Regulatory Measures and other management controls - October 2007

The Minister  of Fisheries has made decisions on some proposals resulting in changes to regulation. These take effect on 1 October 2007.

  Download the Minister's decision letter (PDF 300KB)

The main regulatory changes that will take place on 1 October are: 

• Two new catch effort returns will be introduced that commercial fishers will be required to complete instead of the current Catch, Effort and Landing Return. 
• Licensed Fish Receivers (LFRs) will be able to apply to the Ministry of Fisheries Chief Executive for a temporary waiver (up to two years) from the requirement to submit an annual audit report 
• Aspects relating to the registration of ALCs (Automatic Location Communicators) have been devolved to the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council Ltd (SeaFIC). The functions will be carried out by FishServe on contract to SeaFIC. 
• Prawn killer will be introduced into the QMS from 1 October 2007. Decisions were made regarding catch levels for all stocks as well as net mesh sizes. The same provisions applying to the small mesh nets currently used by scampi fishers will be apply to fishers wanting to target prawn killer from 1 October. 
• Recreational fishers in the non-commercial parts of the Foveaux Strait dredge oyster fishery will be not be permitted to use dredges with bit bar length of more than 1 metre. 
• The Cost Recovery Rules have been amended such that the cost-recovered proportion of deepwater benthic research will not exceed 1/3rd of the annual total cost of that research.

Initial Position Paper, Final Advice Paper and Summary of Submissions:

The Ministry's Initial Position Paper and Final Advice Paper to the Minister, and a summary of the submissions received are available for download:

  Initial Position Paper (PDF 858kb)
  Final Advice Paper (PDF 784KB)
  Summary of Submissions (PDF 1.2MB)

Regulatory Impact Statements:

MFish has prepared Regulatory Impact Statements (RIS) for some of the proposals in the October 2007 regulatory round, as required by the cabinet regulatory impact analysis requirements.

These requirements are designed to improve the quality of regulation making and to ensure that regulatory proposals are cost-effective and justified.

  Prawn Killer - Introduction to QMS (PDF 25KB)
  Surf Clam Dredge Size (PDF 35KB)
  Inshore Lining Catch Effort Return (PDF 40KB)
  Inshore Trawl Catch Effort Return (PDF 42KB)
  Requirement to stay with set nets - East Otago (PDF 123KB)