10 May 2007

Budget funding to help future planning of fisheries

Leader of the Progressive Party and Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton today announced a Budget 2007 allocation of $900,000 for the four years 2007/08 to 2010/11 to gather more detailed information on commercial fish catches in coastal waters.

"Of all the areas where the Government and industry can work together to achieve economic and environmental goals, the most significant is the development of fisheries plans," he said. "And, of course, plans are best laid on the basis of sound information. This will help with future planning and management of inshore fisheries, and will help inform coastal planning decisions around marine protection and aquaculture development,” Jim Anderton said.

He made his announcement in a speech to the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen's Annual Conference being held in Waitangi. Unable to be at the Conference in person, his speech was delivered by DVD.

"This work is being done as a collaborative project with the industry, which has already indicated support for the costs of the information being recovered from quota owners," Jim Anderton said. “This work will greatly benefit New Zealand’s inshore fishing industry.

"Our seafood exports are worth over $3 million a day to New Zealand. The industry is seven times bigger today than it was twenty years ago and the world market for fish exports is booming. The United Nations says the global demand for seafood will increase by a third over the next ten years, so there is enormous potential to grow the fishing industry."

Jim Anderton acknowledged that making plans for the management of fisheries is a significant change in the way things are done and would take time to develop. "It's very important for everyone who has a stake in fishing to be involved. This is a time of great opportunity for our fisheries as a business, and as a resource that we protect and manage using the knowledge and awareness we have built up over generations."

ENDS

© Scoop Media