Marine Biodiversity
If New Zealand had no restrictions or control over the fishing industry, then fish might start appearing as a rare species on cute-endangered-animal posters. By government control of fisheries, we can help to ensure the future biodiversity of our waters. Biodiversity means having a large range of organisms living in an area. This is important for keeping a large range of fish and wild organisms in New Zealand seas. By controlling commercial and recreational fishing, the government can help to maintain biodiversity. For this reason in June 2000, the government allowed $14.1 million to go towards research for increasing our insight into marine ecosystems.A range of laws are set down by the Ministry of Fisheries help to regulate fishing. The key to this is the 1986 Quota Management System, introduced for the management and conservation of commercial fisheries. There are rules such as closed areas and seasons f
There are slightly different rules applied for tangata whenua fishing for recreational catch, the Kaimoana Customary Fishing Regulations 1998. But reserves protect the place where they spawn and grow up. The sea is very culturally important to Maori people. or different species fishing, fish size limits, mesh size limits for trawler nets, trawling area restrictions and total volumes allowed to be caught. Approximately 650,000 tonnes of fish are sustainably harvested by the seafood industry in New Zealand per annum, at a value of around $1. Keeping within our maximum sustainable yield will help to maintain biodiversity and to prevent the collapse of the fishing industry due to over-fishing. These volume regulations are the Total Allowable Catch (TAC), which limits numbers of fish that can be caught by fishers and the Total Allowable Commercial Catch specifically for commercial volumes. The Treaty of Waitangi obligations to Maori fishing must also be met in the law. The rules for recreational fishers include things such as size restriction: in the North Island snapper shorter than 27cm long must be thrown back; bag (volume) limits, net size limits, controlled areas and not selling or trading catch. Infringement fees are the penalty for anyone caught abusing these laws; a charge of $250 will be issued for taking undersized fish. These different sets of regulations apply so that all fishers combined do not exceed the maximum sustainable yield, a figure that indicates the volume of fish that can be caught per annum while sustaining abundance of the specific fish population. Gear restrictions also apply for things like the size of net mesh and lobster pots.
Common topics in this essay:
Treaty Maori,
FUTURE Zealand,
North Island,
Challenger Plateau,
Commercial Catch,
Management System,
Ministry Fisheries,
Treaty Waitangi,
Catch TAC,
size limits,
Fishing Regulations,
maximum sustainable yield,
sustainable yield,
recreational fishing,
maintain biodiversity,
maximum sustainable,
fish caught,
commercial fisheries,
help maintain,
fisheries help,
total allowable,
help maintain biodiversity,
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