Fisheries New Zealand today announced the results of the second phase of public engagement in the development of the National Blue Cod Strategy.
In April 2018, Fisheries New Zealand started the second phase of a nation-wide engagement programme.
Inshore fisheries manager Steve Halley says it was good to see so many people giving us feedback in phase 2 of the engagement.
"For the second round of engagement, we wanted to show people a summary of overall comments from the first round of engagement, and get people's thoughts on options our expert working group had come up with to address the concerns raised," says Mr Halley.
"We had 1,182 responses to the second online survey from all over New Zealand, and around 150 people also came along to the 9 drop in sessions we held throughout the South Island.
"The majority of respondents were very supportive of the proposed approaches, as well as the objectives of the strategy. In particular, we had strong support for the proposed introduction of a traffic light system to show how fisheries are performing at a local level.
"The final strategy, based on all the conversations and information we have gathered, will be released in the coming months. Following the release of the strategy it is likely some immediate changes to the rules and limits for blue cod will be consulted on," Mr Halley says.
