Find answers below to some some common questions about Rescue Fish, fisheries management and LegaSea. If you can't find the answer you are looking for, please contact us here.
The Minister of Fisheries has a statutory obligation to ‘ensure sustainability’. He needs to know how many fish to set aside to account for expected mortality before he can allocate any fish for commercial catch. More cautious catch limits need to be set when there is greater uncertainty around mortality levels.
When setting total catch limits for a particular fishery, the Minister of Fisheries sets aside a tonnage of fish to allow for the mortality caused by all fishing. This could be fish killed by trawling and other methods, fish that drop out of nets and unseen mortality, fish that die after fishing has occurred. This tonnage can vary depending on the methods used in the fishery.
Independent analysis by the NZ Institute of Economic Research shows that on the information available Māori own around 40% of quota shares (by volume) but only 10.7% of the total quota share value. This is a conservative estimate of iwi ownership and value because not all the relevant details are available; that is understandable given the commercial sensitivity of the information. For Rescue Fish to succeed it was important to work out what a fair exchange might be for those shares if they were bought out by the government. More here on pages 23-26.
According to the Ministry for Primary Industry (MPI) Annual Report 2017/18, in the 2017/18 year the Government budgeted to spend $54 million on fisheries management and advice. It also budgeted spending $40 million on enforcement and monitoring. The government budgeted receiving $31 million in cost recoveries from commercial interests in the 2017/18 year. If half of the $40M in enforcement and monitoring is attributed to commercial fishing then cost recovery represents about 42% of total cost of fisheries management, monitoring and enforcement. Another $4.1 million was budgeted for the Precision Seafood Harvesting programme in 2017/18, and $5 million in deemed value receipts was also budgeted.
We can restore marine abundance by managing fish stocks at higher levels. Rescue Fish promotes managing fish stocks at 50% of its natural, unfished level. A fishery managed at 50% of its assumed natural size is considered to be a sustainable fish stock. The 50% level is international best practice. When a fish stock is at the 50% level it can provide for economical harvest whilst ensuring productivity and marine ecosystem services are maintained. In New Zealand many fish stocks are currently between 15% and 30% of their natural, unfished level. Rescue Fish policy.
Yes. Under section 8 of the Fisheries Act the Minister of Fisheries has a legal obligation to ensure fish stocks are sufficiently maintained so people can provide for their social, economic and cultural well-being from fishing. That is, to manage fish stocks so Māori customary and recreational fishing interests are provided for, that environmental interests are satisfied, and so commercial fishing is economically viable.
The Minister also has an obligation to manage fisheries to provide for the foreseeable needs of future generations. Under section 12 of the Fisheries Act the Minister must have particular regard to kaitiakitanga, that is guardianship of the resource and people, when making decisions.
A fishery managed at 50% of its assumed natural size is considered to be a sustainable fish stock. The 50% level is international best practice. The Rescue Fish policy is based on rebuilding depleted fisheries to 50% because when a fish stock is at that level it can provide for economical harvest whilst ensuring productivity and marine ecosystem services are maintained. Rescue Fish policy.
The default minimum management target for most New Zealand fish stocks is currently 40% of unfished biomass. According to Fisheries NZ, a fish stock below 20% is deemed to be 'depleted'. A fish stock below 10% is deemed to be collapsed. In reality, many of our fish stocks are currently between 15% and 30% of unfished biomass. Biomass is the measure of the amount of fish present compared to pre-industrial harvesting numbers.
169 fish stocks or sub-stocks in the Quota Management System have a scientific assessment. For assessment purposes there are 685 fish stocks or sub-stocks included in the QMS. (A fish stock can be divided into two or more sub-stocks if it is large or if there are differences between areas.) 297 of the 685 stocks are nominal, there for administrative purposes or there is no meaningful catch. Of the remaining 388 stocks or sub-stocks 44% (169) have been scientifically reviewed. This means 56% (219) have no stock assessment, their status is unknown and this is usually due to a lack of available research funding.
