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    Re: MAF Archived Message

    Posted by Happy Fisher on 4/10/2008, 9:15 am, in reply to "Re: MAF"

    Section 13 of The Fisheries Act 1996 has now been amended see http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0096/latest/whole.html#DLM1444802

    It would be fair to say "Would it then be fair to say that this option would also works in the opposite way and allows the TACC to be increased"

    However it should be noted that the same problem of raising the TACC could also have previously been challenged.....bearing in mind here, that if stock levels had increased after a period where the TACC had been previously reduced, there would be nothing wrong with raising the TACC again......(after all the desired effect of increasing abundance would have been achieved!).

    The changes to section 13 simply allow Ministry of Fisheries to be more able to "quickly" respond to changes in stock abundance.

    Of course one should also be aware that (especially from the environmental/political pressure perspective) the government would be very cautious to raise TACC's again unless they were sure that it was feasible. Traditionally the sectors with the strongest influence would always have been Commercial, Recreational and Customary (the 3 sectors that the TACC is divided up for).

    But what we now increasingly seeing is that there is increased influence on fisheries coming to bear from environmental groups. (It would also be fair to say that the perspectives of all 3 sectors are becoming more interested in the environmental impact of their fishing (The Customary sector, has by and large, always taken a strong stance on this)).

    The desires of the market too are now impacting on fisheries.....Stocks that are not seen to be "sustainable" will simply not be purchased by the big foreign retailers (egg Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s) in response to their customers increased awareness of sustainability issues......The Ministry of Fisheries is currently working on an "eco-labelling scheme" where , if it can be shown that our stocks are sustainable, that they will demand a higher premium on the open market......this is something I would keep a good eye on in the near future.

    Another aspect to look at here would be....maximizing the benefit for NZ.....(you get more $ for a tuna that is sold at a premium rate in the fish markets than for the same tuna used as cat food......same fish ....different $)

    Happy Fishing

    Tight Lines






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