Managing customary fisheries

Management of mātaitai reserves

MPI's fishery officers enforce mātaitai reserves, and fishery officers and honorary fishery officers enforce any bylaws that restrict or prohibit recreational fishing.

Impact of mātaitai reserves on recreational and customary fishing

Recreational and customary fishing continue unchanged in a mātaitai reserve, unless bylaws are made.

Upon establishment of a mātaitai reserve:

• recreational fishing continues unchanged, under the amateur fishing rules
• recreational fishers don't need to get any additional fishing authorisation or permit to keep fishing
• the whitebait fishing rules don't change
• nothing changes with respect to any freshwater sport fishery (for example, trout, salmon, perch)
• customary fishing still needs to be authorised by a customary fishing authorisation, issued by tangata kaitiaki/tiaki.

Mātaitai reserve bylaws

Tangata kaitiaki/tiaki may ask the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to make bylaws to manage recreational and customary fishing in their mātaitai reserve. Bylaws can only be made for the sustainable utilisation of the fisheries resources in that mātaitai reserve.

MPI consults with the public and affected parties on all requests for bylaws. The minister needs to approve the proposed bylaw before it can be put into law.

Bylaws:

• can restrict or prohibit fishing in all or any part of a mātaitai reserve
• can apply to a particular species, area, or time of the year
• can change a daily bag limit, size limit, allowable fishing methods, or require fishers to report catches to tangata kaitiaki/tiaki
• apply equally to everyone, including customary fishers
• cannot be used to exclude non-Māori from fishing.

Despite any bylaws, tangata kaitiaki/tiaki can still authorise fishing to sustain the functions of their marae.

Impact of mātaitai reserves on commercial fishing

All commercial fishing activities are prohibited within a mātaitai reserve, including activities in support of or in preparation of fishing, for example, landing catch and using holding pots. Mātaitai reserves don’t change any rules about transiting through the area or mooring within it.

Tangata kaitiaki/tiaki for a mātaitai reserve may request limited commercial fishing be reinstated (limited by species, quantity, or time period). All reinstatement requests are consulted on with the public and interested parties. The decision to reinstate lies with the minister and Cabinet.

If commercial fishing is reinstated, it must be conducted under the provisions of the Fisheries Act 1996 and relevant commercial fishing regulations. Tangata whenua may not manage commercial fishing.

Impact of mātaitai reserves on aquaculture

Aquaculture (also called marine farming or fish farming) does not fall within the definition of commercial fishing in section 2 of the Fisheries Act 1996. Therefore, aquaculture activities are not prohibited within a mātaitai reserve.

Aquaculture activities, including by tangata whenua, within a mātaitai reserve must still meet relevant requirements in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).

Impact of mātaitai reserves on non-fishing activities

Mātaitai reserves are a fisheries management tool – they only apply to waterbodies and only affect the use and management of fisheries resources.

Mātaitai reserves do not affect the non-fishing activities of local communities, including private landowners, authorities, or businesses.

Mātaitai reserves and any associated bylaws:

• do not allow tangata kaitiaki/tiaki to control private landowners' land use.
• do not affect land titles or land tenure or change existing limitations on access to private land
• do not impinge on a landowner's ability to exercise resource consents granted under the RMA for activities such as taking water or extracting gravel from streambeds
• do not prevent access to any reserve, beach, or river.

Mātaitai reserves do not change arrangements for access to private land. If anyone, including tangata kaitiaki/tiaki, wish to cross private land to access a mātaitai reserve, they must obtain the landowner's permission to do so.

The relationship between mātaitai reserves and the Resource Management Act

Regional councils must exercise their functions in a way that recognises and provides for certain matters of national importance set out in section 6 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). One of these matters is: “the relationship of Māori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, waahi tapu, and other taonga”.

The existence of a mātaitai reserve is one piece of evidence that regional councils can use to establish which waterbodies are of cultural importance to Māori.

The RMA also contains some specific requirements about mātaitai reserves: 

• Sections 61 and 64 require regional councils to have regard to mātaitai reserves when preparing or changing their regional policy statements or regional plans (respectively).
• Section 74 requires territorial authorities to have regard to mātaitai reserves when preparing or changing a district plan.

For example, chapters 6 to 9 of Environment Canterbury’s Regional Coastal Environment Plan (being updated in 2021) specifically protect values of the coastal environment that are important to tangata whenua.

• Chapter 6 addresses the adverse effects of human activity on areas of significance to tāngata whenua.
• Chapter 7 deals with water quality in the coastal marine area including the effect of discharges of contaminants on the cultural relationship that tāngata whenua have with water.
• Chapter 8 controls activities generally in the coastal marine area and has an objective that includes a requirement to avoid, remedy or mitigate the adverse effects of those activities on tāngata whenua values.

Regional Coastal Environment Plan for the Canterbury Region

The Northland Regional Council has an objective (objective 11.3) to manage natural and physical resources in their coastal marine area:

• in a manner that recognises and respects the traditional and cultural relationships of tangata whenua with the coast, and
• specifically to directly involve tangata whenua in resource management decision-making where a mātaitai reserve has been established in the area.

Regional or district plans cannot be used to manage the utilisation of fisheries resources to ensure their sustainability, which is the responsibility of Fisheries New Zealand under the Fisheries Act 1996.