What will the Fisheries Amendment Bill do?
The Fisheries Amendment Bill is part of the wider fisheries reform programme. Its goal is to encourage better fishing practices. It aims to update and strengthen New Zealand’s fisheries management system.
The Bill proposes to change the current rules and policies by:
- tightening commercial fishing rules for landings and discards
- creating new rules and regulations for offences and penalties
- introducing new mechanisms for commercial and recreational management decision-making
- enabling the further use of on-board cameras on vessels
- creating a new defence to help save marine mammals and protected sharks and rays.
The Fisheries Amendment Bill – NZ Parliament
Tightening the rules for landings and discards
The Bill aims to clarify the current settings of what can (or must) be discarded and what can be landed. These new settings would only apply for commercial fishers.
The Bill will clarify the following rules for all commercial catch:
- Fish must be reported, whether they are Quota Management System (QMS) species or not.
- QMS stocks or species, live or dead, must be landed.
- QMS stocks or species must be accounted for, subject to landing obligations. This needs to be done within the fisheries management system (that is, through Annual Catch Entitlements (ACE) or deemed values).
Four-year transition period
The Bill needs to go through the full parliamentary process before the rules take effect. We expect this to happen by late 2022. The Bill proposes that changes would take place over 4 years, if passed. It does not mean an immediate ban on discards.
We'll review existing landings and discards exceptions throughout the 4-year period. We’ll assess if exceptions meet the new evidence-based criteria to remain in place, or if we'll remove them.
The 4 years also gives commercial fisheries time to adapt to the new requirements. They'll need to adjust the ways they operate by avoiding or creating value from unwanted fish.
Creating new rules for offences and penalties
The Bill proposes to introduce new systems for offences and penalties. There would also be:
- an infringement system for low-level offences
- a demerit point system for repeat offences.
The goal of these systems is to encourage compliant fishing behaviours.
The new offences and penalties will come in with the Bill. The new infringement and demerit point systems will come in a bit later. There will be consultation on these 2 new systems before they take effect.
The systems would punish fishers breaking rules in line with their offence. The more someone breaks the rules, the harsher their penalties will become over time.
Introducing more responsive decision-making
The Bill proposes 2 changes to support more responsive decision-making.
- Pre-set decision rules.
- Recreational fishing management controls.
Pre-set decision rules would allow the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to set and adjust sustainability measures and catch settings for fish stocks, within set limits, as needed.
Creating and putting in place pre-set decision rules will take time. Once in place, it’ll lessen the time it takes to adjust catch limits in response to changes in certain fish stocks.
Currently, changing recreational fishing controls like bag limits and minimum legal sizes can take up to 2 years. The Bill proposes to speed up the process. It will allow changes to be set by a Notice instead of through a regulation process. This will make setting recreational controls faster and more consistent with the setting of commercial controls.
Enabling the further use of on-board cameras
The Bill proposes to amend the Fisheries Act to enable the use of on-board cameras.
Find out more about on-board cameras
Creating a new defence to improve outcomes for marine mammals and protected sharks and rays
The Bill proposes a new defence that allows fishers to abandon or return fish to the sea to save a marine mammal or protected shark and ray species. Under this defence, fishers that release fish to safeguard a pod of dolphins, as happened in 2017, will no longer be liable for prosecution. It will also encourage the use of innovative fishing equipment which can safely release fish and protected species underwater.
Find out more
Fisheries Amendment Bill FAQs [PDF, 310 KB]
Who to contact
If you have questions about the Bill, email FisheriesChangeProgramme@mpi.govt.nz
