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Understanding the proposed amendments to the Fisheries Act


Why it's important

Our industry could be about to see the most significant reforms of New Zealand’s fisheries for decades. Last week Minister Shane Jones launched the consultation on proposed amendments to the Fisheries Act. 

The proposals are in three major areas: 

  • Decision making processes, including making multi-year catch decisions and better integrating socio-economic factors in TAC setting 
  • The use of onboard cameras and potential exemption of camera footage from Official Information Act requests 

  • Landings and discards, including the option to return certain QMS species to sea if monitored by an onboard camera or observer and counted against that fisher’s ACE 

If you are a fisher or quota holder, or involved in the fishing industry in any way, these changes have the potential to be very significant and beneficial to you and our industry. They could give us more certainty and make the fisheries system more efficient and responsive.

But it is not certain the changes will all be passed by Parliament. We all need to speak up. 


How to get involved

To help these proposals get implemented, we strongly encourage all our seafood whānau to take time to learn about the amendments and then take part in the submissions process. Submissions close 28 March 2025.

We suggest you:

1. Read what is being proposed on the Ministry for Primary Industries' consultation page. 

2. Read over our helpful summary pages:

3. Register for one of the public online meetings held by FNZ 
(note: registration is compulsory if you want to attend). 

  • Session 1 – Monday 24 February 2025, 6pm to 7pm
  • Session 2 – Monday 3 March 2025, 3pm to 4pm
  • Session 3 – Thursday 13 March 2025, 3pm to 4pm.

4. Attend an industry specific meeting

Soon, we will share invitations to attend industry specific meetings that explain what is in MPI’s proposal document and why the amendments are important to you and our industry. 

5. Make a submission

To make this as fast and easy as possible for you, we will be developing a template submission to support’s industry’s response. We will make this available in the coming weeks. We can also help with tailoring your submission, see below on how to get in touch. 

HoW we can help

After reading through the above, if you have questions or comments or would like further support with the submission process please email [email protected].