Who gets what from billion-dollar catch

By JULIE MIDDLETON

New Zealand's seafood industry annually harvests about 650,000 tonnes from the wild and from aquaculture - a catch worth about $1.5 billion.

The Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act in 1992 - colloquially termed "'the Sealord deal" - had three thrusts. The first was to give Maori the right to a commercial stake in the country's fishing industry. The second was to give Maori the right to manage and take fish to meet non-commercial, customary needs. The third engaged Maori in consultation on the management of fish stocks.

Maori and commercial fishing

The Sealord deal, with 10 per cent of the commercial fishing quota and $10 million handed over, was supposed to be a full and final settlement of Maori commercial fishing issues. In reality it was the start of years of claim and counterclaim.

Last year the Waitangi Fisheries Commission, the main body working on behalf of Maori fishing interests, brokered a quota allocation model supported by 93 per cent of iwi. A bill enshrining this has been introduced to Parliament and is going through a select committee.

The bill provides the legal framework that will allow the allocation of about $750 million worth of assets - mainly cash and quota - from the treaty claims settlement that the WFC has been holding.

The bill will divide the commercial quota into two pools: one, worth about $500 million, will only be tradeable among Maori so the asset can't be lost; the rest will be freely tradeable on the open market.


When the bill becomes law, about half of the assets held by the WFC will be allocated directly to iwi. The balance will be managed through the commission and a new company, Aotearoa Fisheries, with profits distributed to iwi.

Aotearoa Fisheries will be created around October from a merger of Maori-owned Sealord - an industry heavyweight with annual earnings of about $600 million - and Moana Pacific's $80 million wet fish business.

The new company will own a marine farm and processing and production facilities. The merger will give it around 3000 staff and control of about 33 per cent of the New Zealand commercial fishing quota.

The Government sets the total allowable commercial catch, based on safeguarding fish stocks.

Commercial fishing quotas, with the exception of the example above, can be bought and sold on the open market. Pakeha can buy from Maori and vice-versa. Maori interests in general have bought and sold their way to about 50 per cent of the commercial fishing quota.

Maori and customary fishing


Customary fishing rights allow Maori to take sea life.

To claim customary fishing rights, tribes must define their boundaries - a process that has been successful in most of the South Island except the very top, and has been completed in small sections of the North Island.

Once boundaries are defined, tribes identify who their kaitiaki or fishing guardians (usually kaumatua) will be, and seek approval from the Minister of Fisheries.

Kaitiaki - there are so far more than 20 in the North Island and more than 100 in the South - go on to a register. They can then manage both fresh and sea fish stocks.

Maori and non-Maori are able to apply to collect sea life. But each collector must seek a permit - a standard, non-transferable form - from the relevant kaitiaki, and that permit must be available at the fishing site for inspectors to check.

Permits must state who will be fishing, the dates, times, places, fishing methods - whether from shore or from a boat - quantities, and the specific purpose for which the fish are being taken.

Authorisations cannot be retrospective. Fishers have to report back to guardians about what and how much they have taken, within five days.

Kaitiaki report to the Ministry of Fisheries every quarter on what has been permitted and where.

Kaitiaki can't enforce the law - that's the job of fisheries officers - but the ministry says it works closely with iwi and hapu to involve them in officer appointments.

Bans - rahui - can be imposed by the Government, in consultation with Maori, if there is concern about fish stocks.

Those areas where boundaries have not yet been defined and guardians appointed come under an interim mechanism, "Regulation 27" .

Permission to fish for a specified hui or tangi must be sought from a representative of a marae committee or similar. Abuse of the system by a small number of illegal fishers led the Government to clamp down last year, and now people with permits have two days to use them.

Those caught abusing the system face fines of up to five figures. Those caught fishing commercially can face seizure of property and fines of up to $250,000.

Herald Feature: Sharing a Country