Pāua 2 Fisheries Plan

DECISION: APPROVED

Introduction

In December 2022 the Pāua 2 Industry Association wrote to David Parker, the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, seeking his approval for their draft Fisheries Plan. The draft Plan sets out how they want to manage the pāua fishery on the lower east coast of the North Island.

While we support the objective to manage the fishery so it is abundant, we do not support their proposal to constrain recreational harvest to a fixed proportion of the fishery.

As we submitted in March 2023, the Minister must first make a decision on setting the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and set aside allowances for Māori customary and recreational fishing before setting the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) in the Pāua 2 fishery.

On 6 August 2024 the next Minister, Shane Jones, advised he had approved the draft Fisheries Plan under section 11A of the Fisheries Act.

Proposal

The draft industry plan acknowledges that the pāua fishery on the Wairarapa coast is highly valued by commercial, Māori customary and recreational fishing interests. The Pāua 2 management area is large however, the plan only relates to harvest taken mainly on the Wairarapa coastline.

Objectives of the plan include managing the stock so it is abundant, protecting important pāua habitat and enhancing industry performance.

If approved, an annual review will be undertaken and reported to the Minister.

Submission

The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council worked with LegaSea to submit a short response to the draft plan reiterating important points raised in the March submission to the Minister.

Recreational fishers support the proposal to manage Pāua 2 above the default stock size management target of B40, noting that the internationally accepted minimum target stock size for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) is now B50. We support this more conservative approach given the increasing threats associated with poor land management, warming waters and the effects of climate change.

We rejected any form of proportional allocation of the TAC and the proposal for ‘authorised management’ on the basis that the pāua fishery belongs to the people of New Zealand and the Minister has a statutory responsibility to manage fish in the national interest.

Previous processes

Pāua 2 review of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) March 2023

Relevant information

2024

Minister’s decision

Approved Fisheries Plan

Official Information Act documents

2023

Submission

2022

Proposal