The fishing season starts today, with catch limits for several fisheries rising or falling in line with Fisheries New Zealand’s biannual sustainability review.
Increases include snapper in the west coast of North and South Island, the top of the South Island, and East Cape to the south coast of Wellington, despite a challenge from Te Ohu Kaimoana that most of the increase will go to the holders of rights created when the total allowable catch was cut almost 40 years ago at the start of the quota management system.
The catch for orange roughy from the Challenger Plateau in the Tasman Sea is being cut, but conservation groups say it’s not enough to stop the fishery from collapsing again.
Limits for Southland blue cod are also down.
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says scientific evidence shows snapper stocks are thriving and abundant.
He says the Kaikōura pāua fishery is also getting healthier after being devastated in the 2016 earthquake, so the limit has been increased, along with the minimum size from 1250 mm to 1390 mm to protect more spawning pāua.
