Kia ora Friend, The expression 'when it rains it pours' sums up the last few months.
We've been flat out reacting to the Fisheries Amendment Bill, launching the expanding Hauraki Gulf Alliance through which we hope to finally see scallop dredging and bottom trawling removed from the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and preparing our increasingly popular Kai Ika Project for another busy summer. It's great seeing these projects grow and get traction. It's also creating opportunities for us to engage and we're currently recruiting for a part time employees for The Kai Ika Project.
It seems like the pressure will stay on until Christmas with multiple consultation processes for the Hauraki Gulf and Northland expected before the end of the year. We remain commitment to letting you know as these consultation processes start. The Minister comes to the rescue for the Fisheries Amendment Bill |
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David Parker, the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries |
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We're celebrating Minister David Parker's choice to listen to the public, made clear by his last minute decision to drop the controversial pre-set decision rules from the Fisheries Amendment Bill. These proposals threatened the future sustainability of our fish and would have shut out our say in fisheries.
Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker has removed contentious proposals in the Bill, to lock in pre-set decision making, in favour of more flexible ways to decide on catch limits and distribution. |
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The Minister is proceeding with other changes in the Bill that enable monitoring cameras aboard commercial fishing vessels from 1 November. Also a big win for us!
LegaSea programme lead Sam Woolford said, "It was a courageous decision by the Minister David Parker to drop the pre-set decision rules for setting fish catch limits, particularly given the level of support from opposition parties and commercial fishing interests."
We want to say a huge thank you to you too - earlier in the year more than 6,000 people used our online submission form to support the Minister making this change. We believe this change would not have happened without public pressure to make sure our fish populations are thriving for the future.
The Parliamentary Third Reading of the Fisheries Amendment Bill is expected later in October with enactment by November.
We're pleased Minister Parker has chosen the only sensible option, to drop the controversial aspects of the Bill and consult on them later when people understand what is at stake.
LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council are committed to raising further awareness around pre-set decision rule making and what it could mean for our fisheries. Keep an eye out for more to come. |
It's all go in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park |
With the government trying to push through the Revitalising the Gulf reforms in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park before the end of the year, we are seeing multiple plans coming up for consultation, starting with the spatial plan for marine protection in the Gulf. Marine Protect Areas (MPAs) proposals |
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The Department of Conservation is working with Fisheries New Zealand in currently seeking feedback on proposals for marine protection in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
The proposals include establishment of 12 High Protection Areas, 5 Seafloor Protection Areas and extension of 2 Marine Reserves.
Feedback is due on October 28th - we are currently developing a stance and will be offering up alternatives that everyone can get on board with in the coming week.
Public awareness around this consultation has been minimal, we'd like to see more communications from DoC and Fisheries New Zealand. |
| Hauraki Gulf Marine Park MPA plan. Click to enlarge.
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| The Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan is overdue to go to public consultation and could happen any day.
The Fish Plan has been developed by Fisheries New Zealand with various stakeholder working groups. We expect the plan to allow the continuation of bottom trawling in soon to be revealed 'trawl corridors' and to allow for commercial scallop dredging to continue, while recreational scallop dredging is banned outright. |
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Consultation on the Fish Plan is the public's opportunity to tell the minister that this is not good enough and we want to see trawling and dredging banned from the Gulf now and forever.
How can we restore the health and abundance of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, one of our national treasures, if we allow these destructive fishing methods to continue? It makes no sense!
Please, if you haven't already, sign the petition to call for the removal trawling and dredging from the Gulf now. Tell the minister HANDS OFF MY BOTTOM! Sign the petition now. October sustainability review decisions |
The past few months were extremely busy for our fisheries management team, with fighting unfair provisions in the Fisheries Amendment Bill top of our list.
Working alongside the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, New Zealand Underwater Association and New Zealand Angling & Casting Association we still managed to find time to submit on a number of fisheries that Fisheries New Zealand put up for review, and the Minister has released his decisions with new changes in effect from October 1st. Here is a brief summary of some of the most important changes: Tarakihi |
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The Minister has agreed to reduce the TAC in the eastern tarakihi stock from 1 October 2022. The intention is to rebuild the stock to B40, 40% of unfished biomass, within 15 years, by 2037. Not too bad, we're glad to see decreases and timebound management, although the NZSFC and other organisations had asked the Minister to apply Option 1, to rebuild the stock to B40 by 2033. Read our submission here.
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West coast South Island mixed trawl fishery:
The Minister approved TACC increases in Snapper 7 & Gurnard 7, and retained the status quo for Rig 7 - not too bad. Snapper populations are increasing around there, but trawling is not selective and we must consider other species that are caught in this fishery before increasing snapper catch limits by large margins. You can read our full submission here.
West coast South Island blue cod fishery:
The west coast South Island blue cod fishery (blue cod 7) review gathered the most interest this year, with proposals including to set a new Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and associated catch allowances, and decreases to commercial catch allocation. The Minister announced his decision to reduce the TACC by 17%, and to set a TAC of 157 tonnes - not the exact result we wanted but still a pretty cautious decision because the Marlborough Sounds fishery is likely to be overfished. You can read our full submission here.
We also made submissions on other important stocks up for review such as the Gurnard 3 Fishery, Rig 3 Fishery and deemed values for snapper, trevally and kingfish.
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It's been a further humbling period for our LegaSea team as our sponsors continue grow. Both Platinum and Gold have taken a dramatic surge as we welcome new partnerships aboard. |
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A highlight for us has to be Trev Terry Marine who become our first major boat retailer to join at Platinum level. They already had a strong relationship with us through Boating & Outdoors and as a Yamaha and Haines Hunter dealership, however in the words of Brock Terry "We wouldn't have the confidence to keep building our business if we were unsure about the future of our fisheries. With LegaSea keeping us informed and taking action on important fisheries management decisions we feel they have got our back. So we're backing them"
We will tell you more about some of our other new Partners in the coming weeks. But here's a shout out to our new Platinums - James Group, Turkish Bread, Eastwood Motor Group, Phoenix Metalman Recycling and RRR (Rand Robinson Realty).
And new Gold Partners - Crombie Lockwood, Smart Media, Lumo, PMA Leisure, Garmin and Mighty.
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The Kai Ika Project is hiring |
We are looking for someone to join our team in a part time position as the Kai Ika Concierge. Someone motivated to help us manage customer service at our fish filleting sites. |
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You will be responsible for processing sales through our POS system and upselling to customers where applicable. The concierge will focus on customer engagement whilst being responsible for handling fish and ensuring Fish Filleters have fish in front of them to process.
When time allows, you will gather customers/public details for our LegaSea database. In your previous role you may have been in customer service, retail or front of house in a café that has seen you deal with a wide range of public. For this role you must be willing to be around and be comfortable handling fish. | |
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-- Ngā mihi nui, Benn and the LegaSea crew |
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LegaSea appreciates the ongoing support of our Platinum and Gold partners - |
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