ACT is heading into Election 2026 promising a major reset of fisheries management, including tougher rules around shellfish gathering, an end to scallop dredging in currently closed North Island fisheries and a new approach aimed at rebuilding fish stocks to levels above minimum sustainability targets.
The party’s six-point fisheries policy attempts to straddle both conservation and access — arguing Aotearoa can have healthier marine ecosystems while maintaining strong commercial and recreational fisheries.
ACT conservation spokesperson Cameron Luxton says healthy oceans and abundant fish stocks should underpin the future of an industry that supports jobs, exports, food gathering and recreational fishing.
Hauraki Gulf singled out for change
One of the most significant proposals involves the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
ACT wants to establish a distinct fisheries management area matching the park’s boundaries.
The party argues commercially important species within the Gulf can currently form part of much larger fisheries management areas, potentially masking localised depletion.
Creating a separate management area would allow catch settings to respond specifically to fish stocks within the Gulf.
ACT says existing quota holders would retain their proportional property rights under the proposed change.
New national shellfish gathering limit
Recreational gathering would also face new restrictions.
ACT is proposing a nationwide combined recreational daily bag limit of 10 for shellfish and other covered marine species that do not already have individual daily limits.
The party says the intention is not to prevent ordinary recreational gathering but to stop individuals taking large quantities and stripping shellfish beds and rock pools.
For Māori, however, any changes affecting gathering from the moana will inevitably raise questions around customary fishing rights, mahinga kai and the exercise of tikanga and kaitiakitanga.
ACT’s announcement does not provide detail on how its proposed nationwide recreational limit would interact with customary fishing arrangements, making that an area likely to require greater explanation as the policy develops.
Scallop dredging targeted
ACT also wants to permanently prohibit scallop dredging in North Island scallop fisheries that are currently closed.
If scallop populations recover sufficiently to allow harvesting to resume, the party wants more selective harvesting technology used rather than automatically returning to dredging.
ACT describes scallop dredging as New Zealand’s most destructive harvesting method and argues recovery should provide an opportunity to change how the resource is harvested.
The proposal represents a notable environmental position from a party more commonly associated with reducing regulation, with ACT instead arguing restrictions should focus specifically on activities causing demonstrable environmental damage.
Fishing methods could face different costs
Another significant proposal would require Fisheries New Zealand to quantify the economic and environmental costs associated with high-impact fishing methods.
Existing fisheries levies would then be adjusted to reflect the relative damage caused by different methods.
ACT says the overall level of levies would not increase under its proposal. Instead, costs would be redistributed so methods creating greater environmental impacts carried a proportionately larger share.
The policy specifically points to bottom trawling and dredging as methods capable of causing substantially greater damage than lower-impact alternatives catching the same species.
That could create a financial incentive for commercial operators to adopt less damaging fishing technologies without imposing a blanket ban across the industry.
Bigger penalties for serious offending
Fisheries offending would also face a tougher penalty regime.
ACT wants infringement fees staggered according to the seriousness of offending, arguing existing penalties can be too small to provide an effective deterrent against deliberate or significant breaches.
Under the proposal, relatively minor offending and serious exploitation would no longer necessarily attract penalties ACT considers disproportionate to the harm caused.
The party has not provided detailed proposed dollar amounts for each infringement category in the announcement.
From sustainable fish stocks to abundant fish stocks
Perhaps the biggest philosophical change is ACT’s proposal to reconsider how important fisheries are managed.
Instead of treating maximum sustainable yield as the central target, ACT wants management settings designed to produce higher fish populations and greater abundance.
The argument is that sustainability should not simply mean maintaining enough fish to support the maximum possible continuing harvest.
Greater abundance could improve ecosystem health while making fishing easier and more productive for commercial and recreational fishers.
In that sense, ACT is attempting to shift the conversation from managing scarcity towards rebuilding abundance.
The Māori fisheries question
There is an important Māori dimension that will require further scrutiny.
Māori hold substantial interests in commercial fisheries through the fisheries settlement, alongside customary fishing rights and responsibilities grounded in whakapapa and relationships with the moana.
Changes to fisheries management areas, catch settings, harvesting methods and industry costs could therefore have implications for iwi quota holders, Māori fishing businesses and customary fisheries.
ACT has explicitly committed to preserving the proportional property rights of existing quota holders when establishing its proposed Hauraki Gulf management area.
But its announcement provides less detail about the wider interaction between the six proposals and Māori customary and settlement interests.
That will be an important part of the policy debate ahead of November 7.
A different pitch from ACT
The policy represents an interesting addition to the election campaign because ACT is not arguing for unrestricted exploitation of fisheries.
Instead, its proposition is that stronger fish populations ultimately create greater economic and recreational opportunity.
That means restricting destructive practices in some places, imposing tougher penalties for serious offending and changing financial incentives around high-impact fishing methods — while opposing what the party regards as unnecessarily broad restrictions on fishing.
Whether that balance can be achieved will now face scrutiny from iwi, commercial operators, recreational fishers, environmental organisations and marine scientists.
But the central proposition is straightforward: Aotearoa should not settle for having just enough fish left in the water to keep harvesting them.
ACT wants considerably more.
And heading towards Election 2026, that puts another fundamental question on the political agenda: what does abundance in our moana look like, who gets to use it — and who gets to decide how it is protected for the generations still to come?
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