Media Release
22 March 2007

Judge Finds "Wellbeing Of The People" The Priority In Landmark Kahawai Legal Challenge

Recreational and amateur fishers have secured a win in the Auckland High Court from the Kahawai Legal Challenge case. Yesterday Justice Rhys Harrison made declarations that the Minister of Fisheries decisions on entry of the kahawai species to the quota management system in 2004 and 2005 were unlawful as the Minister of Fisheries had:

a. Set total allowable commercial catch for kahawai without having proper regard to the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of the people - a mandatory consideration in the Fisheries Act 1996; and

b. Failed to take into account the special considerations applying to the Hauraki Gulf, due to the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000, when fixing the total allowable catch within area 1 (covering North Cape to East Cape, and including the Hauraki Gulf).

2. The judicial review case was brought by the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council Inc and the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council. Both recreational fishing councils lodged the proceedings as a test case. The case is the first legal proceedings by amateur and recreational fishing interests since the introduction of the quota management scheme.

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