such accusations amounted to \u201cmisinformation\u201d<\/a> being spread on social media.<\/p>\n![\"Oceans]()
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
The Herald asked MPI whether the plan to remove size limits for the commercial sector was supported by science.<\/p>\n
A spokesman said information about nine species of fish for which the size limits are proposed to be scrapped showed they had low to moderate chances of survival when returned to the sea.<\/p>\n
Putting small fish back \u2013 for example snapper under 25cm \u2013 is a requirement under current commercial rules.<\/p>\n
The spokesman said the bill would mean landing small fish would count against a fisher\u2019s catch allowance, or they would pay a penalty fee known as deemed value.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposals in the bill … provide incentives for fishers to fish selectively,\u201d MPI\u2019s spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Industry: \u2018This creates a clear disincentive\u2019 <\/p>\n
A Seafood New Zealand spokeswoman backed MPI\u2019s argument, saying, \u201cThis creates a clear disincentive for fishers to catch undersized fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether there was a market for baby fish, the spokeswoman said there could be some \u201cniche overseas markets\u201d for smaller fish but they would be a low-value and therefore undesirable export.<\/p>\n
She said the industry had always supported a system that avoided unnecessary waste.<\/p>\n
![\"Undersized]()
Undersized snapper were among a line of dead fish spotted in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. Photo \/ Darren Shields<\/p>\n
Watson doesn\u2019t accept the argument the bill would promote selective fishing as the reforms don\u2019t dictate that all fish must be landed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system needs to say every single fish you catch comes to shore and is weighed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
LegaSea\u2019s chief executive, Sam Woolford, said the law changes would make it legal to land and sell baby fish while not addressing the core issue of wasteful fishing methods like bottom trawling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are doing is legalising current behaviour \u2013 this does not address the wastage issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Further complicating the debate is that the reforms give commercial operators a range of other benefits, including greater flexibility to discard unwanted catch.<\/p>\n
The current rules mean all QMS species must be landed but, under the new bill, MPI\u2019s spokesman said, this would change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bill would give commercial fishers more options about what to do with their catch by allowing them to return QMS species to the sea when monitored by on-board cameras or observers,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
The public will be blocked from seeing any footage from onboard cameras as part of the reforms.<\/p>\n
The changes would also give quota owners the right to carry forward an increased amount of uncaught catch into another fishing year, and the ability for fisheries decisions to be challenged in court would be reduced.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s just wrong\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Matt]()
Matt Watson says the reforms threaten a public resource for future generations. Photo \/ Annaleise Shortland<\/p>\n
Watson is adamant the bill is all about rewarding big businesses that rely on destructive fishing methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinisters have basically gone to the seafood industry and said \u2018What do you need?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecreational fishers still have a size limit because the size limit is based on science, that\u2019s common sense. These reforms are very much skewed towards the big corporate fishers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said if the proposed laws were enacted, parents would have to explain to children catching their first fish off the wharf that small ones were reserved for \u201cbottom trawlers only\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes that sound fair? Of course it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
MPI said the bill was now before Parliament but subject to change.<\/p>\n
Watson urged those concerned about it to ensure their views were known, noting that fish were a public resource and not owned by fishing companies. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to let your elected officials know that if they allow this to go through its first reading, that you won\u2019t vote for them. Ultimately, the politicians care about their survivability and their future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Morrah<\/a> is a senior investigative reporter\/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named Reporter of the Year at the New Zealand Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald\u2019s video team in July 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, the coalition Government established 12 HPAs in the Hauraki Gulf, which is one of the country\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15408,46520,16574,4500,3088,1389,10039,11728,3087,1333,8455,78,2176,180941,53946,29484,6722,111,43,139,69,15290,75529,3598,28875,9979,46028,312,7228,75528,223,61,14638],"class_list":["post-340779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-almost","tag-balance","tag-bill","tag-changes","tag-commercial","tag-conservation","tag-controversial","tag-critical","tag-fishing","tag-get","tag-getting","tag-in","tag-jones","tag-legalsize","tag-limits","tag-minimum","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operators","tag-potaka","tag-proposing","tag-remove","tag-right","tag-rule","tag-says","tag-shane","tag-tama","tag-the","tag-to","tag-wants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}