Seafood Industry does not condone fishing over quota entitlements
14th June 2007

“The New Zealand seafood industry does not condone fishermen using the deeming system to catch over and above their quota entitlement,” says Owen Symmans, chief executive of the NZ Seafood Industry Council.

My Symmans wanted to stress that the fishermen were not doing anything illegal. The problem lies with the system being out of kilter with the market value of the fish and significant changes in stock abundance over time.

“We have been actively involved in a joint working group with the Ministry of Fisheries (MFish) which made recommendations to the Minister of Fisheries two years ago to change the deemed value system to ensure it supports sustainable management of fisheries.

“The reason fisherman overfish is that the deemed values which they are required to pay if they catch more than their entitlement are set at a level which makes the practice commercially viable.”

Deemed Values is a mechanism which enables fishermen to balance their catch against their Allowable Catch Entitlement (ACE) or quota entitlement but when values are not set appropriately some individuals are prepared to legally over catch. This is why the industry supports changes to the current regime.

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