As with other countries, New Zealand’s 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone gives its

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

special fishing rights. It covers 4.1 million square kilometres. This is the sixth largest zone in the world, and is fourteen times the land area of New Zealand. The New Zealand zone has a rich and unusually complex underwater topography. Over 15,000 marine species are known to live there, about ten percent of the world's diversity. Many of these are migratory species, but New Zealand's isolation means also that many of the marine species are unique to New Zealand.''Fisheries and their ecosystems.''
NZ Ministry of Fisheries. Retrieved 13 June 2008.

Statistics

New Zealand's

wild fisheries A wild fishery is a natural body of water with a sizeable free-ranging fish or other aquatic animal (crustaceans and molluscs) population that can be harvested for its commercial value. Wild fisheries can be marine (saltwater) or lacustrine/ri ...

captured 441,000 tonnes and earned over NZ$1 billion in exports in the

fishing year A fishing year is a period of time used for management and statistical purposes in fisheries. A fishing year may or may not correspond to a calendar year depending on the fishery. Northeast Multispecies Fishery In the United States The ...

2006/07. The

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

s earned another $226 million. This made seafood the country’s fifth largest export earner.New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries: NZ Fisheries at a Glance
Retrieved 11 June 2008 There are about two tonnes of fish in the New Zealand fisheries for every New Zealander. Just under ten percent of this stock is harvested each year. In the fishing year 2006/07, there were 1,316

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

vessels Vessel(s) or The Vessel may refer to: Biology *Blood vessel, a part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body *Lymphatic vessel, a thin walled, valved structure that carries lymph *Vessel element, a narrow wat ...

and 229

processors A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

and licensed fish receivers, employing 7,155 people. About 1.2 million or 31 percent of New Zealanders engage, at least occasionally, in

recreational fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...

with an annual recreational take of about 25,000 tonnes.

Historical development

Traditionally New Zealand's fishing industry was an inshore one largely confined to the domestic market. From 1938 to 1963, there was a licensing system operating, involving gear and area controls. Starting in the 1960s, the offshore waters, outside the then 12 nautical mile territorial sea, were exploited by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese, South Korean, and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

trawlers.The New Zealand fishing industry
/ref> In 1977 the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone was established. These zones were established because countries wanted protection from foreign

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

s. Because New Zealand’s territory includes the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

and other outer islands, its EEZ is 4.1 million square kilometres, the sixth largest fishing zone in the world. This was a huge resource, and expectations were high. The inshore fisheries had become

over exploited Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term app ...

, and the search was on for new offshore fisheries. New Zealand companies embarked on joint ventures with foreign companies. Trawling crews from other nations taught New Zealanders how to fish deep waters and in return got a share of the catch.Carl Walrond
''Fishing industry.''
Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 21-Sep-2007 Long liner in Cook Strait, New Zealand 1988

Long liner in Cook Strait, New Zealand 1988

By 1980 the consequences of the "

Think Big In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

" policy for the fishing industry were becoming very apparent.

Mel Courtney Melvyn Francis Courtney (born 2 October 1943) is a Nelson City Councillor and a former Labour then Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand. Early life and family Courtney was born in Christchurch on 2 Oc ...

, MP for Nelson and convenor of the Opposition fisheries' sub-committee on production and marketing, in asserting "the policy is falling apart", expressed the view of many. "The industry expanded so rapidly it was overcapitalized with too many boats...the inshore fleet expanded and joint venture and duty-free boats exerted further pressure" (''Commercial Fishing'' June 1980 5). Deep-water trawling is highly mechanised and massive capital investment is normally required to operate modern factory trawlers. These ships

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

everything caught on board. Even the guts and heads are processed into

fishmeal Fish meal is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch and fish by-products to feed farm animals, e.g., pigs, poultry, and farmed fish.R. D. Miles and F. A. Chapman.FA122: The Benefits of Fish Meal in Aquaculture DietsFisherie ...

, which is so valuable it is known as "brown gold". Elsewhere, major fisheries, such the northern hemisphere cod fisheries, were collapsing. Fishing companies in New Zealand were able to buy or lease the redundant trawlers cheaply. At the same time, the collapse of northern fisheries resulted in an unmet need in the world market for quality whitefish. Hoki and

orange roughy The orange roughy (''Hoplostethus atlanticus''), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). The UK Marine Conservation Society has categoriz ...

from New Zealand were in demand. In 1986 New Zealand became the first country to introduce a property-rights based

Quota Management System The Quota Management System (QMS) is a type of individual fishing quota that is used in New Zealand to manage fish stocks. New Zealand fishing industry Seafood is one of New Zealand's largest export markets, with 85% of catches being exported. Over ...

(QMS) system. There are currently (2008) 129 species which are targeted commercially. There are about 60 species groups with a QMS allowance for customary

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

fishers, with a similar number for recreational fishers. The fisheries are managed through the

Fisheries Act 1996 The Fisheries Act 1996 is a New Zealand Act of Parliament. It is divided into five areas: recreational, customary, environmental, commercial and international fishing. It is currently administered by the Ministry of Primary Industries, but was ...

, which sets out the rules and regulations and the QMS was administered by the

Ministry of Fisheries An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

until April 2012 when it was amalgamated into the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The fishery in the 2000s

By 2000, the industry had developed from being a domestic supplier to exporting over 90 percent of the fish harvest. Over the ten years between 2008 and 2017, 180,100 km² or 4.4% of the New Zealand's sea floor was fished by the method of bottom trawling. This was 13.0% of the ‘fishable’ seafloor area open to bottom-contacting trawling in waters shallower than 1600 m, and 11% of seafloor area in 0–1600 m depths. More than 90 percent of New Zealand's seafloor (Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone) has never been touched by trawlers.

Fishing grounds

Coastal estuaries dot New Zealand's 15,000 km

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

line. Coastal fisheries have access to a large

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

, and further afield are large continental rises. Together these relatively shallow fishing grounds occupy about thirty percent of the area of the EEZ. Yet further out in the deep ocean lie undersea

mountain ranges A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

and volcanoes, and deep

oceanic trench Oceanic trenches are prominent long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers in length. There are about of oceanic tren ...

es. The 10,000 metre deep

Kermadec Trench The Kermadec Trench is a linear ocean trench in the south Pacific Ocean. It stretches about from the Louisville Seamount Chain in the north (26°S) to the Hikurangi Plateau in the south (37°S), north-east of New Zealand's North Island. Together ...

is the second deepest trench on Earth.

High seas fishing

The

high seas The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...

are those areas of ocean that not covered by any country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. New Zealand has international obligations to ensure New Zealand flagged vessels are aligned with proper conservation and management of the high seas fisheries. These are met in Part 6A of the

. These obligations come from the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

and the 1995

Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), otherwise known as the Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement (formally, the Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 ...

Māori role

The

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

signed in 1840 guaranteed

, the indigenous people of New Zealand, “undisturbed possession” of the fisheries until they chose to dispose of them to the Crown. Breaches of the Treaty were claimed over many years by Māori and included the introduction of the Quota Management System (QMS) in 1986. A

Treaty of Waitangi claim Claims and settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi have been a significant feature of New Zealand politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal that was established by that act to hear claims. Successive governments h ...

was settled in 1992 that enabled Māori purchase of 50% of Sealord (a major owner of fisheries quota) and a 20% percent of commercial fishing quota for new species. A settlement of 20% of marine farming space (aquaculture) around New Zealand coasts and harbours was enacted in The Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004. Te Ohu Kai Moana is implementing this allocation. Māori have now built their commercial stake to the point where they control or influence more than thirty percent of the commercial fisheries.

Timeline

* 1790s: Sealers and whalers arrive. * 1875: Seal hunting restricted to a short annual season. * 1894: Protection of

fur seal Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family '' Otariidae''. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively lon ...

population due to declining numbers. * 1908: the Fisheries Act 1908 is passed * 1977: The Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone Act is passed. * 1979: Marine Mammals Protection Act came into force. * 1983:

Fisheries Act 1983 The Fisheries Act 1983 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. An important provision of the Act was establishing the Quota Management System, one of the first individual fishing quota systems. The Act was largely repealed with the passage of th ...

comes into force (establishes a fishing quota system). * 1986:

(QMS) introduced to conserve fish stocks within the Exclusive Economic Zone. * 1989: Māori Fisheries Act is passed. * 1992: Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act * 1996:

is passed (though parts of it come into force only spasmodically over the next few years). * 2000: Moratorium on new

marine farming Mariculture or marine farming is a specialized branch of aquaculture (which includes freshwater aquaculture) involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in enclosed sections of the open ocean ( offshore mari ...

applications, initially for two years. * 2003: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry for the Environment, and

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

sign the

Dairying and Clean Streams Accord The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord is an agreement signed in 2003 in New Zealand between Fonterra, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and regional councils. The Accord was prompted by the high-profile "dirty dai ...

. * 2004: Moratorium on marine farms lifted after the passage of the Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004. * 2005: First criminal conviction for killing a

is handed down. * 2005: Thirty five

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

boats ordered to return to port from their sub-

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

fishing grounds for breaking a voluntary code of practice designed to protect

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s. * 2006: The New Zealand fishing industry proposes limits on bottom trawling. * 2006: New Zealand Fisheries officers' request to be allowed to carry

baton Baton may refer to: Stick-like objects *Baton, a type of club *Baton (law enforcement) *Baston (weapon), a type of baton used in Arnis and Filipino Martial Arts *Baton charge, a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people *Baton (conductin ...

s and

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, or capsicum spray is a lachrymatory agent (a compound that irritates the eyes to cause a burning sensation, pain, and temporary blindness) used in policing, riot control, cr ...

is denied. * 2007:

Great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

s given protection within New Zealand's EEZ * 2007:

Bottom trawling Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is towin ...

prohibited in selected areas. * 2007: The

fishery is closed to allow stocks of the fish to recover.Beehive - NZ and Australia close orange roughy fishery
/ref>

References

External links

Ministry for Primary Industries - Fisheries New Zealand

Seafood New Zealand

Aquaculture New Zealand

Deepwater Group New Zealand

Fisheries Inshore New Zealand

Paua Industry Council New Zealand

New Zealand Rock Lobster Industry Council

Maritime New Zealand

How we manage New Zealand's fisheries sustainably
at the Ministry of Primary Industry ;News * * {{fisheries and fishing