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In the Tīkapa Moana Hauraki Gulf there were 119 vessels in the 2023-24 fishing year catching seafood destined for fish n’ chip shops, supermarkets and restaurants. These fishers are your friends and neighbours from Auckland, Leigh and Warkworth. Many of their vessels are already covered by on-board cameras, and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is set to roll-out cameras to all vessels big enough to support the operation of a camera by May 28. We’re pleased to hear that once the rollout is complete, about 89% of catch from the gulf will be monitored by cameras.
Though our technology and access to data have evolved in leaps and bounds over the past 30 years, the Fisheries Act 1996 has remained frozen in time. The proposed reforms simply add some common sense tools to the existing framework so we can better manage our fisheries given the new data and technologies now at our disposal. That was a large part of the rationale behind MPI’s proposed amendments to the Act, which are currently working their way through the parliamentary process.
Submissions on these government proposals closed on April 11. Thousands submitted on the proposed reforms – and here at Seafood New Zealand we think that’s great.
Unfortunately, the submissions process was coloured by a proliferation of misinformation about what outcomes the reforms will achieve if enacted.
One of the fictions we heard was that these reforms will roll-back cameras from commercial vessels and reduce transparency. That’s simply not true. In fact, as I said at the start, the camera rollout continues across the country, including in the Hauraki Gulf. What the reforms do seek to achieve is to limit access to the camera footage to the people who really need to see it, specifically those responsible for making sure that commercial fishers are sticking to the rules – such as the regulators at MPI.
At Seafood New Zealand we are sticking up for the right to privacy that our fishers are entitled to.
Commercial fishing will continue to be transparent. Any member of the public can access all of the data that is extracted from both on-board cameras and government observers. It is published regularly. That won’t change.
If you live around the Hauraki Gulf, you’re much more likely to see recreational boats scattered across the moana than commercial boats. But you can rest assured that our vessels are being closely watched, and their catches tightly managed by MPI. All to ensure there is fish there for the future, both out in nature and accessible to us all as Kiwi kaimoana.
