The fisheries' trinity: re-conceptualising New Zealand's inshore fisheries management

Abstract

This thesis is the culmination of 35 years of fisheries management experience shaped by reflections and academic study. While New Zealand is often positioned as an acclaimed success with the development and application of the Quota Management System, this thesis outlines some of the serious flaws that underpin current trajectories. Tensions have been created by the Ministry of Fisheries focusing almost exclusively on developing solutions for New Zealand's fisheries policy and management problems through the commercial sector management regime. The 'command and control' management approach sits uneasily with the 'rights-based' management regime in the commercial fishery and the common property resource management regime in the customary Maori fishery.This study attempts to identify how the management of New Zealand inshore fisheries could be improved by using an integrated approach - a trinity of fisheries (institutions, rights, and governance) to manage all three sectors (commercial, recreational and customary Maori). The international literature provides a narrow view of fisheries policy and management in New Zealand and the discussion is strongly oriented around a limited range of issues - particularly commercial fisheries and a 'rights-based' approach. Drawing on a depth of experience in both central policy development and fisheries management (particularly in the Auckland Fisheries Management Area), four arguments are identified: Firstly, that New Zealand's fisheries management policies for both commercial and non-commercial fisheries management have been largely based on the commercial fishery. Secondly, that the international literature is heavily skewed towards issues and events in the commercial fishery without adequate recognition of the non-commercial (customary Maori and recreational) fisheries. Thirdly, that the three fisheries in the inshore waters cannot be managed effectively unless the management of all sectors is integrated under a common policy and management framework. And finally, that the 'rights-based' focus is faltering because of inadequate and inappropriate institutions and governance. The trajectories of the three inshore wild harvest sectors (commercial, recreational, and customary Maori) are explored, with a particular interest on how they influence and impact on each other. The primary focus of the analysis is the role that institutions, rights and governance play on the management and development of the three sectors. The thesis concludes with a chapter on the current positioning of institutions, rights, and governance within a three-sector trajectory and suggests tentative principles which could be used in New Zealand's inshore wild stock fisheries to build an integrated policy and management. It concludes that New Zealand's inshore fishery requires a re-conceptualisation to a governance approach, based on ecosystem management. A common management approach across all sectors of fisheries can be achieved by incorporating a wider institutional framework than a rights-based approach and moving beyond a focus on harvesting alone.