Have your say
Fisheries New Zealand is seeking your input into the draft Pāua Fisheries Plan for PAU7. It has been developed by the industry representative body PauaMAC7 on behalf of all PAU7 quota owners and harvesters, and with the involvement and support of local iwi and recreational fishing representatives.
The PAU7 area
PAU7 is the pāua fishery at the top of the South Island. It extends from the mouth of the Clarence River on the east coast northwards around the top of the South Island and down to Kahurangi Point on the west coast. The fishery is highly valued by customary, commercial and recreational fishers. Earlier this year, PauaMAC7 began developing a draft fisheries plan for PAU7 for consideration under section 11A of the Fisheries Act 1996. Under this section of the Act, the Minister of Fisheries may approve a fisheries plan including objectives, strategies, and performance criteria, to support the purpose and principles of the Act.
Consultation document
Draft Pāua Fisheries Plan for PAU7 [PDF, 678 KB]
What's being proposed?
Voluntary arrangements have been part of the pāua industry's management and decision-making in the PAU7 fishery for many years. The pāua industry seeks support for making these arrangements more formal by developing a fisheries plan for consideration under section 11A of the Fisheries Act 1996.
The plan aims to achieve more responsive and finer-scale management through:
- boosting the rate of stock rebuild using the mechanism of ACE shelving
- controlling commercial fishing activity at a sub-QMA level, including catch spreading and variable minimum harvest sizes
- enhancing local pāua populations using techniques such as out-planting and translocation.
Full details are in the consultation document.
Making your submission
Send us your feedback by 5pm on 20 August 2019. You can use our submission form template, or email or post us your submission.
- Submission form template [DOCX, 69 KB]
- Email: FMsubmissions@mpi.govt.nz
While we prefer email, you can post your submission to:
Inshore Fisheries Management
Fisheries New Zealand
PO BOX 2526
Wellington 6140.
What to include
Make sure you tell us in your submission:
- the title of the consultation document (if using email, put the title ‘draft Pāua Fisheries Plan for PAU 7’ in the subject line)
- your name and title
- your organisation's name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it)
- your contact details (such as phone number, address, and email).
Map of the PAU7 area

Submissions are public information
Note, that any submission you make becomes public information. People can ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we have to make submissions available unless we have good reasons for withholding them. That is explained 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 that 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 tell us to release it.
MPI may post all or parts of any written submission on its website. We'll consider that you have consented to its publication, unless clearly stated otherwise in your submission.