{"id":625925,"date":"2026-10-10T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625925\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T00:58:10","slug":"national-winks-to-opportunity-promising-to-review-bottom-trawling-and-create-new-waiheke-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625925\/","title":{"rendered":"National winks to Opportunity promising to review bottom trawling and create new Waiheke reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe New Zealand seafood industry\u2019s economic output is around $6.4 billion, our recreational fishers generate around $1.7 billion of economic activity each year, and the annual worth of the boating and marine industry is around $3 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll fishers, commercial and recreational, depend on the health of our waters, so that is an important part of our plan,\u201d McClay said.<\/p>\n

In government, National and NZ First have butted heads over the conflicting priorities of recreational fishers, who have found support within National, and commercial fishers, whose interests have long been supported by NZ First. <\/p>\n

National promised to amend legislation the Government passed this term to strengthen protections for recreational fishers. The party\u2019s policy promised to \u201cban commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf\u2019s High Protection Areas by removing the exemptions for ringnet fishers\u201d. These exemptions were included in the legislation that created the reserve last year. <\/p>\n

Potaka said the policy supported \u201ccustodianship\u201d of the ocean. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the health of our ocean matters to every New Zealander. It is part of who we are, provides us food, recreation, wellbeing and a place for families and communities to connect,\u201d Potaka said.<\/p>\n

McClay said commercial fisheries supported \u201cthousands of jobs\u201d in coastal communities and earned $2b in export revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some people catch their own fish, most New Zealanders enjoy seafood from their local supermarket or fish and chip shop. Ensuring the long-term sustainability of our fisheries is critical for both coastal communities and consumers,\u201d McClay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn National\u2019s first term of government, we passed the Hauraki Gulf\/T\u012bkapa Moana Marine Protection Act 2025, the most significant expansion of marine protection in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also delivered five new marine reserves as part of the Southeast Marine Protection Network, Te Au Roao Te Rakihouia protecting 308 square kilometres of unique marine habitat and sea life,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

National\u2019s policy summary: <\/p>\n

Establish a new marine reserve off Waiheke Island and further expand the size of Goat Island\/Te H\u0101were-a-Maki Marine Reserve.Support recreational fishers \u2013 ensuring fishers have a say in fishing reforms, ruling out a recreational fishing licence and preventing the commercial sale of marlin.Ban commercial fishing in Hauraki Gulf\u2019s high protection areas and review designated trawl corridors.A $20 million Fish Tech Innovation FundKeep the ban on shellfish and marine species from rockpoolsIncrease the number of honorary fisheries officers to 200.Increase penalties and infringements for exceeding catch limits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe New Zealand seafood industry\u2019s economic output is around $6.4 billion, our recreational fishers generate around $1.7 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[95,23485,5232,15559,273,40142,27507,11598,17215,2514,19635,3556,117,111,139,69,6452,4762,15483,10665,762,147,61,19636,70252,307422],"class_list":["post-625925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-and","tag-bottom","tag-create","tag-elected","tag-environment","tag-establish","tag-existing","tag-expand","tag-goat","tag-island","tag-marine","tag-national","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opportunity","tag-party","tag-promising","tag-reserve","tag-review","tag-science","tag-to","tag-trawling","tag-waiheke","tag-winks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625925","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=625925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}