Adding value to fisheries and aquaculture sectors
This area includes contributing to the Government's priorities for economic development, enabling stakeholders to take responsible initiatives to add value, reform to improve integration with natural resource sector legislation, improve incentives to invest in cooperative approaches to manage fisheries, and reform to reduce costs and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the fisheries management and aquaculture regimes.
Current projects:
Aquaculture Development
Aquaculture is an important primary industry, with sales of $380 million in 2008. Growing global demand for sustainable seafood presents a significant opportunity for aquaculture to contribute to New Zealand's exports and economic growth. This growth would also benefit regional economies and Maori.
Aquaculture development is regulated mainly under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The Ministry has two statutory roles:
The Government has recognised aquaculture's potential to contribute to New Zealand's economy and is committed to support the industry to achieve its target of $1 billion in annual sales by 2025. The Policy group is working on short-term and long-term reforms to the aquaculture management regime.
Aquaculture Amendment Bill No. 2
The Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill (No 2) is being considered by the Primary Production Select Committee. This Bill addresses certain technical impediments to aquaculture under the current legislative regime and provides for development of short-term, small-scale experimental aquaculture outside aquaculture management areas. The Bill is expected to be passed later this year. Please click here (Link to Parliament Website (Aquaculture Legislation)) for more information on the Select Committee process and a copy of the Bill.
Aquaculture Reform
In the longer term, the Policy group is working with the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) on wide ranging reforms of the aquaculture regime. Reforms to the aquaculture regime are part of the Government's wider programme of resource management reform. The aquaculture reform programme is being led by Hon Phil Heatley (Minister of Fisheries), Hon Dr Nick Smith (Minister for the Environment) and Hon Gerry Brownlee (Minister for Economic Development).
In August 2008, the Aquaculture Forum commissioned an independent report by LECG to review the regulatory regime for aquaculture in New Zealand. In July 2009, the Government appointed an Aquaculture Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to provide expert input into the aquaculture reform process. Further details on the TAG are available here (Link to Beehive Website).
The Aquaculture TAG will report back by the end of September. Ministers intend to take recommendations on aquaculture reform to Cabinet by the end of November, and introduce a Bill to implement the reforms as soon as possible after that.
Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement
The Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004 creates an obligation to provide iwi with the equivalent of 20% of all aquaculture space created between 1992 and 2004 ("pre-commencement space"), and 20% of all new aquaculture space created from 1 January 2005.
Limited prospects for generating settlement assets for iwi by 2014 to settle the pre-commencement space obligation (as required under the settlement legislation) has lead to a need for new solutions. A Deed of Settlement was signed between Ministers and iwi of the South Island and Coromandel on 6 May 2009 to settle the pre-commencement space obligation in those regions for $97 million. The Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement (Regional Agreements) Amendment Bill gives effect to the Deed of Settlement and provides for further regional agreements to settle the Crown's pre-commencement space obligation in other regions.
Work on the wider reform of the aquaculture regime will ensure that the integrity of the commercial aquaculture settlement is upheld.
Improving the Management of Recreational Fishing
Charter Vessel Registration and Reporting
In July 2009, the Minister made a decision to introduce regulations requiring charter operators to register their vessels and report their fishing activity on a monthly basis. For some species in some areas, catch reporting will also be required. This decision is still subject to approval by Cabinet, whose decision is expected later in 2009.
Obtaining this information will support the setting of sustainable Total Allowable Catches, help inform allocation decisions and will assist with spatial planning processes across government. In combination, the information will enable the Minister to take better account of amateur sector interests in management decisions.
Charter operators will be required to report activity and catch information to the nearest minute of latitude and longitude. This means that the information reported will be at a coarse enough level that individuals' fishing spots cannot be identified, but fine enough that managers will be able to use the information to inform advice on spatial management measures.
Information will be held by a service provider under contract to the Ministry. This information will be subject to standard Ministry guidelines and protocols to protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.
The Minister has already met with key charter vessel operators to discuss implementation options. Implementation will involve officials working with this group of operators before regulations are drafted, to ensure the reporting scheme is as streamlined as possible. This work will include:
- developing an appropriate definition of a charter operator and a charter fishing trip; and
- designing a reporting form that contains the necessary information but is as practical and intuitive as possible.
The registration and reporting scheme will be phased in over the next two to three years. Over this period the Ministry will work with charter operators and other stakeholders on the new requirements.
Primary Growth Partnership
The Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) is a government-industry partnership that will invest in significant programmes of research and innovation to boost the economic growth and sustainability of New Zealand's primary and food sectors, including seafood (encompassing aquaculture).
The PGP will be operational by mid-September 2009. Guidelines for investment are available on the MAF website or by contacting the PGP secretariat (contact details are available on the MAF website). PGP is a partnership with matched investment from government and industry. Programmes will be investor led and potential co-investors with similar interests will be responsible for developing proposals and programmes for consideration by the Investment Advisory Panel (IAP). Investments will focus on initiatives that deliver significant economic growth and sustainability across the primary sectors from producer to consumer. Investments can cover the whole of the value chain, including education, research and development, product development, commercialisation, market development and technology transfer.
The independent IAP, appointed by the Minister of Agriculture, will call for and assess proposals for investment programmes. There will be multiple funding rounds in each financial year. Successful proposals will be developed into full business plans by a Programme Steering Group of co-investors (industry and government) for further consideration by the IAP. The IAP will assess business plans and make recommendations to the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), who will approve programmes for Government investment.
Further detail on the initiative can be found on the MAF website >> here
Cost Recovery Review
In late 2006, the previous government agreed to a review of aspects of the fisheries cost recovery regime.
A joint working group, made up of officials from the Ministry, the Department of Conservation and representatives of the fishing industry, was established to advise the government on improvements that could be made. The working group was unable to reach a consensus on a new framework and rules. The group submitted its report to the Minister in December 2007, a report that contained different approaches to cost recovery and split recommendations.
In response to that report, Cabinet agreed in September 2008 that a new model is needed as the basis for new cost recovery rules. The model should be based on the objective of equity, while seeking efficiency gains where appropriate and keeping within fiscal parameters set by the government.
The new government has established a number of reviews in collaboration with industry, including a joint review of the delivery of observer and research services. Work currently underway on Fisheries 2030 may also have an important impact, by informing the objectives of cost recovery and clarifying the roles of government and industry in delivery of services. As a result, further work on cost recovery will be postponed until Fisheries 2030 is further advanced, the joint review of observer and research services completed, and progress is made on the other collaborative initiatives.
Sustainable Economic Development
Environmental Certification Fund
Sustainability is becoming more important as a market driver in some of New Zealand's food export markets, as global concerns grow about the environmental impacts of food production and the potential effects of climate change.
In response, the Ministry has established a contestable fund to assist the seafood industry with the costs of seeking environmental certification or assessment of their fisheries or aquaculture activities to enable to seafood industry to respond to this growing pressure for environmental sustainability. More information on the Environmental Certification Fund.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Consumption
The Ministry, the Ministry of Economic Development and the seafood industry have been working together to develop a standard methodology for measuring greenhouse gas emissions for individual businesses in the seafood sector. This will help these businesses to understand and manage their greenhouse gas footprint and the related opportunities for reductions on a sustainable and cost effective basis. The project incorporates lessons from other sector specific sustainability projects, international best practice (eg PAS2050) and has involved industry to ensure that specific industry needs and priorities are met and the methodology is practical to apply. A methodology has recently been finalised and the Ministry is working with industry to identify opportunities to promote its uptake.
Emissions Trading
In early 2009 the Ministry of Fisheries (the Ministry) contracted the research provider Roxburgh Plume Ltd to determine the fuel consumption of the New Zealand fishing fleet in 2005. The project also provided information on the types of fuel that were consumed by the fishing fleet, the indicative proportion of fuel consumed by New Zealand registered vessels within New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and the proportions of fuel consumed across the fisheries sub-sectors (such as trawling, netting etc).
This information is required to better understand the greenhouse gas emissions by the fishing industry, and will inform policy development in relation to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.
The key outcome of the project was the calculation that in 2005 the New Zealand fishing fleet consumed approximately 216 million litres of fuel.
This figure was determined by a methodology that used the following two converging methods:
-
Direct method. A letter was sent to every vessel operator in the fishing industry seeking quantitative data on 2005 fuel consumption. The replies that were received represented nearly two thirds of the industry’s installed capacity when expressed in terms of kilowatt-hours. Based on calculated estimates of total consumption, nearly 70% of the total consumption for 2005 is known from actual figures derived from this survey.
-
Indirect method. The Ministry holds information on the engine size (the kilowatt output) and the time spent at sea for each vessel in the fishing fleet. This information was compared with the actual fuel consumption of vessels, where that information was known from the direct survey. This comparison allowed a correlation to be drawn between kilowatt-hours and actual litres consumed, from which a conversion factor was drawn to allow the calculation of fuel use where only kilowatt hours are known.
These two approaches were drawn together by using the conversion factor to estimate consumption from kilowatt-hours, based on information held by the Ministry, where direct survey information was not available.
The project was very well supported by the New Zealand fishing industry, which ensured that a robust result was achieved. The Ministry would like to thank the fishing industry for its input and support for this project.
Freshwater Fish Farming Regulations
This project is on hold, pending decisions on aquaculture reform.