Review of Regulatory and other Management Controls for 1 October 2009

Between February, March and April 2009 the Ministry of Fisheries consulted on a number of regulatory measures proposed for 1 October 2009.

A Final Advice Paper (see below) was provided to the Minister of Fisheries in late October, and the Minister has now made his decisions, which are contained in the attached decision letter.

 Download the Minister's decision letter (PDF 374KB)

In summary, the Minister has decided to:

• Specify the use of a conversion factor to estimate greenweight from meatweight for the PAU 4 Chatham Island paua fishery;
• Authorise the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Fisheries to issue, amend or revoke seabird mitigation measures in circulars and to apply the measures to one or more fishing vessels;
• Shorten the closed season for commercial fishing by 19 days to commence on 20 November and end on 31 May (inclusive of both days) for the CRA 7 Otago rock lobster fishery;
• Limit the amount of paua one person can have in their possession at any one time, by setting an accumulation limit at two (2) times the maximum daily bag limit of paua (20 paua), or the equivalent meat weight of paua (2.5 kilograms of paua);
• Increase the amateur minimum legal size for sand flounder from 23 cm to 25 cm in the Challenger Fisheries Management Area (FMA 7);
• Decrease the amateur set net minimum mesh size for red moki from 115 mm to 114 mm to standardise this set net rule with blue moki in FMA 7;
• Decrease the amateur set net minimum mesh size for butterfish from 108 mm to 100 mm in FMA 7;
• Introduce a new amateur minimum legal size of 85 mm shell length for paua for the area between the Awakino River and Wanganui River, Taranaki, for a five-year trial period;
• Continue to prohibit all fishing methods, except hand-held line fishing, in Pukerua Bay, Wellington;
• Allow the completion and provision of electronic catch effort returns for all registered users, allow the use of all third party software and to make this change mandatory from the commencement of this regime for all catch effort returns provided from High Seas permit holders and Foreign Charter Vessels after the successful completion of a pilot;
• Correct inconsistencies and omissions in offences and penalties that support commercial reporting obligations;
• Allow the use of hand-operated lassoes for the amateur harvest of rock lobster in all New Zealand waters;
• Prohibit the concurrent possession of spring-loaded lassoes (and lassoes that do not comply with the hand-lasso definition) and rock lobster;
• Exclude holding pots from general rock lobster pot limits and escape aperture requirements in the Fiordland Marine Area;
• Institute a separate holding pot definition for the Fiordland Marine Area and impose a holding pot limit of one pot per person or two pots per vessel;
• Amend the Fisheries (Central Area Commercial Fishing) Regulations 1986 and the Fisheries (Central Area Amateur Fishing) Regulations 1986 to correct a number of errors in area descriptions and coordinates;
• Make regulations to apply to recreational fishing in the Akaroa Harbour Taiāpure to ensure the long term sustainability of fisheries resources in the Taiapure. The regulations include reduced bag limits for certain species. These will be three each for blue cod, blue moki, butterfish, red cod, sea perch, trumpeter, and rock lobster; and 20 each for cockles and cat’s eyes. There will also be a new combined daily bag limit of 10 for all finfish. In addition, I have introduced a prohibition on taking sea horse from anywhere within the Taiapure and on taking shellfish from the Onawe Peninsula;
• Correct an error in the boundary description for the Akaroa Taiāpure so that the boundary aligns with the Pōhatu Marine Reserve and the boundary of the proposed Dan Rogers marine reserve.

The Ministry’s Final Advice Paper to the Minister is also available for download. The paper was split into three volumes –

• Volume 1 contains Final Advice Papers and Recommendations
• Volume 2 contains Initial Position Papers, Summary of Submissions and Submissions
• Volume 3 contains Stakeholder submissions.

Please note - Some of these files are very large and may take time to download.

Volume 1 - Final Advice Papers and Summaries of Recommendations

 Volume 1 (PDF 2.17MB)

 Introduction (PDF 58KB)

 PAU4 Management by Meatweight (PDF 136KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 110KB)

 Seabird mitigation (PDF 150KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 124KB)

 Amateur rock lobster (PDF 221KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 113KB)

 Paua accumulation (PDF 207KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 103KB)

 Min legal size flatfish (PDF 108KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 86KB)

 Min mesh size (PDF 136KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 102KB)

 Taranaki paua (PDF 538KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 97KB)

 Season for CRA7 (PDF 286KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 94KB)

 Pukerua Bay (PDF 394KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 89KB)

 Offences and penalties (PDF 143KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 93KB)

 Correction of coordinates (PDF 110KB)

 Electronic provision of catch effort returns (PDF 299KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 91KB)

 Akaroa Harbour (PDF 626KB)
 Updated Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF 122KB)

 Summary of recommendations (PDF 156KB)

Volume 2 - Initial Position Papers, Summaries of Submissions and Submissions

 Volume 2 (PDF 4.08MB)
 PAU4 Management by meatweight (PDF 271KB)
 Seabird mitigation (PDF 222KB)
 Amateur rock lobster (PDF 874KB)
 Paua Accumulation (PDF 247KB)
 Min legal size flatfish (PDF 149KB)
 Min mesh size (PDF 176KB)
 Taranaki Paua (PDF 548KB)
 Season for CRA7 (PDF 286KB)
 Pukerua Bay (PDF 437KB)
 Offences and penalties (PDF 181KB)
 Correction of coordinates (PDF 488KB)
 Electronic provision of catch effort returns (PDF 338KB)
 Akaroa Harbour (PDF 626KB)

Volume 3 - Stakeholder Submissions

 Volume 3 (PDF 6.06MB)

IPP - Review of Regulatory and other Management Controls for 1 October 2009

This Initial Position Paper (IPP) provides you with the Ministry of Fisheries’ (MFish) initial position on management controls that MFish is reviewing for 1 October 2009.

The contents of the IPP are as follows:

 Download Complete IPP Document (PDF 1.57MB)
 Download Stakeholder Letter (PDF 236KB)