Jones believes fisheries management should sit with Fisheries New Zealand (FNZ), rather than regional councils.<\/p>\n
\u201cFishing controls will be the exclusive preserve of the fishing department.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I can see that for some Bay of Islands communities that will be a significant change. However, it\u2019s firmly my view that the RMA is not the proper place to control the fishing resource. That is the fishing department.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Northland protections became one of the country\u2019s best-known examples of regional planning processes being used to impose fishing restrictions for biodiversity protection after a landmark Environment Court ruling was finalised in 2023. <\/p>\n
The protections created no-take areas at Mimiwhangata and Rakaumangamanga, and banned commercial bulk-harvesting methods including bottom trawling, bottom pair trawling, Danish seining and purse seining in surrounding waters off Cape Brett.<\/p>\n
NRC says it has not yet adopted a formal position on the latest Fisheries proposal because the amendment was introduced late in the legislative process. However, NRC has consistently supported regional decision-making on biodiversity, ecosystem health and coastal planning, and invested heavily in marine protection initiatives including the Mimiwhangata and Rakaumangamanga provisions.<\/p>\n
Wylie said the RMA and Fisheries Act performed different functions and were complementary tools, with councils managing environmental effects in the coastal marine area and FNZ managing fisheries resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amendment papers appear to remove one of the principal mechanisms currently available to manage adverse effects of fishing on significant indigenous biodiversity and wider ecosystem health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Council chairman Pita Tipene said NRC supported the Mimiwhangata and Rakaumangamanga protections because evidence showed overfishing had seriously damaged marine ecology.<\/p>\n
He said local buy-in was crucial and the proposed reform would put locally supported, community-driven protections at risk.<\/p>\n
Wylie said monitoring of the protected areas showed encouraging early signs, including increases in snapper abundance and biomass at Mimiwhangata and Rakaumangamanga, although it was too early to draw firm conclusions about long-term ecological outcomes.<\/p>\n
Jones was asked whether groups raising the same concerns in future could still establish no-take areas. He said communities would still be able to seek protections through fisheries management processes administered by central government, pointing to a recently approved r\u0101hui affecting intertidal rock pools in the Ng\u0101ti Manuhiri rohe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deeper question is what sort of administrative system do you want? Do you want local government controlling fishing in a kind of haphazard manner, or do you want the fishing specialists within the state being responsible for implementing fishing controls?\u201d <\/p>\n
Commercial fish harvesting methods such as bottom trawling and purse seining are banned by regional planning rules around Rakaumangamanga (Cape Brett). Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
He cited the proposed m\u0101taitai reserve in the Whang\u0101rei Harbour as an example of local fisheries staff working alongside hap\u016b and communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust because the HQ of the fishing entity is in Wellington, it doesn\u2019t mean the local fishing officers are incapable of working with local communities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In announcing the reforms, Jones said the changes would remove uncertainty created by overlapping legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fish stocks cross council boundaries so it makes sense to have a nationwide approach for managing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones said the changes would simplify regulation for recreational, customary and commercial fishers while reducing compliance costs for councils. The reforms would also support aquaculture growth by streamlining approvals for open-ocean aquaculture developments, he said. <\/p>\n
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 journalism experience, much of it court reporting in Gisborne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spokesperson for Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said Northland protections would not be \u201cgrandfathered\u201d by default.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[22509,7558,273,1872,127948,3087,3273,266,59965,5812,19635,8599,111,139,24926,236371,69,13577,75525,15381,8263,5914,8279,6122,147,18932,16641],"class_list":["post-591625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-areas","tag-councils","tag-environment","tag-face","tag-fishery","tag-fishing","tag-future","tag-government","tag-landmark","tag-make","tag-marine","tag-moves","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northlands","tag-notake","tag-nz","tag-powers","tag-protected","tag-protection","tag-reforms","tag-regional","tag-resources","tag-rules","tag-science","tag-strip","tag-uncertain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591625","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=591625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}