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Amendments to regulations to support digital monitoring and innovative trawl technologies

UPDATE

14 December 2018 ­– Amended regulations gazetted

The amended regulations were gazetted on 13 December 2018. They will take effect 10 January 2019. These amended regulations relate to electronic catch and position reporting and enable innovative trawl technologies. This includes the rollout of electronic catch and position reporting for fishers not already reporting electronically.

Details for reporting requirements are set out in circulars, so these are also being amended. Fisheries New Zealand will meet with fishers around the country to help them meet the new electronic catch and position reporting requirements.

Check the digital monitoring page for further updates

Have your say

Fisheries New Zealand sought your feedback on proposed amendments to regulations to support digital monitoring and innovative trawl technologies in the commercial fishing sector. 

The consultation ran until 8 June 2018.

The feedback received helped shape the final proposed regulation amendments. 

What was proposed?

Since the regulations came into effect on 1 October 2017, a number of practical issues have been identified by the industry, stakeholders, and Fisheries New Zealand. 

Issues included the need to:

  • protect sensitive information about precise fishing locations
  • enable Fisheries New Zealand to respond to different operational circumstances, such as equipment failure at sea
  • amend the timing of some reporting obligations to avoid, for example, any clash with operating fishing gear
  • add and amend some offences and penalties
  • enable Fisheries New Zealand to amend the terms and conditions of approved innovative trawl nets.

These issues are addressed through the proposed amendments. The consultation also includes a proposal to phase in electronic catch and position reporting for all fishers not currently using them.

These technical amendments are intended to be practical and workable for the fishing industry. Details are in the discussion paper. 

Discussion paper

Download the discussion paper on the proposed amendments [PDF, 658 KB]

Related information

Making your submission

Fisheries New Zealand invited written submissions on the proposed technical amendments outlined in the discussion paper. 

Submissions closed at 3pm on 8 June 2018.

Submissions are public information

Any submission you make becomes public information. Anyone can ask for copies of all submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the information available unless we have a good reason for withholding it. You can find those grounds in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA. Tell us if you think there are grounds to withhold specific information in your submission. Reasons might include, it's commercially sensitive or it's personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold information can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may require the information be released.

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