September 06, 2018
Fish fight goes international
The Maori fisheries settlement trust Te Ohu Kaimoana is fighting for Maori rights in a new regime for managing marine biodiversity in international waters.
Chair Jamie Tuuta has joined a New Zealand delegation in New York this week working on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement, which will come under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
As well as allowing coastal states to manage fisheries resources in their economic zones, the convention also applies to straddling stocks such as orange roughy off the West Coast of the South Island.
Mr Tuuta says the commitment by then-prime minister John Key at a UN meeting to create a 600,000sq km no-take marine protected area outside of the Kermadec Island Marine Reserve in conflict with Maori fishing rights highlighted the importance of Maori participating in such international forums.
Te Ohu Kaimoana intends to report back to iwi later this year once the full extent of changes are known.
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