High Court Ruling Offers Confidence To Rec Fishers

The recent High Court victory by recreational fishermen over the Government’s kahawai catch limits has given renewed confidence to current opposition against the governments proposed changes to the 1996 Fisheries Act.

Image sourced from www.teara.govt.nz

Traditional rival fishing sectors - commercial, recreational and Maori - will now come together to fight the shared fisheries proposal, which aims to reduce the amount of non-commercial fishing to solve low fish numbers.

These changes will have implications for all New Zealanders and will be debated again by representatives from New Zealand’s three fishing sectors in mid April 2007.

The ruling over kahawai catch limits by Justice Harrison, in the Auckland High Court on March 21 has added weight to the opposition over the shared fisheries debate, says Sonny Tau, customary fisherman and chairman of Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi.

The ruling found that former Minister of Fisheries, David Benson Pope, acted illegally in 2005 in setting catch limits for all kahawai fisheries without the “proper regard to the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of the people”.

The current minister, Jim Anderton, must now reconsider the previous decisions.

This ruling is seen as timely because of the Government’s Shared Fisheries review. Under the proposal all fishers will have a total allowable catch and this limit will relate to fish populations.

Jeff Romerik, of the Big Game Fishing Council said the kahawai judgement had many implications for the way the ministry managed fisheries. “The judgement essentially backs recreational fishers’ submissions against the Government’s proposal.”

Eric Barratt, chief executive of Sanford Limited said the kahawai judgement meant the ministry would now have to be clearer on its process.

Jim Anderton aims to clearly define any changes to the act by December 2007.

“The government is currently considering submissions on new Shared Fisheries policies that should spell out how fisheries …should be handled.”

But stakeholders have concerns over Government plans to allocate fisheries between commercial and non-commercial fishers

Mr Tau maintains the ministry should abandon the process for shared fisheries and get solid evidence of the total extraction levels of each fishing sector.

“The Shared Fisheries proposal needs to be re-looked at, as a lot of the customary and recreational issues will have some assistance from the [kahawai] judgment.”

Mr Tau maintained that the government’s proposal has brought Maori, commercial and recreational fishers together.

Scott Macindoe, a spokesperson for option4, an organisation that represents recreational fishers, says the proposal makes changes without accounting for the over-allocation and the lack of control of commercial fishing.

While they may have differing grievances, these key stakeholders believe their case against the proposal will be stronger if they work together in representing their issues.

“Different grievances shouldn’t stop us working together,” says Mr Macindoe

April’s meeting will see interest groups working towards a common solution.

“This is about freedoms, it crosses all socio economic groups,” says Mr Macindoe.

After the key stakeholders’ last meeting on March 1 they agreed that the Government’s consultation process over Shared Fisheries was woefully inadequate.

“There is common dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Fisheries’ process and public consultation. There is a need for far greater information and public awareness,” says Mr Macindoe.

The Ministry of Fisheries are currently reviewing submissions on the Shared Fisheries proposal from the key stakeholder groups.

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