin.
The NZ government saw fit to promote it back in Zane Greys day. What’s changed? Privatisation is what’s changed!
The Sport Fishing Council has fought hard to protect the public’s interest in the fishery. Why doesn’t the Govt leverage off that value?? Do we have to do it for them?
