Commercial fishers have lodged a High Court challenge to government measures aimed at protecting Hector and Maui dolphins. It is said that the fishing industry wanted interim relief from the new fishing restrictions to protect the livelihoods of fishermen whose businesses will otherwise be destroyed. It is told that the action was launched by the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen, South East Finfish Management Ltd, Challenger Finfisheries Management Company Ltd, and the Northern Fisheries Management Stakeholder Company Ltd.
Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said that the Government will strongly defend the fishing bans. The fishers move to court after Anderton’s announcement in May of a package of easures to protect the two threatened dolphin species. It is said that the measures was designed to take effect on October 1, which affect the coastal waters where the dolphins are most often found.
The measures include a variety of regional bans and other restrictions on set netting, trawling and drift netting in the coastal waters where the dolphins are most often found. In the challenge the fishers has asked the High Court to review Anderton’s decision to close about two thirds of New Zealand’s coastline to fishing in response to concerns about the dolphins.
It is informed that the interim orders are sought on behalf of the inshore fishers and quota owners most acutely affected by the decision. The fishermen’s groups said that these are the most extensive changes to commercial and recreational access to inshore fisheries in two decades. According to Anderton the decisions he made had been difficult, and the measures he chose were not the most severe of the options being proposed.
