Recreational fishers will have a larger allocation of the snapper off Northland's east coast, but their daily bag limit will be reduced from nine to seven fish and the minimum size of these fish increases from 27cm to 30cm.
These changes, and measures to reduce dumping and wastage by commercial fishers, were announced by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy yesterday in a review aimed at building up stocks in the Snapper 1 fishery between Cape Reinga and East Cape.
The Government increased the total allowable catch in the fishery from 7550 tonnes a year to 8050 tonnes, with the extra 500 tonnes allocated to the recreational sector.
"This will mean a commercial allocation of 4550 tonnes and 3050 for the recreational sector," Mr Guy said.
But because recreational fishers had been catching well above their allowance in recent years, management changes were needed.