{"id":399232,"date":"2026-04-27T02:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399232\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T02:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:20:11","slug":"aotea-great-barrier-island-iwi-meet-with-government-amid-overfishing-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399232\/","title":{"rendered":"Aotea\/Great Barrier Island iwi meet with government amid overfishing concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPIZK0_Great_Barrier_Govt_2_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary Jenny Marcroft  has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nOceans and Fisheries under-secretary Jenny Marcroft  has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.<br \/>\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n<p>The Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.<\/p>\n<p>It is feared that overfishing has decimated the k\u014dura population, and Ng\u0101ti Rehua &#8211; Ng\u0101tiwai ki Aotea Trust Board and the Aotea\/Great Barrier Local Board are wanting the government to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/environment\/592616\/great-barrier-island-residents-fear-overfishing-has-decimated-the-koura-population\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">back a plan to manage the population<\/a> before it is too late.<\/p>\n<p>RNZ reported that the team behind the Tai T\u016b Moana conservation project expected to meet with Jenny Marcroft soon.<\/p>\n<p>Marcroft confirmed to RNZ that she travelled to Aotea\/Great Barrier Island earlier in April.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPIZK0_Great_Barrier_Govt_4_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1400\" alt=\"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nOceans and Fisheries under-secretary Jenny Marcroft on the way to visit Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.<br \/>\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a very productive meeting,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Tai T\u016b Moana Steering Group member Glenn Edney wanted the government to implement a set of local rules devised during a pilot project called Ahu Moana. That included lowering the daily bag limit of Spiny Red Rock Lobster and the Packhorse Rock Lobster to two, a ban on daily bag limit accumulation, introducing a maximum size limit, having a closed mating season, and several recreational only areas.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPIZK0_Great_Barrier_Govt_6_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nJenny Marcroft discussing concerns with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.<br \/>\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re seeing an increased pressure on the crayfish resource,&#8221; Marcroft said.<\/p>\n<p>Marcroft said officials would be looking at each of those, and where they aligned, &#8220;where it&#8217;s through a Section 186A closure, which is iwi-led, or whether it comes in under Section 11 of the Fisheries Act.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While she said she would be feeding into the advice given to the Oceans and Fisheries Minister, Marcroft said it would be up to Shane Jones to make any decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I met with them towards the end of last week &#8211; just to go over, making sure we&#8217;ve captured all the information from the discussions we had on the island, and then that work will continue to be done until those recommendations come forward for the Minister.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPIZK0_Great_Barrier_Govt_3_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nJenny Marcroft meeting with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.<br \/>\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n<p>Marcroft said it was a &#8220;specific request for the uniqueness of Aotea\/Great Barrier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are leading work. They all care about sustainability, including the commercial fishers that live on the island, as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I really liked about the meeting was the respect that was shown for each of the groups amongst themselves. It was really good.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t a, you know, we know that the recreational fishing space can get quite heated &#8211; people are very passionate about being able to fish &#8211; and what I saw was working collaboratively together, showing respect. It was very refreshing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPIZK0_Great_Barrier_Govt_1_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1400\" alt=\"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nAotea\/Great Barrier<br \/>\nPhoto: SUPPLIED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oceans and Fisheries under-secretary Jenny Marcroft has met with iwi and the local board on Aotea\/Great Barrier Island.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[48,47,273,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,147],"class_list":["post-399232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399232","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=399232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}