As with other countries, New Zealand's 200 nautical mile

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

gives its

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity that takes, cultures, processes, preserves, stores, transports, markets or sells fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, sub ...

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/ ...

captured 441,000 tonnes and earned over NZ$1 billion in exports in the fishing year 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. Nelu ...

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 (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

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 no ...

s earned another $226 million. This made seafood the country's fifth largest export earner. 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 Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

vessels and 229

processors Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) ** Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit ( ...

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 occupational fishing activities done for profit; or subsistence 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, favoring small, artisanal vessels such as mullet boats. 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 is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese, South Korean, and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

trawlers.The New Zealand fishing industry
/ref> In 1977 the 200 nautical mile

was established. These zones were established because countries wanted protection from foreign

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to fishing, catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals (e.g. shrimps/prawns, krills, coleoids, etc.) in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial ...

s. Because New Zealand's territory includes the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approxima ...

and other outer islands, its

EEZ An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

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 or ecological overshoot, 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 ...

, 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 By 1980 the consequences of the "

Think Big Think Big was an interventionist state economic strategy of the Third National Government of New Zealand, promoted by the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (1975–1984) and his National government in the early 1980s. The Think Big schemes saw t ...

" policy for the fishing industry were becoming very apparent.

Mel Courtney Melvyn Francis Courtney (born 2 October 1943) is a New Zealand politician. He 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 Courtne ...

, 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 s ...

everything caught on board. Even the guts and heads are processed into fishmeal, 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). It is bathypelagic, found in cold (), deep () ...

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

fishers, with a similar number for recreational fishers. The fisheries are managed through the Fisheries Act 1996, which sets out the rules and regulations and the QMS was administered by the Ministry of Fisheries until April 2012 when it was amalgamated into the

Ministry for Primary Industries The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing and regulating the farming, fishing, food, animal welfare, biosecurity, and forestry sectors of New Zealand's primary ...

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 A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

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 islan ...

, 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 topography, topographic depression (geology), depressions of the seabed, ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers ...

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. Togethe ...

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 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 Fisheries Act 1996. 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 treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...

and the 1995 Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement.

Māori role

The

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

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 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 Earless seal, true seals, and share with them external ears (Pinna (anatomy ...

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 comes into force (establishes a fishing quota system). * 1986: Quota Management System (QMS) introduced to conserve fish stocks within the

Exclusive Economic Zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

. * 1989: Māori Fisheries Act is passed. * 1992: Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act * 1996: Fisheries Act 1996 is passed (though parts of it come into force only spasmodically over the next few years). * 2000: Moratorium on new marine farming applications, initially for two years. * 2003: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry for the Environment, and Fonterra sign the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. * 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 A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

boats ordered to return to port from their sub-

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

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

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

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

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, mace, or capsicum spray is a Tear gas, lachrymator (tear gas) product containing as its active ingredient the chemical compound capsaicin, which irritates the eyes with burning ...

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 Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...

s given protection within New Zealand's

* 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 zone, demersal trawling. Benthic tra ...

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
Map of Fisheries Management Areas
;News * * {{fisheries and fishing

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...