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Understanding the proposed amendments to the Fisheries Act

The proposed changes to the Fisheries Act are progressing.  Read more below.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Our industry could be about to see the most significant reforms of New Zealand’s fisheries for decades. In 2025, Minister Shane Jones launched a consultation on proposed amendments to the Fisheries Act. 

The proposals relateed to 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. 

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

The consulted changes have been agreed by Minister Jones. The Parliamentary Counsel Office is drafting a Fisheries Amendment Bill which will be introduced to Parliament in 2026. Following its introduction, it will be sent to the Primary Production Committee for consultation.

How to get involved

It is important that the Select Committee understands the positive effects of these changes on our businesses, and we strongly encourage all our seafood whānau to take time to understand what’s proposed and take part in the Select Committee process.

Seafood New Zealand will be developing some handy ‘how-to’ guides and updated information on all parts of the Bill once it has been introduced.

In the meantime, have a read of our summaries of the initial proposals from the consultation document, which we understand to be largely consistent with what will be in the Bill.

We suggest you:

Read over our helpful summary pages:

HoW we can help

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