KEY POINTS:
The Court of Appeal has quashed a High Court decision that Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton reconsider 2005 decisions on the total allowable catch for kawahai.
The court has instead substituted a direction that when next setting the total allowable catch (TAC) and total allowable commercial catch (TACC) for kahawai, the minister must take account of bag catch limits for recreational fishers.
The court has found that then-fisheries minister David Benson-Pope's 2004 and 2005 decisions were unlawful to the extent that he failed to have particular regard to sections of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act when fixing the TACC for a quota management area that includes the gulf.
It also said he failed, without giving any reasons, to consider advice from the Ministry of Fisheries to review bag catch limits for recreational fishers.
These are amendments to Justice Rhys Harrison's High Court decision in March last year.
He ordered the Government to review the kahawai allowance made to recreational fishers. Effectively, he said the fisheries minister must make decisions which take into account the social, economic, and cultural well-being of recreational and Maori anglers as a starting position, before there was any allocation to the fishing industry.
After that, Sanford Ltd, Sealord Ltd and Pelagic and Tuna NZ Ltd appealed the decision, which rejected all but one of the initial challenges they made alleging flaws in ministerial decisions.
The case also involved a bid by recreational fishers for a judicial review of the 2004 and 2005 decisions.
The appeal judges said today the minister had complied with Hauraki Gulf legal requirements in setting the TAC catch, but failed to have regard to it in setting the commercial catch.
The court said that each party had had a measure of success and so it made no award for costs.
- NZPA
