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The chair of the Maori Fisheries Settlement Trust, Jamie Tuuta, says the biodiversity of the waters around the Kermadecs is already protected b y government and industry, and there’s no need for an ocean sanctuary barring commercial fishing.
Te Ohu Kaimoana is taking the crown to court, saying the unilateral decision to create the sanctuary is in breach of the 1992 Maori fisheries settlement.
Speaking at its annual conference in Auckland this morning, Mr Tuuta said the proposed Kermadec Sanctuary will be twice the size of the land mass of New Zealand and 15 percent of its Exclusive Economic Zone.
He says there are already marine reserves around every island out to 12 nautical miles, and in 2007 Te Ohu Kaimoana and industry devised a Benthic Protection Regime for the entire area, meaning there is no bottom trawling.
Even though the current catch in the are is only about $200,000 a year, that’s no justification for taking away the fishing rights granted in the settlement.
Mr Tuuta says the Government has failed to recognise the developmental potential of quota and non-quota fisheries that can be caught in Fisheries Management Area 10, including highly migratory species that can’t be caught anywhere else in the EEZ.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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