Consultation on plan to transform and improve inshore finfish fisheries management

Fisheries New Zealand has begun public consultation on a new Draft National Inshore Finfish Fisheries Plan, which will guide the management of these important fisheries for the next 5 years.

Director of fisheries management, Stuart Anderson says New Zealand’s inshore finfish resources are important to all of us. "They provide customary, recreational, and economic benefits and managing these precious resources is important work. We want our inshore fisheries to remain healthy and sustainable, now and into the future."

“The Draft Plan aims to transform and improve how inshore finfish fisheries are managed, driving innovation, and advancing ecosystem-based fisheries management."

“Fisheries management is changing – it needs to provide greater participation and transparency in management and decision making, be more responsive and improve our environmental performance. Increased participation for tangata whenua and stakeholders at national, regional, and local levels is a central theme throughout the plan.”

The plan focuses on 5 key areas.

1. Managing individual stocks – standardising approaches to monitoring and managing fish stocks that share similar characteristics.
2. Enhancing benefits for all users – engaging sectors to customise the management of specific fish stocks to enhance the benefits they obtain.
3. Enabling integrated multi-stock management – in fisheries where several different fish stocks are caught together, we will manage those stocks in an integrated way.
4. Improved local fisheries – ensure tangata whenua and communities benefit from their local fisheries resources by engaging them in local area management.
5. Improving environmental performance – reducing the impacts of fishing and land-based effects to improve the health of the marine environment.

“We all have a stake in the way our fisheries are managed and I encourage tangata whenua, stakeholders, and members of the public to engage in the consultation process and put forward their views on the Draft Plan,” says Stuart Anderson.

Find out more about the consultation and how to have your say